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2696. The sweating o f fr u it is entirely disapproved by some, who affirm, that it thereby
acquires a bad flavour, or, at any rate, that the natural flavour of the fruit is deteriorated,
and that it gets dry aud mealy. They consider it better to c a n y the fruit directly from
the tree, carefully avoiding all sort of bruising, and to lay it thinly on the shelves of the
fruit-room. _ The room, they say, should be dry, and the only use that should be made
of a stove, is to take off the damp. Such is the prevailing practice at the present time.
Light should be excluded as much as possible. Fi'om what wc have observed in the
practice of such as ai*e successful in preserving bread corn, and other seeds, as acorns,
nuts, &c., wc are inclined to think that sweating, by getting rid of a quantity of moisture,
must, to a certain extent, be a beneficial practice. Marshall, and most French gardeners,
and English gardeners of the last century, are in favour of the practice, ancl
those of the present day are against it. .
2697. Knight's experience in preserving fruits, Vfith. the rationale of his practice, is given
in the following valuable ex tra c t: —
2698. Fruits which have grown upon standard trees, in climates sufficiently warm and
favourable to bring them to maturity, “ are generally more firm in their texture, aud more
saccharine, and therefore more capable of being long preserved sound, than such as
havo been produced by wall-trees ; and a dry and warm atmosphere also operates very
favourably to the preseiwation of fruits, under certain circumstances, but under other
circumstances wcry injuriously: for the action of those elective attractions which
occasion the decay and decomposition of fruits, is suspended by the operation of different
causes in different fruits, and even in the same fruit in different states of maturity. When
a grape is growing upon the vine, and till it has attained perfect maturity, it is obviously
a Im n g body, and its preservation is dependent upon the powers of life ; but when the
same fruit lias some time passed its state of perfect maturity, and has begun to shrivel, the
powers of life are probably no longer, or at most very feeble, in action ; ancl the fruit
appears to be then preserved by the combined operation of its cellular texture, the antiseptic
powers of the saccharine matter it contains, and by the exclusion of air by its external
sk in ; for if that be destroyed, it immediately perishes. I f longer retained in
a dry and warm temperature, tlie grape becomes gradually converted into a raisin ;
and its component parts ai*e then only held in combination by the ordinary laws of
chemistry.”
2699. A nonpareU apple, or catiUac d'Auch, or bergamotte de Bugipear, “ exhibits all
the characters of a living vegetable body long after it has been taken from the tree, and
appears to possess all the powers of other similar vegetable bodies, except that of growing,
or vitally uniting to itself other m a tte r; and the experiments which I shall proceed to
state, prove that the pear is operated upon by external causes nearly in the same manner
after it Inis been detached from the tree, as when it remains vitally united to it.”
2700. Most o f the fine French pears, “ particularly the pcar d’Auch, are much subject,
when cultivated in a cold and unfavourable climate, to crack before they become full-
groivu upon the trees, and, consequently, to decay before tlieir proper season or state of
matm-ity; and those which present these defects in my garden ai-e therefore always taken
immediately from the trees to a vinery, in which a small fire is constantly kept in winter,
and they are there placed at a small distance over its flue. Thus circumstanced, a part
of my crop of Auch pears ripen, and will perish, if not nsed, in November, when the
remainder continue sound and firm till March or April, or la te r ; and the same warm
temperatui-e which preserves the grape in a slightly shrivelled state till Januai-y, rapidly
accelerates the maturity, and consequent decay, of the pear. By gathering a part of my
swan’s-egg pears early in the season (selecting such as are most advanced towai-ds ma-
turity), and subjecting them, in the manner above mentioned, to artificial heat, and by
retarding the maturity of the later part of the produce of the same trees, I have often
had that fruit upon my table nern-ly in an equal state of perfection from the end of October
to the beginning of Februai-y ; but the most perfect, in every respect, have been
those which have been exposed in the vinery to light and artificial heat, as soon as
gathered.”
2701. The most successful method o f preserving pears and apples, “ which I have
hitherto tried, has been placing them in glazed earthen vessels, each containing about a
gallon (ci^ed, provincially, steens), and surrounding each fruit with paper. These
vessels, being perfect cylinders, about 1 ft. each in height, stand very conveniently upon
each other, and thus present the means of preserving a large quantity of fruit in a very
small room ; and if the spaces between the top of one vessel and the base of another be
filled with a cement composed of two parts of the curd of skimmed milk, and one of
lime, by which the air will be excluded, the later kinds of apples and peai-s will be preserved
with little change in their appearance, and without any danger of decay, from
October till February and March. A dry and cold situation, in which there is little
change of temperature, is the best for the vessels; but I have found the merits of the
peai-s to be greatly increased by theii- being taken from the vessels about ton days before
they were wanted for use, and being kept in a warm ro om ; for warmth, at this as at
other periods, accelerates the maturity of the pcar.”
2702. Preserving ripe fr u it by retaining it on the tree or on detached shoots. Some
fruits may be preserved through the winter by allowing them to hang on the tree in a
moderate climate, somewhat above the freezing point. Vines are sometimes so preserved;
and Diel mentions that frequently on the nonpareil pippin, planted in pots, and kept
under glass, without any fire-hcat, he has had the fmit hanging on the tree till the
i-ipcning of the succeeding crop. Arkivright (Hort. Trans., vol. iii. p. 97.), by late
forcing, retains plump grapes on bis vines till the beginning of May, and even later, till
the maturity of his early crops. In this way he gathers grapes evei-y day in the year.
By covering some sorts of chen-y, plum, gooseberry, and cu n an t trees, cither on walls
or as bushes, with mats, the fruit of the red and white currant, and of the thicker-skinned
gooseberries, may be preserved till Christmas and later. Grapes, in the open air, may
be preserved in the same manner; and peaches and nectarines may, in this way, be kept
a fortnight Imnging ou the trees after they are ripe.
2703. Preserving ripe fr u it in air-tight vessels, in a low temperature, is perhaps the
most effectual and certain mode, at least with the more hardy fi-nits. Apples and pears,
placed in jars or pipkins, have been closely scaled np, and placed in a cellar, iu a temperature
never below 32°, and not exceeding 42°, for a year, and found in perfect order
for eating. (Braddick, in Hort. Trans., vol. ii i.; Encyc. Brit. Supp. art. Food.)
2704. Preserving fru it, by gathering it before it is ripe, and then retarding its ripening.
Retai-ding the wasting or decay of frait or vegetables gathered for use is effected by
burying them in boxes in the soil, immersing them in deep wells, or, as already stated,
[ilaciiig them in an ice-house, or an icc-cold room. Ripe peaches may thus be kept a
week, and other fraits lo n g e r; peai-s, cauliflowers, salads, &c., preserved in a fresh state
for some days, and potatoes aud other tubers and bulbs for a long period, both fresh
and -without growing.
2705. Seeds. When seeds arc to be preserved longer than the usual period, or when
they are to be sent to a great distance, vai-ious devices have been adopted to preserve
their vitality. Sugai-, salt, tallow, cotton, sawdust, sand, clay, paper, &c., have been
adopted with different degrees of success. Packing in sand or dry earth is probably the
best mode that can be employed.
2706. Livingston, who, from a long residence in China, is well informed on the horticulture
of the Chinese, states, that “ fi-om April to October, rain is so fi-cquent in China,
and the aii- is generally so moist, that it is nearly impossible to prcseiwe seeds. I f excluded
from the air they are quickly covered with mildew, and when exposed, no less
certainly destroyed by insects.” He proposes to dry Chinese seeds by means of sulphuric
acid, in Leslie’s manner, which he found dried “ small seeds in two days, and the largest
seeds in less than a week. Seeds thus dried,” he observes, “ may be aftenvards preserved
in a vegetating state for any necessary length of time, by keeping them in an airy
situation, in common brown paper, and occasionally exposing them to the air in a fine
day, especially after damp weather. This metliod will succeed with all the lai-ger mucilaginous
seeds. Very small seeds, ben-ies, and oily seeds may probably require to be
kept in sugar, or among cun-ants or raisins.” (Hort. Trans., vol. iii. p. 184., and the
article Cold, in Supp. Encyc. Brit.) Seeds may be preseiwed and sent to a distance
with safety, if, after being thoroughly matured and dried, they are enveloped o r baked
into a large ball of loam, or enveloped in charcoal, or any other non-conducting
material.
2707. Boots, cuttings, grafts, and perennial plants in general are preserved, till wanted,
in earth or moss, moderately moist, and shaded from the sun. The same principle is
followed in packing them to be sent to a distance. The roots or root-ends of the plants
or cuttings ai-e enveloped in balls of clay or loam, wrapped round with moist moss, and
ail- is admitted to the to p s ; or the root-ends arc stuck in a potato, a turnip, or an apple.
In the former way orange trees are sent fi-om Genoa to any part of Europe and North
America in perfect preservation ; and cuttings of plants sent any distance which can be
accomplisbcd in eight months, or even longer with some kinds. Scions of the apple,
pear, &c., if enveloped in clay, and wrapped up in moss or straw, and then placed in a
portable ice-house, so as to prevent a greater heat than 32° from penetrating to them,
would, there can be little doubt, keep a year, and might thus be sent from England to
Australia or China. Knight found that the buds of fruit-trees might be preserved in
a vegetating state, and sent to a considerable distance, by reducing the leaf-stalks to a
short length, and enclosing the shoot in a double fold of cabbage-leaf, bound close
together at each end, and then enclosing the package in a letter. “ It was found advantageous
to place the under surface of the cabbage-leaf inwards, by which the enclosed
branch was supplied with humidity, that being the perspiring surface of the leaf,
the other surface being neai-ly or wholly impervious to moistui-c.” (Hort. Trans.,
vol. iv. p. 403.)
f.