THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
081 
WHEN TO PICK PEACHES. 
What rule do your pickers go by in hand¬ 
ling peaches? Does size, color or feeling 
show them where to pick? 
Neither by size nor feeling can you tell 
anything about it, but just lift up the 
branches and look at the under or shady 
side of the peach. In white-fleshed 
sorts like the Carman and Belle of 
Georgia, when the shady side nearest 
to the stem end begins to take on a 
whitish or cream color in place of the 
green color, then the “critter” is ready, 
and you can pull them; you want to get 
them good and solid and firm. In the 
yellow varieties, the green lute will be¬ 
gin to turn to a lemon yellow, and it 
is ready to be picked. Above all things 
do not have anybody feeling your fruit; 
that will make a brown or bruised spot 
a little later on. Use your eyes when 
taking them from the trees, and after 
they get in the baskets you are all right. 
Be sure they are not soft enough for 
good eating when they come off the 
trees, or you will be up against a loss. 
J. II. HALE. 
1 have no rule for telling pickers how 
to know when peaches are ripe for pick¬ 
ing. I hardly think I could give in¬ 
structions that could he followed with¬ 
out experience. Most of my peaches 
are taken by nearby markets, and I 
probably do not pick quite as green as 
is done for shipment far. Color alone 
is not a sure guide, as sometimes the 
color is very high while the peach is yet 
unfit to pick; but color is a help to 
guide. Most kinds of fruit acquire a 
hue—not dhscribablc as; a color—hut bet¬ 
ter expressed as a ripe' look. In the . 
peach the .green |jdc' takes' on.a whitish! 
shade, and the contrast between the red 
and pale sides is less strong. A good 
picker is a Hose 'observer plus' ex per i- 
cnci’. It will not do to pinch the fruit 
to find if it is ripe, as much of it would 
he thus, spoiled. Size of course can be 
no guide, as some fruits are much larger 
than others. If the fruit parts readily 
from the twigs when given a slight pull 
I think it is ready to pick. A green 
peach sticks quite tight and if pulled is 
very likely to bring with it a bit of 
to 
wood. 
Massachusetts. 
M. MOUSE. 
Of course the farther 
the greener it must be 
Ihe peach retains the 
stone until it 
days before 
it must travel 
when picked, 
shape of the 
begins to ripen, about 10 
fully ripe it begins to 
plump up and become rounder, at the 
same time the green side begins grad¬ 
ually to turn yellow—or white as the 
case may be. In picking to ship I try 
to gather them just when they have 
rounded out sufficiently to make a 
good appearance, and the green skin 
shows the first sign of turning yellow 
or white. At this time the peaches are 
quite hard, and will hold up without 
ice for several days. 
l or the local market, when they will 
he sold the next day, we allow them to 
round out perfectly, and wait until the 
green color in the skin has changed to 
yellow or white, at the same time the 
peach when taken in the hand has a 
velvety feel which indicates ripeness. 
By this time the peach will have at¬ 
tained its highest color and highest 
flavor and will he at its best. Different 
varieties of course assume different 
forms when ripe; some are much 
rounder than others, and also show 
different shades of color, but pickers 
very soon learn how each variety 
'hould look and feel. We go over all 
trees twice and sometimes oftener, de¬ 
pending upon the season. We are not 
influenced at all either by size or by 
the red cheek, but by the shape and 
the color of the side away from the 
su 'l. GABRIEL HI ESTER. 
Pennsylvania. 
I RAMS PLANTING EVERGREENS. —I read 
"i this week’s paper that the best time 
111 transplant evergreens is from early 
Spring to the middle of May. That 
does not fit my experience. I have 
never bought nursery stock of that kind 
hut have taken hemlock from woods 
and fields and learned that the trans¬ 
planting should be done just as the 
new growth shows, usually from the 
middle of May to June 1. Wild stock 
is much more difficult to move than 
nursery stock, but taken at the time I 
mention, I have set out a row of wild 
hemlock for a hedge without losing one. 
New Haven Co., Ct. u. s. hinman. 
Shall We Compost Manure? 
It. IF. J., Philadelphia, Pa .—Which would 
lie host, to make a compost heap with 
manure, garbage, loaf mould, green weeds 
not gone to seed, in fact make it after up- 
to-date methods, or load your manure in a 
spreader and take it out on (lie field at 
once ? 
Ans. —\\ e think it will depend upon 
the farm labor conditions. It is a great 
advantage to keep the manure hauled 
away from the barn. Where a carrier 
can be run back of the stock the ma¬ 
nure can he dumped directly into a 
spreader, carried at once to the field and i 
put on the ground. Where this is done 
every day there is a great saving of 
labor not only in handling the manure, I 
hut in having the teams ready for I 
spring work at once. Where the Win 
ter’s supply of manure must be hauled 
in Spring, you must either keep an cx- 1 
tra team or wait until the manure is 
hauled before working the ground. We 1 
think the chief gain through the daily 
hauling is in labor saving. To offset 
this the compost heap gives more ma- ! 
nitre and better manure. When such a 
heap has been started many things like 
garbage, sods, muck, weeds, rich earth, j 
leaves, etc., are piled on it. If there 
were no compost many of these things 
would be wasted or left where they 
would not help crops. There will often 
be 10 per cent more plant food on a 
farm where there is a good compost 
heap. If the heap is made in the right 
shape and kept moist so that it will not 
fire-fang the manure is made finer and 
more available. The action of the Icr- 
mentation in the compost heap is td 
break up the organic matter in the ma¬ 
nure and make the nitrogen jnorc avail¬ 
able and the manure finer! Anyone who 
has ever handled both knows the dif¬ 
ference between coarse and lumpy ma¬ 
nure and a fine compost. The latter can 
be spread more evenly and will make a 
quicker showing in the crops. A fanner 
must figure whether this improvement 
in the manure will offset the extra cost 
of handling the compost. The character 
of the crop may he considered too. For 
a crop like corn the fresh manure 
hauled at any time through the Win¬ 
ter, spread on a sod and plowed under 
will give fine results. For tpp dressing 
meadows or pats or any' K other crop 
where quick growth is wanted and a 
very evctr spreading required; the com¬ 
posted manure is best. We should add 
that the use of the spreader has changed 
the character of western farming. Some 
years ago there were great mountains 
of manure around some farm buildings! 
The high price and scarcity of labor 
made it impossible to handle this ma¬ 
nure with shovel or dung fork. The 
manure spreader with daily spreading 
changed all this. The manure can now 
be handled without interfering with 
other farm work, and put on the soil 
keeps up the power of the farm. 
New Arrival: “So this town is 
strongly opposed to corporal punish¬ 
ment?’ Waiter: “Yes, sah. Why, boss, 
dey don’t cben let us serve whipped 
cream.”—Chicago Daily News. 
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