INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XV11 



years. If peaches had been plenty last year, there is 

 no doubt that Bartletts would have sold for a song in 

 the height of the season. There is no question but 

 that the supply is more than the demand required ; 

 unless the season of marketing can be lengthened by 

 artificial means. The Bartlett is the most popular 

 pear grown, but as every practical man knows, it is 

 tender, has a short season, and needs very careful 

 handling, much more so than any other fall variety 

 grown for market. The best and most economical 

 method of keeping pears is still a mooted question, 

 even among those who have been experimenting for 

 the last half dozen years with retarding houses. There 

 are, to my own knowledge, a dozen houses of different 

 plans in operation for this purpose, and yet no one 

 seems entirely satisfied with the keeping qualities of 

 houses of either plan. 



Whatever style of retarding house may be con- 

 structed to keep Bartletts and other varieties, the 

 temperature must be maintained below 37 degrees, in 

 order to keep them from ripening. This is one of the 

 important facts now regarded as settled. Another is, 

 that the fruit must be sound when put in the house, and 

 another, that ice is the best medium for keeping the 

 temperature down to the conditions named. My own 

 retarding house is a wooden structure, with double 

 walls and roof, with a space of eighteen inches from 

 the outer to the inner walls. This space is packed 

 very firmly with fine sawdust. The ice is stored 

 above the fruit room, which has a capacity of seven 

 hundred bushels. The fruit, which is always hand- 

 picked, is put in bushel boxes. These full boxes are 

 stored in this cool room, until such time as it is de- 



