The Orchard.
KEEPING APPLES AND PEARS.
The question of the best method of keeping orchard fruits is, unfortunately, in this country complicated by considerations which may rightly be regarded as illegitimate. The indifference of the rural police to the raids of boys and young men upon orchards and gardens precludes growers from treating their produce in the best manner, and induces them to gather prematurely and rush to market fruits which ought to furnish supplies from June forward until the early varieties of the following season are fit for use. Growers feel that even a small price is better than a total loss ; hence, in order to prevent the latter, they gather apples which should hang until April or May, and glut the mid-season and early winter markets, and thus produce a scarcity later in the season. It ja ;well known to growers that late apples keep longest amongst their own leaves under the parent trees. In the cooler climate of Tasmania, where apples ripen.later than in most of the apple- growing districts of Victoria, French crabs and stone pippins are kept successfully until wanted for market; ; but in few instances are they ( stored within fruit-rooms or cellars, as it is inexpedient to gather them until the season is well advanced. The fruit-room theory is practically a fiction in Victoria as well as in Tasmania ; such conveniences kre by no means common in either colony, and even where they exist they are disproportionately small ; moreover, they are used chiefly for storing the choicer varieties of pears which realise special prices at the best shops. How apples are kept in' Worcestershire is briefly sketched in a letter to the Garden newspaper of December 16. The writer was struck with the appearance at a local show, on July 14, of a trayful of apples, grown in 1875, with a quantity grown in 1876. " The old fruit was almost as fresh in appearance as the new," and "it was as useful for culniary, purposes as when gathered. As to the storing, that is made short work.of ; the' apples, which are grown in large orchards in great quantities of the most saleable, and otherwise valuable kinds, are gathered as dry as circumstances will permit, and are laid in- long ridges, often sft. deep.' "They remain. untouched until jbhey have sweated; a covering of straw is placed over the whole, and. when they are i {uncovered to be sent to market, very few are found decayed.' According to my informant, last year a potful (about 721b.) ' was not wasted out of ,a t large barn, well stocked. Though immense quantities are , grown by the side of lanes in hedgerows, , j&c.j for the purpose of cider-making, vast' breadths' of land in' Worcestershire are ( cropped with the finest kinds of apples. The, great object with' the apples is ;to. keep the air from them .without the;atmosphere in which they remain- beings,aL-s Jowed to become 1 damp. Pears are treated 'differently, as they, do not keep well with* much piling,' up ; they are laid out on shelves in the ■ usual way: -. .. . .The, keeping of fruit depends greatly , on. its 1 condition as to ripeness and soundness when gathered," and a very cdmnion' error, is a too early gathering. In large fruitgrowing counties cultivators are never in a hurry in collecting their keeping apples, and I have observed that stray apples found under the trees in the spring of the following year have been sound and good, while their contemporaries in a fruit-room were shrivelled and worthless." The climate in which this is practised differs materially from that of the metropolitan district of Victoria, in which, and in localities enjoying similar climates, the bulk of the orchard fruits of Victoria are grown. There is not, however, so much difference between) the climate of our higher fruit-growing regions and that of the midland counties of England aa to render the practices which obtain in the latter unfit for adoption in the former. In the United States of America, where the winters are like those of England, severe, apples are packed in barrels. The practice is to take the barrels to the tree, hand-pick the fruit, filling the barrels a little higher than the rim. Let them stand until the fruit has sweated, or as long as the weather is fine ; head them down, and in doing so • press the fruit so that it shall not move when the barrels are rolled. Tight packing is, as all fruit packers know, a most important matter. Whether the commodity be apples, pears, or grapes, they should be unable to move when in the cases, or they will turn out bruised and comparatively valueless. In the warmer parts of these colonies, and even in such a climate as thatof the metropolitan district of Victoria, the greatest difficulty is to maintain a cool temperature for stored fruit. After gathering, apples in bulk mature rapidly if exposed to the ordinary temperature of the air, and underground cellars, which are the be3t of fruit-rooms, are rarely available. The drought having disposed of a great portion j of the ppple crop, such, produce as can be kept successfully until winter has well set in will be likely to fetch a good price ; efforts should therefore be made to provide storage for all the late-keeping varieties. — Australasian.
The New York correspondent of the San Francisco Bulletin telegraphs in January :— "A scheme matured some time age for inducing labourers to emigrate to Australia must be successful, judging from the increased number of ships taken up for that destination lately. The latest charter is the new ship Annie H, Smith, 1500 tons, to Sydney. The rates of passage are 40tlols. to oOdois. gold, and a good many who can raise the money are securing passages, mostly natives of the British Isles,"
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 1320, 17 March 1877, Page 18
Word Count
970The Orchard. Otago Witness, Issue 1320, 17 March 1877, Page 18
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