OCTOBER. 
225 
ng at once into the condition fit for table, and in a ckiy or two all will be in 
a stage beyond this, and become a mass of juice which it is difficult to handle 
without bursting them. Now, I always look on a mass of this kind as the 
most dangerous to a fruit-room ; and as all early fruits ripen in warmer weather 
than other kinds do, they ought to be furnished with a degree of ventilation 
almost amounting to complete exposure, in order that the odour emitted by 
ripening fruit, which very quickly takes a decaying turn, may not contaminate 
the rest. Fruit at that time ought also to be kept thin. But to return to the 
Ribston Pippins. It often happens that these have to be gathered when the 
fruit-room is more or less occupied by fruits in the condition spoken of; and 
if the weather be warm at the time, the fruit is impelled onward to a condition 
fit for table much earlier than they otherwise would be if kept cooler ; and 
what is, perhaps, as bad, the infectious character of the atmosphere they are 
in hastens on decay some time before ripeness or mellowness has done its part: 
hence fruits that ought to be in perfection in January are ready by the end of 
November, not Ribston Pippin Apples only, but all other kinds of fruits as 
well. This is one of the reasons why fruits in certain seasons keep longer and 
better than they do in others—the simple fact that they are not ready to gather 
until cold weather insures their keeping, as more fruit generally perishes in 
November than in December and January, and no amount of mere cleanliness 
and care in removing diseased fruit can compensate for the crowded condition 
of the fruit-room in the early autumn months, when the weather at the same 
time is of a kind that favours “ forcing,” which it certainly does when it is 
warm at the periods spoken of. 
Now, as the Ribston Pippin cannot be preserved under circumstances as 
described, let us suppose an opposite case—a backward unkindly season like 
that of 1860, when there was no lack of fruits generally; tfie fine autumn of 
the year before securing sufficient bloom, but the multitude of fruits only re¬ 
sulted in each being very small, and the unfavourable season did not mature 
them with that degree of perfection so requisite in good fruit: hence we had a 
quantity of half-perfected fruits, presenting little but a thick tough skin, and a 
core quite as large as usual. Some of these fruits possibly might keep longer 
than was ever known before; as they contained so little saccharine matter, 
there was scarcely anything within them to engender decay : hence a sort of 
withering or shrivelling-up instead of the usual spot and rot which consume 
the better class of fruits. 
From the above it will be seen that warmth favours decay, and that cold 
encourages preservation by retarding the natural ripening of the fruit, and when 
it has approached that condition it tends to keep it from advancing further. 
But this unnatural state of things has its disadvantages. Fruit so treated is 
never good. Pears may be kept in an ice-house to a period much beyond that 
of their usual keeping time ; but the flavour is gone. The same may be said of 
summer fruits, as Strawberries, Peaches, and the like, which have been so tried 
frequently. 
Whenever a quantity of fruit is piled up in a heap it begins what in com¬ 
mon language is called “ to sweat.” This sweating brings out an oily sub¬ 
stance to the outside. Sweating will also occur without the fruit being so 
closely piled up as spoken of, but it is more slow ; and if it be laid thinly on a 
shelf it is in its most legitimate way. This sweating coats the skin with a 
sort of varnish, which resists the action of the atmosphere, and certainly 
promotes the keeping qualities of the fruit. This varnish ought not to be 
removed by any means, handling being one of the certain ways to do so. Let 
the fruit, therefore, be placed at first singly on the shelves, and little else will 
be wanted but looking over them and picking out decayed ones ; and the 
