PICKINTG AND MARKETING PEARS. 



THINK I may safely say that the 

 ripening of pears by growers has 

 received but little attention until 

 very recently, the purchaser in- 

 variably attending to that whenever they 

 were sold in market for eating. In the 

 past, I have annually supplied market 

 men with hundreds of boxes at a ship- 

 ment, that they might ripen for that pur- 

 pose. They would store them away in 

 some convenient place, and frequently 

 cull them over, taking out the ripe ones, 

 until they were all disposed of. 



Very often such purchases did not 

 prove very profitable, though sold at 

 a much higher price, from the simple 

 fact that the place in which they were 

 stored was not at all suitable for the pur- 

 pose; the principal loss, which was by 

 decay, being very great. 



Many years back, finding my crops 

 greatly increasing and the price declin- 

 ing, particularly for green stock, caused 

 me to give the subject of ripening the 

 fruit before shipping my most serious 

 attention. That season, I selected fruit 

 from all the varieties that I was growing 

 (some fifteen or more), and put them in 

 various place in my house (which is of 

 brick) from celler to garret and also on 

 a shady porch, and carefully noted the 

 results. 



The following spring, I erected houses 

 especially for the purpose. (Described 

 house herei Size, platform, how used, 

 etc.) 



The fruit to be ripened is carefully 

 picked and brought to the ripening 

 room, where it is at once assorted ; all 

 inferior, ripe, specked and bruised are 

 carefully culled out, the others being 



placed in baskets (7-8 peach baskets) 

 and piled as high as a man can reach 

 and kept there until they begin to ripen 

 which will be from 10 to 15 days, if the 

 fruit is properly picked from the trees. 

 By that time, any variety that you are at 

 work on should be gathered and put in 

 the house. It is during this period of 

 picking that the market is generally 

 overstocked and prices low. As soon 

 as they begin to ripen, commence on the 

 first you put in, to cull them over, tak- 

 ing out the ripe ones to ship, putting 

 back the green ones for a future culling, 

 until finally they are all ripe and dis- 

 posed of. 



You can work, say, on the Howell 

 and Duchess for at least three weeks 

 after you finish picking, before they are 

 all ripe enough to ship. Before you 

 have gotten through with these varieties, 

 the Kiefer is ready to begin on, and 

 when you have finished these, the Law- 

 rence will follow, and it generally takes 

 until about the first or fifth of December 

 to close out our pear crop. 



As to varieties to ripen in house, I 

 will say, that all varieties are not adapted 

 to this system ; in fact many varieties 

 cannot be handled in this way, as they 

 will ripen much better on the tree, and 

 can be held, if desirable, much longer 

 in that way. This is particularly true 

 of the Bartlett ; when housed, the Bart- 

 letts all ripen nearly at the same time, 

 but fortunately, it is a variety, and one 

 of the leading and most largely grown, 

 that sells well to canners and shippers 

 when green, and they prefer them in 

 that way. — Report Md. H. Soc. 



259 



