CEOPPIHG. 235 



the dew ia hardly ofE them, ia the best time. The fruit are then freah 

 and cool, and if stored in that state will appear at table in higher per- 

 fection than gathered at any other time or in any other way. 



VI. — storing and Paeking. 



MXBT will object alike to the phrase and the practice. Both are, 

 however, of great importance. These frnits are seldom best eaten off the 

 tree. The majority of peaches gathered as above described will be 

 improved by several hours' or days' keeping. Nectarines keep longer than 

 peaches. Late ones not perfectly ripened on the trees may often be 

 brought to the highest perfection by storing for a fortnight or three 

 weeks in a warm room or vinery. The writer has also kept October 

 peaches for three weeks after gathering and found them excellent. With 

 the majority of peaches and nectarines such long storage is neither 

 possible nor desirable. But neither are most of them so perishable as is 

 generally assumed. They should be covered over with tissue paper when 

 in the fruit room, and no sharp current of air allowed to pass over them. 

 The room'for storing peaches that are ripe CEuinot well be too cool, and 

 peaches kept a day or two in such rooms are almost as grateful in warm, 

 weather as ice, and form a striking contrast to that insipid mixture of 

 hot peach juice and stale sunbeams which is characteristic of too 

 many peaches hurried off to the house as soon as gathered on warm after- 

 noons, and placed at once on the dessert table. 



Packing is also a delicate operation. Each fruit should be enveloped in 

 soft tissue paper and placed in a round or square hole, a Uttle larger than 

 the circumference of the fruit. It should be surrounded on aU sides with 

 a soft elastic buffer of wadding or cotton wool. Thusprotected by parti- 

 tions from pressure or contact with all other frnits, and sheltered from 

 the tin or wooden trays by an elastic buffer of wool, peaches may be sent- 

 throughout all parts of the United Kingdom with little or no injury. Thev 

 general method is to have a series of trays thus furnished with fruit ; 

 packed one above another in a strong box ma€e of tin or wood, each 

 fruit has its own separate oompattment ; and, if gathered before they 

 are dead ripe, they travel well. 



VII. — Serving. 



Custom has gone on for years building these fruits up into a pyramid. 

 Beginning with any sized base, according to the size of the dish and the- 

 party and the number of fruit at command, layer after layer is buUt up. 



