Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/372

34o] FRU In a communication from a Swedish agriculturist to a respecta- ble periodical work, published on the Continent, the following expe- dient is stated to have been success- fully employed, to protect fruit- trees from the vernal frosts. As soon as the weather begins to grow cold in autumn, large quantities of water are to be poured on the trunks of such trees, so that they may receive an early impression of the cold. In the spring, snow is to be accumulated round their stems ; which retards vegetation, and prevents them from blossom- ing too early. In consequence of this irrigation, the buds shoot forth at a period, when no apprehension need be entertained from the at- tacks of the frost that frequently happens during the nights of spring. — Such practice of watering the borders of trees, is said to in- crease the heat in them, by acce- lerating the motion of their juices, if the soil cf such border has been properly opened and prepared. It is farther recommended, to add one ounce of common salt to every ■gallon of water, where those bor- ders are old, and have been impo- verished by producing many •suc- ^essive crops ; or if they have been manured with dung not sufficient- ly putrified. 'J here is a method of making fruit grow, during winter : and though we are no advocates for premature productions, we have abstracted the following process for the satisfaction of the curious, from the cyih vol. of the Anmu 1 1 Register for 1703: Let the trees be taken up by the roots in the spring, at t : in. they are about to bud ; t r< fully preserving some of th< ir own soil among the roots. These arc to be placed upright in a cellar FRU till Michaelmas, when they are to be put into vessels with the addi- tion of fresh earth, and deposited in a stove or hot-house, being re- gularly moistened every morning with rain-water, in which sal-am- moniac has been dissolved, in the proportion of one ounce to a quart, Thus, in the month of February, tire fruit will appear. — The same method is applicable to rose-trees, and flowers : which last, when sown in pots at or before Michael- mas, and watered in a similar man- ner, will blow towards the end of December. In order to ascertain when fruits, for instance, apples and pears, are- sufficiently ripe to be gathered, it is requisite to attend to the colour of the skin inclosing the seeds. During their infant state, there is no cavity round the kernels, but they are in contact with the seed- vessel. In a subsequent period, when the fruit has exhausted the nutritious matter, the cells contain- ing the seeds become hollow, and the latter assume a dark colour. This, Dr. Darwin observes, is the proper criterion by which to judge when such fruits should be gather- ed ; as it indicates that they will not continue to increase in size, but waste and become hollow, by absorbing the mucilaginous parti- cles from the centre. One of the most easy methods of preserving fruit, is that of de- positing it in ice-houses, where it may remain in a frozen state for a considerable time. And, if the fruit be afterwards gradually thaw- ed, by covering it with melted ice, or immersing it in cold spring- water, it will lose but little of its flavour, provided it be consumed on the same day. Fruit may also be preserved; by keeping it in pits dud