12l! THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



My further remarks may appear simple and arc purposely aimed to 

 contain the A B of the drying process, to aid not those who know, 

 but the growers who do not know how to turn out the best dried pear 

 called for by the consumer. First of all, one must raise good, close- 

 grained pears ; good shippers as well as driers ; free from blemishes 

 such as scab, thrips marks, frost ring, etc., and of decent size ; the larger 

 the better for drying purposes. They should be solid and free from 

 codling moth ravage. 



Many pears go into the dry yard affected with the above disfigure- 

 ments and can be dried but suffer proportionately in their looks and 

 in the ultimate price obtained. To obtain the best and suitable pears 

 one must do good and careful pruning, spraying, cultivating, picking 

 and handling of the fruit. The proper climate in the drying season 

 is a great and important factor. It should be neither too hot nor too 

 cold and the less fog the better. Close attention to detail will result in 

 the best samples of dried pears that can be attained. Many growers 

 spread straw on the ground under the trees, which is especially good 

 on adobe ground, to avoid the bruising of windfalls and pears knocked 

 down in picking. Canvas bags, similar to those used by the orange 

 men, are much better for use in picking than the buckets or baskets, as 

 they allow full freedom for both hands. At least two and more often 

 three pickings are made from the trees. The pear is removed by lifting 

 it up, which breaks it off at the first joint, thus retaining the stem. The 

 pears are emptied from the bottom of the picking bags into large boxes 

 and stacked on a shady side of the tree until loaded on the orchard 

 trucks and hauled for weighing to the dry yard. These trucks or 

 wagons should have springs to prevent unnecessary bruising. After 

 weighing, the pears are usually culled and graded into different grades, 

 and wormy fruit, should there be any, is removed, as such fruit ripens 

 more quickly than the sound. Others cull for size after the pears are 

 partly dry on the trays. The first method certainly saves waste and 

 labor in handling and minimizes loss in box or bin. If well equipped 

 with boxes the pears should be kept in same, stacking them in the order 

 picked, thus preventing confusion and insuring uniformity of ripening. 

 Where boxes are scarce, many store the fruit in straw-bottomed shallow 

 bins, care being taken not to dump pears picked the following days on 

 those picked previously and placing wormy or sunburned pears separate 

 from the sound, thus guarding against rot. If in bins, it is well to 

 cover the fruit with canvas sheets, etc., thereby keeping the temperature 

 more uniform night and day and hastening the ripening process. In a 

 week or ten days the fruit is ready to be cut. It is run out to the cutters 

 in 50-pound lug boxes on small trolleys. Much saving of labor is made 

 by judicious use of these cheap trucks and car tracks which are useful 

 both in the cutting shed and also for running the trays into the sulphur 

 houses or under the balloon hoods and thence out into the drying 

 ground. Ten cents per 50-pound box is the price we pay for cutting 

 pears. We employ the highest grade help, viz, farmers' wives and 

 daughters, matrons and maids from nearby towns, who make substantial 

 sums during the pear season and cheerfully combine pleasure with their 

 profitable work. No neater and comelier maids could be found the wide 

 world over than those whose nimble fingers cut the Lake County pears. 

 Their wages range from $2 to $3.50 a day. The boxes are handed to 



