10 Preservation qf Apples. 



them appears to coincide entirely with my own experience, a 

 few additional observations may not be thought unworthy of 

 insertion. 



My plan, then, is this: — The fruit should be gathered a 

 little before it is quite ripe. In conveying it to the fruit-room 

 shallow baskets should be used, in which the apples are to be 

 placed singly, and handled as carefully as if they were eggs. 

 On reaching the fruit-room the apples are to be taken singly 

 out of the baskets, and placed upon shelves a very little apart 

 from each other ; but care should be taken that the room is 

 previously well aired, and the shelves perfectly dry. In winter, 

 if the weather is clear and frosty, the windows or ventilators 

 should be kept open several hours each day ; but when the 

 weather is damp they are to be kept entirely shut, and no 

 fire should ever be used in the fruit-room, as it always causes 

 a damp to arise, which does infinite injury to the fruit. I 

 have found by experience that frost does not materially affect 

 apples, for I have had apples completely frozen that kept 

 equally well with the rest ; but then no artificial means must 

 be used to thaw the frost. After the 1 st of March the fruit- 

 room must be close shut up, for I have experienced that the 

 admission of much air after that period causes the fruit to 

 shrivel up and lose their colour ; and they should be handled 

 as little as possible after the month of May, nor should they 

 ever be wiped until they are about to be used for the table., 

 for they soon become unsound after being so treated. Apples 

 will be found to keep better and much longer by this simple 

 way, than by the usual practice of covering with hay, straw, 

 moss, or any thing else whatever; for fruit crowded together 

 or covered up with any material will in a short time become 

 heated, and deprived not only of its gloss and colour, but also 

 of its flavour. In the way recommended above I have kept all 

 the codlins and softer kinds of baking apples good to the end 

 of June, and the pippins, as well as various sorts of dessert 

 apples, to the end of October, with their colour as fresh as 

 when they were first gathered, and their flavour not in the 

 least deteriorated. I have found, by repeated experiments, 

 that apples covered up any time are apt to contract a flavour 

 of whatever materials they have been covered with. If laid, for 

 example, in brown paper they will taste of tar. I have tried 

 apples by wrapping them up in white paper, and, although 

 they keep nearly as long in this way, they are always apt to 

 shrivel up, which renders them unsightly. Apples, when 

 pitted like potatoes, will retain their colour for a long time ; 

 but this method deteriorates the flavour more than any other, 



