1/2 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



easily blemished when ripe. The crop should be 

 looked over every day, placing the fingers gently be- 

 hind those fruits that appear the ripest, and if "with 

 a gentle pressure from the branch the fruit does not 

 easily separate from its stalk, leave it for another day. 

 Each fruit should be carefully laid upon its base in 

 a basket, the bottom of which is lined with wadding 

 covered with tissue-paper, the fruit being regulated so 

 that one does not touch another. It is well to gather 

 peaches and nectarines for dessert six hours before they 

 are sent to table, and leave them in the fruit-room to 

 cool. Nets are sometimes fixed, and the fruit allowed 

 to drop into them, but peaches should never be al- 

 lowed to drop if it can be prevented. It is, however, 

 best to use such a precaution, to prevent any that may 

 drop from injury. 



Peaches keep a good many days after they are ripe 

 in a cool place. In 1865 I kept such tender-fleshed 

 varieties as Noblesse and Bellegarde for twelve days, 

 in close tin boxes placed in an ice-house, after they 

 were quite fit for table, and then exhibited them in 

 Edinburgh. Nectarines keep fully longer in this way. 



PACKING PEACHES TO BE SENT TO A DISTANCE. 



When peaches have to be sent by railway and other 

 conveyances, great care is necessary in packing them. 

 The safest way is to have tin boxes divided into com- 

 partments 3 f inches square and 4 inches deep. In the 

 bottom of each division put a little fine paper-shavings 

 pressed down. Wrap each fruit carefully in a piece of 

 tissue-paper, then set it on its base on a square of 

 cotton wadding, which fold up over the fruit, taking 

 each corner between the fingers and thumb, and drop- 



