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For long-keeping apples for export, gather when the fruit is 
full grown, and the pips turn dark brown or nearly black. They 
will colour and mature during transit. 
Pears require, in gathering, much the same treatment. Few 
pears are at their best if allowed to ripen on the tree, they either 
become dry or mushy at the core or develop hard stone cells or a 
woody kernel. Early pears should always be gathered for market 
before they become fully ripe, and should be marketed rather 
under than over ripe. Mid-season pears may remain on the tree 
a little longer, except the Bartlett or William’s Bon Chretien, 
which, picked when fully grown, but hard, ripens without 
shrivelling. Late pears should be picked before they are fully ripe, 
or else they become gritty. Kieffer’s pears are picked two or 
three weeks before they are fit to eat, if allowed to hang until 
ripe, the core becomes a mass of woody lumps. Apples and 
pears, when fit to be picked, snap clean off the fruiting spur upon 
being lifted gently upwards. This avoids breaking off the fruit 
spur to which they are attached, and upon which next year’s fruit 
would be produced. For packing, they should not be allowed to 
remain on the trees until the surface bas a greasy appearance and 
feels greasy to the touch. When allowed to reach this stage, they 
will not keep as well as those gathered earlier. 
When picking peaches, it should be remembered that a fine 
appearance always infers good flavour and other merits. Peaches 
and apricots seldom colour well after they are picked, and picking is 
one of the most difficult parts of the business of peach and 
apricot culture. Most people can pick green pears and apricots and 
knock them down to the ground, but it takes some experience to 
judge, by a subtle feeling of the fruit when pressed between the 
finger and the thumb, when it is ready to come off. After a little 
practice the picker can generally tell by the colour of the fruit 
whether it is fit to pick or not. When a large number of trees have 
to be gone over it is advisable to pick a little too soon rather than 
let the crop get ahead of you, as, when ripe, the wind often brings 
them down by the bushel. It is sometimes two or three weeks 
from the time the first apricots and peaches are fit to pick until 
the last are ripe; the trees should be gone over two or three times a 
week. In some large orchards in America the pickers do not climb 
up the trees, this process being considered slow, and resulting in 
. much green fruit being knocked off. In those orchards it is pre- 
ferred to jar the tree when the dew is off and collect the ripe fruit, 
which then does not pick up dirt. For that purpose the ground 
underneath the trees is reduced to a fine tilth, so as to save 
bruising the falling fruit. The jarring is done with a long pole 
or bamboo with a hook fastened at the end, and the knack of de- 
livering the blow results in just that fruit which is of the proper 
