20 



the former ease the fruit is apt to lose the finest part 

 of its flavour, and never keeps in use so long as it 

 otherwise would do ; and in the latter, owing to the 

 imperfect elaboration of its juices, a due portion of 

 saccharine matter is not secreted in the fruit, and con- 

 sequently it never attains its proper flavour. In 

 gathering the fruit, each should be taken by the hand, 

 and gently lifted upwards ; the stalk will then readily 

 separate from the branch, without breaking away the 

 buds which are always situated near the fruit-stalk of 

 each, and which are those that produce blossoms the 

 next year. The circumstance that trees, after produc- 

 ing large crops, very frequently bear none, or but few, 

 the following season, is occasioned as much by the 

 careless manner of plucking — by which these buds 

 are broken — as it is from exhaustion by reason of 

 the excessive crop. (Gard. Journ. 1845, 603.) 



The rules for gathering may be thus epitomized : — 

 1 . Gather whilst the fruit requires a slight effort to 

 separate them from the spurs. 2. Do not pull them 

 off by main force, but bend them back until they 

 separate from the branch. 3. Gather them in dry 

 weather. 4. Let the gathering-baskets contain no 

 more than a peck each, with two handles, a connect- 

 ing rope, and an iron pothook. 



Let each basket be lined throughout with sacking, 

 and let the fruit of each basket be carried at once 

 to the floor covered with sand, and taken out one by 



