396 PEAR GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



PICKING. 



Pears for drying purposes are picked before ripe, and stored in bins 

 or boxes for a week or ten days before cutting. They are picked by 

 hand, although windfalls are utilized except portions that are too badly 

 bruised. To prevent bruising straw is sometimes spread under the 

 trees, and the windfalls, as well as pears knocked off in picking are 

 not liable to be injured. The fruit when picked is placed in the 

 ordinary picking boxes, and hauled to the drying yards, where it is 

 culled and graded for size in some cases and in others is left until cut 

 and drying upon the trays before culling is done. See Fig. 181. 



The following facts regarding the details of the drying process in 

 Lake County are gleaned mostly from an article* by Fred G. Stokes, 



FIG. 182. Close view of stacked trays containing pears in the process of drying. 



County Horticultural Commissioner of Lake County, who is a pear 

 grower and who possesses a minute knowledge of the business gained 

 throughout years of "investigation and practical experience. 



CUTTING. 



For convenience the larger drying yards are equipped with small 

 cars run on tracks located conveniently for handling the fruit. The 

 pears are carried in lug boxes by these cars to the cutting shed where 

 the cutters, usually women of the neighborhood, are employed, and 

 paid at the rate of ten cents for a 50 pound box. The wages paid at 

 this rate range from $2 to $3.50 per day. 



The pear should be cut over-ripe in order that it may dry with the 

 least possible shrinkage. The operation consists of cutting the fruit 

 in half with a knife and removing the stem and calyx with a corer. 



* "The Dried Pear Industry," by Fred G. Stokes, County Horticultural Commis- 

 sioner, Kelseyville, California Monthly Bulletin, Vol. VI. No. 5, Proceedings Forty- 

 ninth State Fruit Growers' Convention, Napa, California, Nov. 15, 16, 17, 1916. 



178 



