The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1874-09-24
PREsERVING WINTER APPLEs-OR-
CHARD MANAGEMENT.

The result of twenty years experience in keep
ing apples may all be summed up in few
words, viz: Keep them dry, cool and entirely
shielded from the external air. After trying nu-
merous experiments, have finally adopted the
following method rs being the cheapest aud most
expeditions:
commence gathering winter fruit about the
LIST of October aud finish if possible by the both
of the same leaving those kinds least affected by
early frOsts, and which are most tenacious of the
parent stem, until the last. Hard frOsts are in
furious to apples for late keeping. After the dew
is of, and the apples become dry in the morning,
commence picking with the hand, and put them
Immediately and carefully into well made flour
barrels, made expressly for the purpose; they
should be alright. Head them up, lay them on
their Sides and when done gathering, wheel them
90 an clubhouse or open shed, where let them
main until severe weather sets in, when they are
taken into the cellar, and remain undisturbed
till wanted for the market.
1t would be better to take them under shelter
each day as they picked, to prevent
the sun from shining the barrels; for,
as / said before, the whole secret of presery
ing apples is in keeping them dry and cool
possible without freezing. Apples should be
picked only in dry weather. l have a cellar ex-
pressly fitted up for keeping apples, as it will not
do for the cellar to be warm enough to keep 9TH
er vegetables. 1t mnst be well ventilated.
leave my cellar windows open through the win
ter, unless in very severe weather, and when
warm weather approaches, close them through
the day and open them at night. When the air
is warmer on the outside then in the cellar, j
keep all closed up tight, and rice
never repack or open my apples, for in so do
lug il lets in a new agent of decomposition; the
air that is fixed in the barrels becomes in great
measure deprived of its decomposing properties.
Having a scauty supply of barrels last fall ut
gathering time, had lot of old salt barrels re-
coopered, making them nearly air-tight. Into
q part of these / put Winesaps. On opening
them late in the spring found they had kept one
hundred per cent better than the same variety
that were put in other barrels, which j attribute
TO saline influences.
very great error of managing apples, used to
be, and still is practiced by many fruit growers
that of putting apples in bins OF ON garret
floors to 90 through the Sweating process, lea
wing them until they become shrveled before
putting them away in their winter quarters.
Thus the apple loses its flavor well as its vitae
lily; for the aroma which escapes from the APP
pies by being thus exposed TO the warm atmes-
phere, is pothing less than minute PARTICLES OF
the apple itself. l have observed that the late
keeping apples, a general thing, have thicker |
rnds than those that mature earlier. This IS pc
the case with the Roxbury Busset. If |
am correct in this observation, il is strong ar
pnment in favor of close keeping, for the rind |
aroma of the apple, and consequently against the
effects of the atmosphere There is apple |
with which am acquainted that emits greater
Udor than the Summer Queen, and none more
frail.
avoid heavy pruning, which think is not
lnly injurious TO the tree, but deleterous TO the
fruit 1t is true that the fruit is larger and fair
.r, but large apples are not the best Keepers.
Besides, frequently cutting of large portions of
he top of a tree sours its juices, and eventually
he tree becomes diseased and dies. am also
opposed TO the frequent blowing OF an orchard
3reaking the roots of the trees certainly can be
# no advantage; besides it exhausts the soil and
caves it heavy and dead.-COr. Ohio Farmer.