HOW TO KEEP WINTER APPLES

Patea Mail, 26 April 1881, Page 4

HOW TO KEEP WINTER APPLES

To keep any variety of apples in good condition as long as possible, says an American contemporary, the apples should be gathered as soon as mature ; that is before any of that variety that arc sound begin to drop, and place tliem at once where they will be as cold as possible—as near the freezing point as possible ; not too many in a bulk, not over a barrel in one package, and kept at a temperature as uniformly low as possible. A cellar in early autumn is about the worst place one can store apples in ; a well-ventilated outhouse is the best place to store them in, such as can be thrown open to the cold night air, and closed during the heat of the day, and in it tiiey should remain until quite severe weather, merely covered from the air. In tlie meantime the cellar should be left thoroughly open for ventilation until it becomes cold, before the apples are stored therein, then it should be kept as nearly as possible at the freezing point all winter. If we carefully bear in mind that heat ripens apples and pears, and that cold retards the ripening, we will have fewer lotten apples. Also, if we wish good iine-llavoured fruit, we must keep the fruit in pure sweet air; therefore the cellar should be carefully cleansed and deodorised before the apples are placed therein. A musty barrel or box will spoil the flavour of the fruit. Varieties that begin to drop early from the trees should be gathered fiist, aud at once put where they will keep cold. Those that mature late, and those that hang on the trees late, can be gathered, and at once placed in new sweet barrels, headed up, and placed where they will be continually cold. This is perhaps the best way to handle the late keepers. If we could continuously keep such a barrel of apples in a temperature of thirty degrees above zero, the apples would keep an almost unlimited time.