FRENCH METHOD OF PACKING AND SHIPPING PEARS. 



463 



section from which the fruit comes. Fig. 

 2678 shows a cartload of fruit ready to be 

 taken to the station for shipment. 



Fruit intended for sale within the week is 

 picked and packed while still green and 

 hard. It is not shipped in cold storage, and 

 has time for ripening during the voyage and 

 before it is finally purchased by the con- 

 sumer. 



The crates cost approximately 30 cents 

 each and are returnable. This package is 

 rather expensive, in view of the fact that a 

 crate is said to stand only five or six jour- 

 neys to England, and the cost of returning 

 it is considerable. 



After seeing the product and the method 

 of handling it, we were anxious to see the 

 producers, and a short walk brought us to 

 the middle of a large pear orchard, where we 

 found a peasant and his wife engaged in cul- 

 tivating the trees. The illustration, Fig. 

 2679, shows not only the workers and their 

 costumes, but also the only implement which 

 many growers use for cultivating the soil — 

 the short-handled hoe. Of course it is ue 

 that the larger farmers use horses in their 

 operations, but thousands of acres in France 

 are tilled by hand. Many pear trees are 

 grown in the open as in Canada, but wall 

 culture is very popular in some sections. 

 The pears are trained up against a wall, the 

 top of which is thatched so as to shed he 

 rain. The peasants know exactly how many 

 pears each tree is carrying for them, and 

 watch with careful eye the development of 

 each individual fruit, noting with alarm the 

 progress of scab or rot. Spraying is known, 

 but not thoroughly understood, and seldom 

 efficiently practised by the smaller owners. 

 Thinning is done wherever necessary, the 

 object aimed at being to produce the largest 

 and finest fruit. Champagne Freres, and 

 other firms engaged in similar business, pay 

 a very much higher price for large pears 

 than thev will for medium-sized fruit ; small 



Fig. 2680. House used for Pear Packing. 



and defective pears they will not buy at any 

 price, and growers have learned that it pays 

 them well to produce only the article which 

 brings a high price. 



At the right of Fig. 2678 will be seen a 

 typical peasant proprietor and client of the 

 firm. Fig. 2680 shows on the left a peas- 

 ant proprietor in another section of France, 

 and an unoccupied house, on the floor of 

 which he had his pears spread out in layers, 

 the large ones by themselves. The central 

 figure is the representative of Champagne 

 Freres in that district, who had just com- 

 pleted an inspection of the fruit and a bar- 

 gain for its purchase. 



The chief lessons we can learn from a 

 study of methods in the exporting of pears 

 from France are, first, that it pays growers 

 and shippers alike to take pains in the grow- 

 ing of the fruit, so as to produce shipments 

 which contain no undersized or defective 

 fruit ; that it pays all concerned to have the 

 fruit rigidly graded, and to place upon the 

 market substantial packages of fruit, uni- 

 form in size, appearance and quality ; and 

 further, that the careful packing of choice 

 fruit, even though it seem expensive, is real- 

 ly the most economical way in which to han- 

 dle it. 



