The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-11-08
Saving Fruit.


It win be conceded that there is great
carelessless common in the saving, or
rather the not saving of fruits for winter
use. The value of fruit that is lost every
year through absolute negligence Is enor-
nous. Indeed taking us as a whole, we
store our fruit without regard to system,
and depend mostly on luck to keep us in
fruit during the winter. This waste is
reprehensible at all times, but more es-
pecially when fruit is scarce. This sea-
SON certainly is good one to begin the
exercise of care in such matters, if we
have never exercised il before. Fruit is
scarce. With many it will be difficult
TO preserve a winters supply even with
the most careful management. To such
the advice TO adopt some effective sys-
tenn of preservation will surely be time
ly, while those who may happen to have
a surplus will find it to be greatly to
their pecuniary interest to be guided by
such counsel. Carelessness in picking,
it is hardly necessary to say to any one,
must be avoided. Fruit that Is roughly
handled in gathering can not be expect
ed to keep well, and all who are en-
gagged In picking, therefore, should be
compelled to handle the fruit with care.
The owner Of the orchard does not al
ways do this, but usually man takes
pretty fair care of his own. If any reader
should happen to be an exception to this
rule, he can hardly expect that help will
be different from himself. As a general
thing, however, fruit growers suffer the
most severely, In the direction indicat-
ed, through the carelessness of help. 1t
Is so difficult to get those who will per-
form their duties conscientiously, that
the farmer and fruit grower is liable to
great damage almost all the time. 1t
will be judicious, therefore, to keep q
strict surveillance over those who are
employed to pick fruit, and in most or
chards the job will not be so extensive this
year to make that difficult, II 1t ever is.
The damage done 10 fruit by careless
handling is so irretrievable that it must
be prevented, or we might pretty nearly
as well not pick the fruit at all.
The practice of placing apples in the
cellar too early in the season is altogeth-
or too common, and can but result in
injury. Apples never should be placed
in the cellar until cold weather ap-
proaches; until that time they should be
kept in dry building above ground, or
in the shade out DOORS Keep them just
as cool as possible this way until freezing
weather is near, when they may be re-
moved to the cellar. Perhaps as common
way as Is practiced is to place the ap-
pies in tight barrel. For time they
will keep perfectly in this way, but If
left too long will rot. How long then
should they remain barreledP We can
not answer the question, which Is equiv
alent to saying that some better way is
advisable; and the best way that we
know of to preserve apples Is to place
them singly on a shelf, where they can
be readily inspected, and those which
show signs of decay removed. On q
large scale this might not prove practi-
cal, but the average orchardist this year
will not find such q method very difficult
to practice. Of course this method
would only be practical for keeping
fruit for home consumption anyhow,
and unless that consumption is very
large indeed, it would be practical.
To achieve the same results in some
what handler way, boxes can be con-
structed deep enough to hold one layer
of apples, and of other dimensions to
suit the convenience, filed with the
fruit, and piled one top of each other to
a convenient height. In fact this is a
better plan than exposing the fruit on
open shelves, for it is protected from the
changing currents of air that come from
the ventilating windows. The boxes
should be made with some care, so that
the bottom of one box will act as lid
and fit very closely to the box below it.
When examination of the fruit is to be
gone into, the top box is first examined,
the decaying fruit removed, and the box
placed on the floor. Then tho next box
Is examined, and placed on top of the
first one, and so on until the first pile OF
boxes is inverted. It Is not very difficult
thus to examine the store, and it should
| be examined about every two or three
weeks. But even II it Is little trouble,
it is the sure way to keep fruit through
the winter, for it is fact that apples
from the same tree have not equal keep
ing qualities, and when we put them up
there Is no telling which viii keep the
longest. The line between the good and
poor keepers can not be drawn. If for
any reason the room can not be perfect
| ly ventilated, the fruit can be slightly
exposed by placing the boxes one lit
tie over the end of the other, leaving say
an eighth of the top of the box below
open.
In this connection it may be well to
call the attention of those who may be
fortunate enough TO have apples for the
market to the necessity Of packing
them tightly in the barrels. Apples thai
are not thus packed rattle about in the
barrel in transportation and are bruised,
much to their injury in q marketable
point of view. To avoid this fill the
barrel well up, and have it stand upon a
plank to which Is fastened, by means OF
q chain, lever. Place the head Of the
barrel, or board large enough 10 cover
4 the fruit, over the apples, bring the
lever down upon 1t, and thus press the
fruit down into the barrel. Such q bar.
rel of apples win not be injured In
Observation-Disclosures Rnrdl.