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day without any deterioration of flavour ; in this re- 

 spect they are very different from such northern fruits 

 as the gooseberry, currant, and strawberry, which 

 should be gathered in the morning. {Suburban Gard. 

 594.) 



It is a common practice to lay littery material be- 

 neath the trees to save from bruising the fruit which 

 falls, and sometimes those which fall are extremely lus- 

 cious. We would, however, rather remove them from 

 the tree by hand, but this is a practice which requires 

 experience. In very hot weather some kinds of peaches 

 will be ripe and soft on the high-coloured side, and 

 quite hard on the other ; this seems to show that 

 the ripening has been too hurried. Indeed, in hot 

 summers, or periods of continued sunshine, we are 

 persuaded that this is frequently the case, and that 

 over quick ripening is antagonistic to high flavour. 

 This principle is well known in the case of strawberries, 

 melons, &c., and will be found to hold good with re- 

 gard to the peach. Since it is impossible to tell when 

 all kinds are ripe by mere appearance, a little thumb- 

 ing becomes necessary, and a gentle squeeze at the 

 point where the stalk joins the fruit will soon deter- 

 mine whether it be ripe enough. This mode, we con- 

 fess, will produce a very trifling amount of discoloura- 

 tion, but if nicely managed such will hardly be seen ; 

 and fruit which are somewhat soft at this point will 

 generally be in prime order. 



