356 GATHERING FRUITS, ETC. 



basket, some soft paper, dry moss, hay, or other material, 

 ought to separate them, for it is difficult to place one layer 

 immediately upon another, and especially if the fruits are 

 approaching maturity, without bruising them more or less. 

 Fruit should only be gathered in dry weather, and in the 

 dry time of the day. 



Disposition of the Fruits after gathering. "When they 

 are thus in the baskets, if summer fruits, they are either 

 carried into the fruit room and arranged on shelves or 

 tables in thin layers, or they are carefully transferred one 

 by one into market baskets and carried to market on an 

 easy spring wagon, if not by steamboat or railroad, by 

 which jarring or jolting will be avoided. Treated in this 

 manner, they will be in a marketable condition, and one 

 basket will sell for as much as four, carelessly picked, 

 thrown into baskets, and tumbled out of them into a barrel 

 or wagon-box. 



Ripe fruits may be kept in good condition for a consi- 

 derable period of time, in an ice-house, or in some of the 

 recently-invented fruit preservers, and even in very cool 

 dry cellars. The vessels in which they are deposited, 

 should be perfectly clean, that no unpleasant flavor may 

 be imparted to them. Peaches have been sent to the East 

 Indies, by being properly packed in ice ; and it may be 

 that methods of packing and preserving will, before long, 

 be discovered, that will give us access to the markets of 

 other countries, even for our perishable summer fruits. 

 "We have seen Seckel pears in a very good state of preser- 

 vation in January, exhibited in the horticultural society's 

 rooms in Boston. The science of ripening and preserving 

 fruits is but in its infancy, and horticultural societies 

 that have the means will be doing a great public service 

 by offering liberal premiums that will incite to experiment 

 on the subject. 



Winter Fruits intended for long keeping are transferred 



