MARKIOTING I'EARS. 2G3 



peaches, and perhaps llie rubbish and debris of last year's opera- 

 tions remain in a third, feculent exhalations are absorbed by the 

 skin of the fruit in sulhcient quantities to change its flavor. 



Mr. Wm. Heed, of Elizabetii, whose nursery is almost the per- 

 fection of taste and skill, afler having expressed strong disapproval 

 of the quality of the Vicar, at the meeting of the Pomological 

 Society, writes, with characteristic frankness, to the President : " I 

 must withdraw my observations against the Vicar, for since our 

 meeting I have ripened mine in a new fruit-room, and found the 

 fruit perfectly melting — more than good — nearly first-rate." 



MARKETING PEARS. 



A number of pear cultivators have experienced great disappoint- 

 ment in the marketing of fine fruit, from the indifferent prices 

 oflcred. This has always been entirely due to improper gathering 

 and ripening. Marketnien will not buy fruit already ripe, to be 

 kept for several days for sale to the retailers, who, in turn, must 

 keep it as long for sale to the consumers ; nor will the retailers buy 

 pears entirely green, as few of them are sufficiently acquainted 

 with the varieties, to be certain how they will ripen up in color 

 and in flavor. 



Some of the fruits should ripen in the hands of the large dealers, 

 that they may be exhibited as samples, being put in their hands 

 when green and hard. The great mistake usually made by pear- 

 growers is,- to send the fruit to market after ripening, in such a 

 condition that it will not bear transportation, and often reaches 

 its destination badly jammed, if not a mass of rottenness. 



The second error is, for the grower to endeavor to market his 

 own fruit. Few retailers will, in such cases, ofler more than one- 

 third or one-half of the price they expect to pay when their trade 

 demands an immediate supply. 



Bruising in the gathering is not unfrequently the cause of a low 

 price. Bruised fruit will not bring one quarter of the current 

 rate. The rules which should guide a fruit-grower in marketing 

 his fruit are these : 



1. Summer and autumn varieties must be picked, and sent to 

 market when green and hard, must be packed tight in barrels or 



