We may learn to judge of the condition of ripeness of our larger succulent fruits, such as apples and pears, by a little experience. When ready to be picked, they will have attained their maximum size, their color will have changed somewhat from its greenness, and they will assume a sort of translucency that indicates the approach of maturity; but the best practical test for the fruit-gatherer, is the ready separation of the stem from its attachment. In those fruits, which are suspended by a stem of considerable length, and in which this organ belongs to the fruit itself, and is intimately connected with its tissues, we shall find that it will part easily from the branch at that period of ripeness when it is best to separate it. Such fruits are often much improved by a continuation of the process of ripening after they are gathered, but this more properly belongs to another division of the subject. There is another class of fruits which are found to attain their greatest excellence and most perfect ripening upon the tree itself, and these can never be enjoyed elsewhere in so great perfection as in close proximity to the place of their production; because, so soon as they are separated from their connection with the plant, a process of decomposition commences, they begin to decay, and many of them soon become really unwholesome. Most of those that are called stone-fruits are of this character, such as peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries--all of which have a very transitory period of excellence. The same is still more remarkably the case with most of the berries, hence all of these classes of fruits are better adapted to a near than to a distant market.