The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser

PRESERVATION OF APPLES.

The following valuable observations, contained in a letter from Noah Webster, Esq. have been published in the Massachusetts' Agricultural Repository.

It is the practice of some persons to pick apples in October and first spread them on the floor of an upper room.--This practice is said to render apples more durable, by drying them. But I can affirm this to be a mistake. --Apples, after remaining so long on the trees as safety from frost will admit, should be taken directly from the trees to close casks, and kept as dry and as cool as possible. If suffered to lie on the floor for weeks, they wither and lose their flavor, without acquiring any additional durability. The best mode of preserving apples for Spring use, I have found to be, the putting them in dry sand as soon as picked. For this purpose I dry sand in the heat of the summer, and late in October put down the apples in layers, with a covering of sand upon each layer. The singular advantages of this mode of treatment are these: 1. The sand keeps the apples from the air, which is essential to their preservation: 2. The sand checks the evaporation of the apples, thus preserving their full flavor at the same time, any moisture yielded by the apples (and some there will be) is absorbed by the sand so that the apples are kept dry, and all mustiness is prevented. My pippins in May and June are as fresh as when first picked, even the ends of the stem look as if just separated from the twig.