422 
FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
should be housed as they come to maturity, 
and so long as a calm cool atmosphere is 
maintained they will keep with scarcely any 
deterioration for a considerable length of time. 
Cucumbers and unripe gourds may be kept 
fresh by laying them on the floor of such a 
room as that alluded to. Other crops may be 
kept in a similar way, Yfhere the storing 
2)nnciple is adopted with vegetables of this 
class, it is quite necessary to use them in the 
order in which they are gathered, or some 
will probably become spoiled ; for storing, 
among this class of subjects, is to be looked 
upon as making the best of a disadvantage. 
Hoot crops of all kinds are best stored in 
close cool rooms, sheds, or pits, where there 
is a low and as nearly as possible unvarj'ing 
temperature, a very slight interchange of air, 
and no superabundant moisture. They should, 
in fact, when stored, be moderately dry, and by 
whatever means, if they can be preserved from 
material change, they will keep safely. The 
best means is, certainly, the surrounding of 
them by an atmosphere at once cool and still, 
by which no vital nor chemical agencies may 
be called into play, nor the inherent moisture 
of the roots themselves , carried off by rapid 
perspiration. 
Beyond a few general rules, the application 
of this principle is so plain and easy, that we 
bhall pass on to the rules themselves : — The 
2 oots must be taken up when matured, and 
without sustaining contusions during the ope- 
ration. A dry period should be chosen, if 
.practicable, and the roots moderately dried by 
<;xposure to the air before any attempt is made 
to store them. If the season is wet, and this 
drying process cannot be carried out so far as 
is desirable, it must, nevertheless, not be neg- 
lected, but every thing that can be done 
should be done towards having the roots thus 
far dried before they are put away for any 
length of time. In all the removals which 
may take place between the periods of digging 
and storing, the bruising of the roots must be 
cautiously avoided. Large quantities should 
not be got together into a bulky mass ; if this 
is done, they will cei'tainly become heated, and 
this fermentation of the tissues of the roots 
hastens their ultimate decay, or excites them 
into premature growth, in either case deteri- 
orating the quality of the roots. Frost and 
light should both be rigidly excluded from 
the roots or tubei's, if they are for eating 
(especially in the case of potatoes); but if they 
are intended for replanting, they may be ex- 
posed to light. Potatoes for planting should 
be spread out in a dry airy place, so a^ to 
get hardened and greened ; and none of the 
sprouts from them, if any are produced before 
planting time, should be rubbed off, but care- 
fully preserved and planted along with the 
tubers ; neither should they lie more than 
one tier in thickness. It is rather to be pre- 
ferred to store roots and tubers of all kinds 
amongst moderately dry earth or sand ; but a 
large bulk should never be got together. It 
is the cool unvarying temperature, more than 
anything else, which tends to the safe pre- 
servation of this class of vegetable produc- 
tions ; and provided this is secured, it is not 
material how it is accomplished, — whether in 
ordinary pits or ridges, in sheds, or in more 
highly finished store-rooms. 
Fruits. — Fruit, like vegetables, requires a 
cool apartment for its preservation, and one 
in which there is little appreciable atmospheric 
change. The atmosphere at the same time 
should be free from damps, but not at all 
parched: in fact, a calm, moderately dry atmo- 
sphere, of whick the temperature is not liable 
to variation, is what is required. Beyond 
this, it is not material whether it is a fruit- 
room, a loft, or a cellar which is made use of. 
Fleshy fruits of every kind are best laid on 
shelves, in shallow layers, even in a single 
tier ; they should be gathered and handled 
without bruising in the least degree, — in fact, 
they should be handled as cautiously as if they 
were eggs ; and they should be gathered in 
before they have quite reached maturity, 
especially if they be of kinds which may be 
long preserved. 
Apples, the principal and most useful of all 
fruit crops, require to be gathered as soon as 
the pips begin to turn brown, except it be the 
very late kinds, which, in cold climates, may 
hang as long as the weather will permit, and 
even then sometimes do not attain this state. 
Every fruit ought to be detached from the 
tree separately by the band, and so as not to 
break off the little branch on which it is fixed, 
for on this branch there is a bud or buds 
formed, which, in the generality of cases, 
bear blossoms in the following season ; when, 
therefore, these buds are carelessly broken off, 
the crops of the following, and often the next 
succeeding year, are more or less injured. 
The best mode of detaching the fruit, is, to 
lift them gently upwards. From the tree, 
the fruit should be transferred carefully to a 
bag or basket, in which they should go to the 
store place, for if removed from one basket or 
bag to another, they get bruised, Avhich causes 
them to decay sooner than they should do. 
The fruit should be at once deposited in thin 
layers, where it is to remain, and not laid in 
heaps to " sweat," An open trellis-work shelf 
is best, and this without any covering of straw 
or litter. The apartment or store-house should 
be kept close ; but, as the fruit approaches 
maturity, it is improved by exposure for a few 
days to a warm atmosphere. The store fruits 
require to be examined from time to time, 
