FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
42. J 
say once a fortnight, and all the faulty ones 
removed from amongst those which are sound. 
Every sort should be kept perfectly distinct, 
and the earlier kinds in the most easily acces- 
sible positions. 
The fruit should be gathered when quite 
dry ; and, for this reason, the middle of a dry 
day is the most proper time for the operation. 
There is also an advantage in not gathering 
the whole produce of a tree at once, at least, 
if the fruit be valuable ; according to this 
plan, the best and most mature fruit should 
be first picked, and the later ones left to attain 
a further state of maturity. The different 
gatherings should be kept separate. As a 
substitute for the use of a fruit-room or cellar, 
late fruit may be packed close in boxes among 
dry sand, or even in vessels merely kept air- 
tight by covering the mouth with a piece of 
skin or leather ; the names of the varieties 
being marked on the outside, so that each may 
be used in its proper turn. Those varieties 
which do not keep so long, may be placed in 
hampers among dry grass or fern-tops, and 
must be marked in a similar way. It is only 
the choice samples of fruit with which this 
amount of care can be taken. The refuse and 
commoner culinary sorts maybe kept in heaps 
in a cool room, or buried in small ridges in the 
ground in a cool place, in the same way as 
potatoes. Those which are thus buried require 
to be well covered up, to keep them clean, 
and should only be taken out a few at a time 
as they are wanted, for they do not keep long 
after being exposed. For this reason, they 
should be buried in small separate heaps. 
Pears may be managed in a similar way. 
Other standard fruits scarcely admit of being 
long kept in the raw state ; they may, how- 
ever, be kept over for a short time if placed 
in a close atmosphere ; but these also require 
to be very tenderly handled in gathering, for 
bruises soon become blemishes. 
Of the dry hard-shelled fruits, the principal 
are filberts, walnuts, and chestnuts. These 
require to be freed from their husks, and 
when perfectly dried put up in small quan- 
tities in boxes or casks where they will be 
excluded from the air ; the boxes may be set 
into the same apartment where the other 
kinds of fruit are kept, or into any mode- 
rately dry apartment. 
Walnuts, when properly ripened, may be 
shaken (they should not be beaten) from the 
trees, or will fall of their own accord. The 
first process is, to deprive them of the green 
husk external to the hai-d bony shell ; and if 
they are fully ripe, this will be readily de- 
tached, either by brushing or by shaking 
backwards and forwards in a long bag. The 
nuts should then be spread out in an airy 
place until they are quite dry, and may then 
be packed in casks, or boxes, or jars, among 
dry sand, which should be perfectly cleaned 
away from them when they are taken out for 
use. When they have become shrivelled, 
they may be freshened up before being used, 
by steeping them in warm water ; they then 
become plump and peel readily. Some per- 
sons prefer to place them amongst dry saw- 
dust or bran, and others amongst dry salt; a 
very dry place is necessary when the latter 
material is used. Others keep both nuts and 
walnuts in good preservation in open jars, in 
a damp cellar. 
Filberts, after being separated from the 
husks, should be well dried by exposure to a 
current of air, and the finest should be then 
picked out for the purpose of being preserved. 
This may be done by placing them, when 
quite dry, in jars or boxes amongst dry sand, 
bran, or saw-dust, or in jars merely rendered 
air-tight at the mouth. They must be taken 
out a few at a time, as required for use, and 
well cleansed. 
Chestnuts ripen in a fine season sufficiently 
to drop from the trees ; but in a late and un- 
favourable season, in cold climates, they do not 
ripen so completely as to fall before the frost 
dislodges them with the leaves ; in such sea- 
sons it is best to gather the nuts before they 
get injured by frost. When quite ripe, they 
separate readily from the husks ; the best 
should then be selected and packed in jars or 
boxes among dry sand, or in jars rendered 
air-tight at the mouth. In those seasons and 
countries when and where they do not ripen 
early, and it becomes desirable to gather them, 
they should be laid in heaps in a dry shed for 
three weeks or a month, when they will be 
found to give off their husks readily ; and then, 
after being well dried, they are to be put 
away, as in the other case. Full maturity is 
indicated by the dividing of the husk, and the 
brown colour of the outer skin of the nuts. 
INSECTS AND VERMIN. 
Almost every kind of crop cultivated in the 
garden is liable to suffer in some way from 
the attacks of some one of various enemies, 
the mere enumeration of which would be 
tedious. The principal sources of annoyance 
may be thus briefly stated : — 
Snails and Slugs of every kind (except a 
rare kind of slug, which has a small shell) 
are voracious destroyers of vegetable bodies, 
attacking almost indiscriminately any tender 
vegetables or fruit which may fall in their 
way. The entire system of culture adopted 
in a garden should be offensive to these pests. 
The ground should be frequently loosened up 
with the hoe. No rubbish should be allowed 
to lie about, or to accumulate, except in some 
one reserved spot, and even here should ba 
