24 CIRCULAK NO. 114, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



The results also indicate that the practice of picking the trees clean 

 at one picking, especially early in the season, is not conducive to the 

 best keeping quality and uniformity. Where only one picking is 

 made, and that early, much of the fruit is picked while it is still 

 immature, and this fruit will show a great deal of wilting, shrivel- 

 ing, brown stain or scald, and physiological decay, thereby detract- 

 ing from the appearance of the pack and lessening the returns from 

 the fruit which was of proper maturity when picked. The pickings 

 can be extended over a longer time than is generally believed to be 

 the. case, and this is especially true where two, or possibly three, 

 pickings are made during the season. 



The results further indicate that when picked at the proper time 

 and when carefully handled and promptly precooled, Bartlett pears 

 stored for four weeks at the shipping point and afterwards loaded 

 into pre-iced refrigerator cars and shipped to eastern markets will 

 arrive in sound, marketable condition and remain sound for a suffi- 

 cient time to allow reshipment and consequent wide distribution to 

 ultimate consumers. The season can be extended from six to seven 

 weeks by leaving the fruit on the trees two weeks longer than is at 

 present the practice and by storing for four or five weeks at a tem- 

 perature of 3*2° or 34° F. after the fruit has been precooled. 

 [Cir. 114] 



