58 



THE ORCHABD A.lsB PETJIT GAEDEIS". 



be fixed, but may be ranged on the frame, nearer or 

 farther apart, according to the size of the fruit to lie on 

 them, at the time it is laid out. Frames like this may 

 partly surround the room : the depth from back to front 

 may be from 1^ to 2 feet, that the back may be reached 

 without difficulty, and the tiers 6 or 9 inches apart, to 

 admit the hand above the fruit. These frames should 

 be looked over pretty often, and the bad or specked 

 fruit picked out. All kinds should be allov^^ed to get 

 dry before they are stored. 



Apples of all varieties keep capitally in a fruit-room. 

 They should be arranged each kind by itself, and the 

 earliest the most come-at-able. Many kinds of pears 

 keep well in the same way ; or they may, when they are 

 dry, be arranged in new or thoroughly clean garden pots, 

 or unglazed pans, covered each with a pan or piece of 

 slate, and stored where frost cannot get to them. Of 

 course the fruit will ripen the sooner if the room be 

 warm, and some for earliest use may he hastened by lay- 

 ing them out in the sun. 



Mr. Elvers, than whom we can scarcely have a better 

 judge, recommends keeping pears for the winter in a 

 greenhouse, but I have tried it without a good result. 



My pears," he writes, have been laid out on the 

 front bench of a lean-to greenhouse, the stage at the 

 back being occupied by camelias. The glass over 

 the pears was shaded until the end of JN'ovember, the 

 house ventilated, and the camelias watered as if the 

 pears were not there. In severe frost the temperature 

 was kept just above freezing. The autumn pears ripened 

 slowly, and were excellent in flavour, the late pears kept 

 until April, but then shrivelled; as the sun gained power 

 the house became too hot and dry. I should therefore 

 recommend winter pears to be stored in covered pots or 

 jars early in December, and kept in the greenhouse." 



Choice pears may be wrapped each one in paper, and 

 ranged one layer deep in shallow boxes or drawers. Thus 

 packed, one box at a time can be removed into a warmer 

 room, to ripen thoroughly. 



Quinces and medlars will keep quite as well as applea 



