PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 51 



uncertain. No man should undertake to make hi? 

 fortune on quinces unless he is up to the tricks. 



Pears 



Pears are very often picked before they are thor- 

 oughly ripe. In fact, this is the customary way. It 

 is a question whether this custom is well founded or 

 not, but nevertheless such has long been the prac- 

 tice. Some late dessert varieties may doubtless best 

 be handled by picking them fairly early and putting 

 them in a dark place to ripen. The somewhat com- 

 mon practice of picking Kieffer underripe and send- 

 ing to storage with the expectation of ripening there 

 is not so defensible. The experiments carried on by 

 Powell show that Kieffer may be picked during a 

 considerable season, at least three weeks in Dela- 

 ware and Maryland. When pears are sent to storage, 

 in any case they should be handled very carefully 

 and should be stored as soon as possible after 

 picking. 



The pear is essentially, and in most cases prac- 

 tically, a fancy fruit, and is to be handled as such. 

 The practice which was common a few years ago of 

 sending Bartlett, Duchess, Anjou, Sheldon, Winter 

 Nelis, and similar varieties to market in apple bar- 

 rels is wrong. Fortunately during recent years it 

 has been largely discontinued. Pears have sometimes 

 been sent to market in baskets. The diamond splint 

 baskets have been used, also Climax baskets, and even 

 more commonly the New Jersey peach basket. Such 

 packages, however, are not logical ones for pears. 

 Although it has not been very extensively used, the 

 bushel box is probably the best pear package under 

 ordinary circumstances. The fruit should be care- 

 fully packed in these, usually each specimen being 

 wrapped in paper. For fancy fruit half bushel boxes 



