124 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



them by yardmen and the trays packed away by the same. To secure 

 the best results and retain the weight, the pear should not be cu1 over 

 ripe. The operation consists of halving the fruit with a knife, pulling 

 out the stem and cutting out the calyx with a corer. The core itself is 

 not removed unless the fruit happens to 1"' wormy. Clean milk pans 

 are used to cut the fruit into, and thence it is -spread on the trays. 

 Trays are generally made from pine or spruce and measure 8 feet by 3 

 feet, or 8 feet by 30 inches. They cosl about 50 cents each when made 

 of redwood. Such trays discolor the fruit and are not as suitable as 

 those made of pine or spruce. Pickers and yardmen are paid 2.~> 

 cents an hour and put in ten hours a day in the fruit season. All our 

 help being high-grade whites, we get. the maximum amount done in the 

 minimum time. The women and children place the halved pears flat 

 side up and close together, mi the trays, which the men stack in the 

 sulphur houses or under the balloon hoods. As each tray is .stacked 

 the fruit is well sprinkled with water from hose or water can. For 

 economy of sulphuring and to retain uniform heat during the process, 

 regardless of external changes of weather, the cement sulphur houses 

 are the best, turning out a fancier pear with less consumption of sulphur 

 than in the balloon hood. These hoods are cheap and do well for a 

 small dry yard. They consist of a light wooden framework, covered 

 with two or three-ply rooting paper. By placing these hoods iu con- 

 tinuous rows under scaffolding to which is hung a block and tackle on 

 running gear similar to that used for a barn derrick fork, one tackle 

 can do the work of many, raising the hoods in the air while stacking or 

 taking out the trays. When the hoods are down or the sulphur house 

 closed, the .sulphur pots are lighted, a small piece of sacking making 

 a good wick. For a balloon hood holding twenty or more trays, a terra 

 eotta makes an ideal receptacle for the sulphur pot, as it can be sunk 

 in the ground outside the hood, the arm of terra eotta laying in a small 

 trench under the trays and the upright serving as the pot container. 

 Lighted and lowered into this by means of a wire hook, a one gallon 

 size Bolton smudge pot makes a good can for the sulphur, a tin lid is 

 then placed almost completely over the terra eotta at the ground surface, 

 the small space being at first left open for draught. Four or five pounds 

 of sulphur is sufficient for a charge for a 22-tray balloon hood and 

 O. K. until 7 a.m. next day, when the charge is renewed again at (i p.m. 

 About. 5 p.m. the second day. or after 48 hours sulphuring, the hoods 

 are raised or the sulphur houses opened, and when the fumes have 

 blown away the trays are unstacked and spread on trestles or the drying 

 ground. Some place them Hal on two trestles, others tilt them on one 

 trestle, so that next day the sun will strike the fruit full and even. 

 One whole day is generally the limit of sun exposure. Mr. Tom Ren- 

 frow. of the California Fruit Canners Association, advocates one whole 

 day and two nights' exposure. Others expose the fruit to the sun only 

 one-half day. Anyhow the fact remains that long exposure discolors the 

 fruit, and by slight exposure and then stacking until cured, we get our 

 fancy pears. The curing is mostly done in the open, though some have 

 long, cheap sheds as an insurance against rain late in the season. In 

 curing, trays are stacked about twenty high, one inch strips being placed 

 between the trays to insure aeration. Generally they are stacked in a 

 slant, i. e., one end is a foot lighter than the other and the top tray of 



