September 16, 1891.J 



Garden and Forest. 



439 



and the flowers present a large surface of the brightest ul- 

 tramarine-blue shading, or varying in some individuals to 

 violet, and in others to a paler shade. All these plants are 

 very easy to cultivate, and, when better known, are sure 

 to become general favorites. In America, where in early 

 spring-time heavy snow may occur, it will be necessary to 

 plant them in frames, or to make such arrangements that 

 when they are in flower they may be protected. At Baden- 

 Baden they are planted in borders along the bottom of 

 walls, where they can be kept safe from the destroying in- 

 fluence of heavy or wet snows by leaning mats against the 

 wall over the beds. 



Baden-Baden. Max Leichtlin. 



are the parts that give it its chief value for human use. As 

 soon as the fruit and its seeds are ripe the fleshy exterior 

 part begins to decay, and what we call ripening or maturing 

 are only primary stages of that process, which is to release the 

 seed, so that it may grow into a new plant. 



After the fruit is carefully gathered, the whole question of 

 keeping resolves itself into a question of temperature, but 

 with due attention also to moisture. Pears, apples and grapes 

 require a low and uniform temperature, and proper protection 

 from fungous attacks. Aside from the latter danger, which 

 may be favored by dampness, a saturated atmosphere is not 

 objectionable ; but care must be taken not to allow cold fruit 

 to be taken into a warm atmosphere, producing that deposit 

 of visible moisture upon its surface which is erroneously called 

 sweating. In such cases it is not so much the moisture itself 



Fig;. 70. — A Garden Pool. — See page 434. 



Keeping- Fruit in Winter. 



A WRITER is quoted as objecting to the practice of gather- 

 ing apples for keeping " as soon as the pips begin to turn 

 brown." He says apples gathered at this stage " do not keep 

 as well, or average of so good quality." Certainly they do 

 not. An apple makes a noticeable portion of its growth — 

 often as much as one-fourth — while its seeds are coloring. 

 But, on the other hand, the keeping of late-ripening apples is 

 greatly lengthened by gathering them as soon as the seeds are 

 fully colored. Up to that time the fruit improves on the tree. 

 After that it deteriorates, so far as keeping is concerned, and, 

 with some varieties, it deteriorates rapidly, so that winter fruit 

 becomes in a few days fall fruit. 



The art of handling fruit for keeping is very imperfectly un- 

 derstood, both as regards principles and practice. The season 

 of many of our fruits is capable of being much lengthened in 

 the hands of growers and dealers who are willing to learn and 

 make use of the principles involved. In the first place, so far 

 as Nature's purpose is concerned, the external coverings of 

 the true fruit — that is, the seed — exists primarily for the sake 

 of the seed itself, and only secondarily for its envelopes, which 



that harms the fruit as it is the moldiness which is apt to ensue. 

 Apples can be well preserved in very damp cellars if these 

 points are kept in view. In fact, a cellar with a spring in it is 

 thought by many fruit-growers to be specially favorable to the 

 perfect keeping of apples. In Russia it is a custom to pre- 

 serve apples fresh in cold water ; and the late Charles Gibb, of 

 Abbotsford, Quebec, once told me of some very fine Fameuse 

 apples which he found on sale in April, and which, he was told, 

 had been part of the cargo of a canal-boat that had sunk and been 

 frozen in and had just been raised. The Fameuse can rarely 

 be kept in air much beyond the first of February. 



The temperature of a fruit-cellar is best when kept as near 

 to the congealing temperature of the fruit as possible. It 

 is not safe to freeze so watery a fruit as the grape ; but 

 apples and pears can be frozen without injury, if slowly thawed 

 again in the dark. I am not quite sure of the latter con- 

 dition being essential, as I have had apples that had been 

 slowly frozen, and as slowly thawed, in a light cellar, come 

 out of the trial apparently uninjured. 



But, unquestionably, an even temperature, near to freezing, 

 is the best. Even this, however, is of small avail toward 

 good keeping if the fruit does not go into its cold storage in 



