Fruit stall

“ Nobody can understand how the ground in the garden can be changed by some life principle into fruit and vegetables and flowers and hundreds of different things, and yet all this wonderful variety, all growing out of the very same soil, or ground as we call it. ”

“ The older we grow, the more we appreciate these memory pictures of the past—memories of our childhood days, beautiful landscapes, foreign travel, lovely sunsets, the glorious sunrise, green fields and orchards of golden fruit. ”

“ The trees, which a few months ago were green and beautiful and in the fall all laden with fruit, are now all naked and bare, and if you were to go out into the orchard or forest you could not tell the difference between a dead tree, and all the others which seem to be dead. ”

“ The shelves and tables for holding the fruit should be sparred, and before the fruit is stored they should be covered with a layer of clean wheat straw, but so thinly that one can see through between the spars of the shelves, which will allow a free circulation of air amongst the fruit. When the room is empty during the summer-time, it should be thoroughly ventilated, washed and dried, and made sweet and clean, and, when the fruit is stored, shut up and kept in darkness. ”

“ The apples for market were brought down in barrels from the orchards, and then the wagon load of apples and children went through still another gate that led to another short lane under more apple-trees, to the fruit-house, where, in the cool, dim cellar that smelled of all deliciousness, the fruit was sorted and boxed or barreled for market. And in the late afternoon, or after supper, if the children were old enough to stay up so late, they were allowed to ride on the loads of fruit to the steamboat landing. ”

“ The world looks just as new and beautiful as it did thousands and thousands of years ago. Each spring it puts on youth anew.
But when the summer-time comes, when it gets along to the harvest time, along in July and August, then the weather is very warm. The color of the fields has then greatly changed, the blossoms have disappeared from the trees, and we find that everywhere the fruit is beginning to appear. The harvest fields are ripe and are waiting for the husbandmen. ”

“ It should, if possible, adjoin the kitchen garden, for convenience of access; as fruit is, or should be, an important item in the daily consumption of every family where it can be grown and afforded. A sheltered spot, if to be had, should be devoted to this object; or if not, its margin, on the exposed side, should be set with the hardiest trees to which it is appropriated—as the apple. The fruit garden, proper, may also contain the smaller fruits, as they are termed, as the currant, gooseberry, raspberry, and whatever other shrub-fruits are grown ”

“ A mouldy air from dried-up and forgotten vegetables meets you. The earth may not be moist underfoot, but it has not the kind feeling of sun-warmed earth. And if big rats hide there, how bold and hideous they are! There are cool farmhouse cellars floored with cement and shelved with sweet-smelling pine, where apple-bins make incense, and swinging-shelves of butter, tables of milk crocks, lines of fruit cans and home-made catsup bottles, jars of pickles and chowder, and white covered pastry and cake, promise abundant hospitality. ”

“ The early apples were just gathering when we reached the farm, amongst all sorts of pleasant orchard sounds, the rumble of apples poured from bushel baskets into barrels, the squeak of the cider mill, and the men talking 132 at work. The large new orchard of Bellefleurs is hand-picked, in the modern method; each apple is wrapped in paper, and the fruit has its special first-rate market; but Sam is not going to take his father’s old miscellaneous orchard in hand until next year, and here he and his men were picking and piling in the old wholesale fashion. ”

“ We look at a red-cheeked apple or purple cluster of grapes hesitatingly, and are loth to mar the exquisite shadings and perfect outlines of the vessel in which the rich juices are served. Therefore, in stocking the acre with fruit, the proprietor has not ceased to embellish it; and should he decide that fruit-trees must predominate over those grown for shade and ornament only, he can combine almost as much beauty as utility with his plan. ”

“ A writer in the Field expresses himself thus:—The easiest and best method of keeping fruit, and one practised for years, is simply to take ordinary wine cases, halves and quarters, as different sizes are handy, line the bottoms well with short sweet hay, and take them on a hand-barrow to the orchard. There the fruit should be laid carefully in them, taken at once to the fruit room, and placed on close-bottomed shelves. ”

“ The aspect for the fruit garden should, if possible, front the south, south-east, or south-west, in a northerly climate. In the Middle and Southern States the exposure is of less consequence. Currants, gooseberries, raspberries, &c., should, for their most productive bearing, and the highest quality of their fruits, be set at least four feet apart, in the rows, and the rows six feet distant from each other, that there may be abundant room to cultivate them with the plow, and kept clean of weeds and grass. The quince, peach, apricot, nectarine, and plum should be 16 feet apart each way. ”

“ On some farms large quantities of fruit are grown—such as gooseberries, currants, plums, and damsons. Most have enough for their own use; some sell a considerable amount. Outside the garden is the orchard. Some of these orchards are very extensive, even in districts where cider is not the ordinary beverage, and in a good apple year the sale of the apples forms an important item in the peculiar emoluments of the farmer's wife. There are, of course, many districts in which the soil is not adapted to the apple, but as a rule the orchard is an adjunct of the garden. ”

“ By this means the stools become very vigorous and bear the most abundant crops. In the spring after the fruit is set, place around each plant a small quantity of straw, or what is much better, cover the whole surface of the ground one inch thick with wheat chaff. This prevents evaporation, protects the fruit from the earth, improves the flavor, and will greatly increase the size. ”

“ In the fall, after the bins in the cellar had been well stocked, we excavated a circular pit in the warm, mellow earth, and covering the bottom with clean rye straw, emptied in basketful after basketful of hardy choice varieties, till there was a tent-shaped mound several feet high, of shining, variegated fruit. ”

“ It certainly is the best of the fall-bearing kinds, and deserves a place in every garden. There are more profitable market varieties, however; but, if the suckers are vigorously destroyed, and the bearing canes cut well back, the fruit is often very large, abundant, and attractive, bringing the highest prices. As a plantation grows older, the tendency to sucker immoderately decreases, and the fruit improves. ”

“ But from the soil of a good garden, with a little pains, we can obtain the finest fruit in existence; and there is no occasion to plant those kinds which are grown for market solely because they are productive, and hard enough to endure carriage for a long distance. The only transportation to be considered is from the garden to the table, and therefore we can make table qualities our chief concern. If our soil is light and sandy, we can raise successfully one class of choice, high-flavored varieties ”

“ To this portion of plantation management I have given an attentive inquiry, and shall shortly proceed to state my views on the system best adapted to the curing and preparing for market of good quality produce.
The fruit should be gathered in when in a blood-ripe state, to all appearance like cherries. The labourers are principally accustomed to reap the crop in baskets, of which they carry two to the field; and when the coffee is bearing heavily, and is at its full stage of ripeness, the good pickers will gather in four bushels per diem, and carry the same on their heads to the works. ”

“ There are such substantial benefits accruing from the presence of little chicks about the small fruit plantations, or the mature birds about the apple, plum, and peach trees—such as the destruction of hosts of worms and insects and keeping the surface of the ground stirred, that every consideration urges the combination of fruit and poultry growing. At the Vernon Fruit and Poultry Farm, Vernon, Conn., we saw last summer Baldwin apple trees that were six inches through at the butt, yielded an average of a barrel of choice apples each in the fall, and had been set only six years. ”

“ For home use, winter apples may well be stored in boxes in a cool moist cellar if such a place is available. For best results in long keeping, the temperature should be maintained below 40 degrees F. In a cellar containing a furnace, the fruits shrivel from too much evaporation, as also in an attic or other dry room. If the fruit must be stored in such places, it is well to keep the box or barrel tightly closed, and the individual apples may be wrapped in thin paper. ”

“ In such position, the fruit will reach its maximum of flavor, size, and perfection.
The ground, too, should be rich; and, to have the 196 greatest benefit of the soil, no crops should be grown among the trees, after they have arrived at their full maturity of bearing. Thus planted, and nursed, with good selections of varieties, both the fruit garden and the orchard become one of the most ornamental, as well as most profitable portions of the farm. ”

“ Upon hoisting a gate in the lower end of this trough, considerable current is caused, and the water carries the fruit a distance of from thirty to one hundred feet, and passes into the basement of the mill, where, tumbling down a four-foot perpendicular fall, into a tank, tight in its lower half and slatted so as to permit the escape of water and impurities in the upper half, the apples are thoroughly cleansed from all earthy or extraneous matter. ”

“ Choose a deep stone jar, put into it one pound of peaches covered with three-quarters of a pound of sifted sugar. Fill up the jar with good brandy. Set the jar in a pan of cold water on the fire, and let it gradually heat till the brandy is nearly boiling. Then let it get cold and tie up the jar closely.
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THE STORING OF FRUIT AND HERBS A STORE-ROOM for apples and pears should be cool, though frost-proof, slightly moist, and well ventilated, though free from draughts. Adjacent apples should not be in contact with each other. If very choice, it is wise to wrap each apple in tissue paper. ”

“ In many establishments it is the custom, in plentiful seasons, to store all the crop in a house that was never intended to accommodate it, and throughout the autumn and winter preservation consists principally in picking out the rotten fruit periodically, and wheeling it to the pigsty or the rubbish heap. ”

“ Still, I would advise any one who is supplying the market, thoroughly to prepare and enrich an acre or more of moist but well drained land, and plant some of the large, showy berries, like the Sharpless, Monarch, and Seth Boyden. If he has heavy, rich soil, let him also try the Jucunda, President Lincoln, and, especially, the Triomphe de Gand. These varieties always have a ready sale, even when the market is glutted with common fruit, and they often command very high prices. When the soil suits them, they frequently yield crops that are not so far below the Wilson in quantity. ”

“ He contends that a crop of thirty bushels of strawberries to the acre, is only about proportionate to a corn crop of ten bushels on the same ground. He says that a strawberry plantation is seldom seen without having, after the first year, many more plants upon the ground than can obtain air or light sufficient to fruit well. The consequence is, that all our city markets are mainly supplied with inferior fruit, simply because some of the commonest kinds continue to produce a little stunted, sour fruit, even under the worst treatment. ”

“ It has been already observed, when speaking of the laying out of a kitchen garden, that beyond the fruit-border there is generally a walk, enclosing the compartments devoted to culinary vegetables in the centre. Now where espaliers are grown, there should be a second chambered border, exactly like the fruit border under the wall, which should be shut out from the culinary compartments by a low wall under ground, or flat stones placed edgeways, or boards, or, in fact, any thing to prevent the roots of the espaliers from spreading into the ground devoted to the culinary crops. ”

“ Pears, apples, and all other summer fruit should be placed on shelves singly in a dry and well aired room, and not on moss, hay, or straw, as is often done, because they thereby contract a very disagreeable flavour. ”

“ According to variety, they are set three to five feet apart—four feet, where staking or trellising is given, as it should always be in garden culture, will be as much as the largest- growing plants require. It will pay well, both for quality and quantity of fruit, to keep most of the suckers cut or rubbed off. The ripening of a few fruits may be hastened by tying paper bags over the bunches, or by picking and ripening on a board in the hot sun. ”

“ Get rid of those who persist in careless picking as soon as possible. Insist that the baskets be full and rounded up, and the fruit equal in quality down to the bottom. As far as possible, let the hulls be down out of sight, and only the fruit showing. If you have berries that are extra fine, it will pay you to pick and pack them yourself, or have some one to do it who can be depended upon. Do not pick the fruit, if you can help it, when it is wet with dew or rain ”