THE ORCHARD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 858, 10 August 1888, Page 18

THE ORCHARD.

KEEPING APPLES.

Apples keep best in a uniform temperature, just above freezing. A higher tem. perature, if uniform, is not the worst condition -but a temperature that fluctuates between hot and cold. If apples are kept in. a cellar, they should not be in an apartment with vegetables, but in a separate room, walled off with windows so that cold air can be let in when the temperature is too high. Other precautions are the wrapping of fruit in tissue paper and packing them in some porous material. Mr Thomas, in the Country Gentlemen, suggests these experiments : * I count and select fifty good, sound apples, wrap each in paper and, replace them on the shelf. Count out fifty more the same in condition, and place them aside exposed. Next spring count the number of decayed ones in each lot and see how each has fared. 2. Count out and place fifty equal specimens each, in boxes of suitable size, packed in fine shavings, fine chopped oat straw, coarse and fine chaff, bran, sifted coal ashes and plaster. Put them into a cool, but not freezing, apartment, and by counting the decayed specimens next spring compare the results. 3. Fill boxes large enough to hold half a bushel or a bushel with »pple3 in the more compact packing, as plaster or fine chaff, and place them in the barn with a foot of hay or a foot or two of chaff upon them, and examine their condition in spring or summer,’ JUNE WORK WITH GRAPESGrapes should be most thoroughly cultivated this mouth, carefully suckered and pruned and sulphured. Tiiere are two methods of sulphuring advocated. One is to dust the sulphur into the loaves whei they, are wet with daw. The other is to dust the sulphur into the ground under the vino on the windward side, so that the ilsiug fumts caught by the heat of the sun will rise through the vines permeating all parts of it. As sulphur is cheap, and there is no danger of putting on too mush, both methods might safely be adopted. Sift a little over the vines and a little under. This would make a sure thing of it. Where there is any danger from mildew, we would recommend sulphuring two or three time 3 in the season, say in May, June, and July. My motto for summer ptuniug is little and often. Never

shook the vine by cutting off too much of the leaves, which are the lungs of the plant. When the vines have attained a few leaves beyond the last bunch of grapes, go through with a sharp sickle or butcher-knife and clip the ends of the vines. This will deflect the flow of the sap into the fruit arteries. When the laterals have attained a few feet in length treat them the same way. -Go through your vineyard several times during the season, clipping the ends of the vines.—Rural Cali* forniaD.

THE HANSELL RASPBERRY. Under the skilful cultivation of A. S. Whittemore, of Newcastle, the Hansell raspberry is gaining an extended reputation. The variety is a hardy grower and prolific bearer, but requires a rich soil for its highest development. It is an early and late bearer. The berries are not so large as those of some other varieties, but are firm and compact, weigh two pounds more to the case than other raspberries, and bear shipping better. They have been shipped as far East as Chicago, are good keepers and do not drip. Mr Whittemore ships raspberries earlier than any one else, and consequently receives a higher price. This year he received 4 50dol. a case for his best berries. Last Sunday he picked over eighty-three cases, and will, according to report, receive over fifteen hundred dollars for his crop this year. His raspberry patch is somewhere between an acre and an acre and a half in extent.— Auburn Herald.