GATHERING AND PRESERVING APPLES 127 



with layers of dry chaff mixed with a small portion of dry 

 pulverised lime. Apples may be well kept till spring, if 

 buried late in autumn; but to prevent swelling, cracking, 

 and a loss of flavor, they should be placed in a box or on a 

 bed of straw, and entirely excluded from contact with the 

 damp earth. Where cool cellars are at hand, they are kept 

 best for winter use on large shelves. 



The mode of gathering and packing apples for exporta- 

 tion, as practiced by R. L. Pell, of Ulster county, N. Y., 

 who obtains nine or ten dollars per barrel for his Newtown 

 Pippins in the English markets, will serve as a model for 

 the care taken to prevent bruising: — "In autumn, when the 

 apple harvest commences, men are employed, each with a 

 hand basket and hook, to attach the basket to a limb of a 

 tree, and a step ladder. The apples are picked one at a 

 time, and laid into the basket. When the basket is full 

 the man comes down from the tree and takes two apples at 

 at a time and places them in two-bushel baskets. When 

 there are enough large baskets filled for a load, they are 

 lifted by two men on a sled, and drawn by oxen to a large 

 building, where they are taken from the sled and put on the 

 floor, two apples at a time. They are piled up 18 or 20 

 inches high, where they remain three weeks. At the end 

 of this time, the apples having become dry, they are taken 

 two at a time and packed in new barrels, the size and kind 

 of those used for flour. The barrels being headed up are 

 lifted on a sled and drawn to the North River ; they are 

 then carried by men on board a steamboat and taken to 

 New- York. When shipped on board a vessel for London, 

 the barrels are hoisted one at a time from the steamboat, 

 and when lowered on board the vessel are caught on a man's 

 shoulder, and then taken by two men and placed in the 

 coolest part of the vessel. 



" Upon the arrival of the vessel in London, the barrels are 

 hoisted from the vessel and lowered on a hand-barrow, and 

 then carried by two men to the warehouse, in the same 

 manner that we carry a looking-glass. 



" It is seen that by the foregoing precautions the apples are 

 never shaken, jolted, or jarred, and they arrive in London 

 in far better order than apples usually taken to our city mar- 

 kets, a 



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