GATHERING AND PROFITABLE UTILISATION OF APPLES AND PEARS. 201 



The Time of Gathering Apples. 



This to a great extent depends upon the variety, and also the 

 season and the state of the market, but, as a rule, most large, 

 early, soft-fleshed apples, such as Ecklinville Seedling, Lord 

 Suffield, and others of the same class, should be gathered early, 

 before they are fully ripe ; they then travel much better. Early 

 dessert apples, on the other hand, are generally best left on the 

 trees until fully ripe. They then develop their best flavour and 

 colour. Both should be marketed as quickly as possible after 

 being gathered. It is wonderful how quickly the early apples 

 lose their freshness, and, therefore, their marketable value, after 

 being gathered. If your trees are cropped very heavily, it is a 

 good plan to thin them very considerably (even to half the crop) 

 before they are nearly fully grown, and market those picked. It 

 is more than probable the remaining crop will develop so much 

 better, that you will make more of it with less strain for the 

 future welfare of the trees than if you had left the whole crop to 

 ripen. 



The best time to gather mid-season apples depends much on 

 the season and the state of the markets. To make fruit-growing 

 a commercial success, you not only require to study crops and 

 markets at home, but also the best reports you can get of crops 

 and prospects abroad. If apples are selling well, and there is a 

 prospect of heavy importations from abroad, they should be 

 gathered early and marketed with the early sorts ; but if, on the 

 other hand, English crops are heavy, and there are prospects of 

 light importations later on, let your mid-season apples stop on the 

 trees to fully colour and mature, and they will then keep longer 

 for later markets, and be more attractive when sold if carefully 

 packed. Last year the general quality of the American and 

 Canadian fruit was not good ; consequently when the glut of our 

 fruit was over, the English grower, who kept his fruit well, was 

 rewarded by a large advance in price. 



This year, however, there is a prospect of heavy importations 

 of good fruit from these countries, and I should advise growers 

 to market early and keep only their best late keeping sorts. It 

 was stated last month in an American trade paper that Canada 

 alone will have 1,500,0C0 barrels available for export, and that 

 the United Kingdom is looked upon by exporters as their best 



