-14- 



Quite interestingly, there was strong indication that favorable disposition 

 to pears was often acquired early in life. Many of the consumers who were 

 enthusiastic ai^out pears were strongly encouraged to eat them as children. 

 Children were particularly strong motivators of fruit purchase, so it seemed 

 reasonable to conclude that pear buying would be stimulated by giving mothers a 

 good reason for buying them for their children. 



The Ideal Pear . The housewives interviewed found it much easier to 

 describe what they did not like about pears than what they did like. The most 

 prominent dislikes were dryness and hardness, commonly thought to go together. 

 Other prominent dislikes were grittiness, tendency for bruises to appear during 

 ripening, and browning in the core. 



The majority of those interviewed were seeking a pear that had an attrac- 

 tive smooth skin, was juicy, and had a smooth internal texture. (It should be 

 noted, though, that some consumers prefer hard pears, and that in the U.S. there 

 is reputed to be a growing preference for hard green peas among young 

 consumers.) There was a preference for clear skinned, green to yellow pears with 

 a true "pear shape", and opposition to ones with a brown ground color, which was 

 associated with tough pears having a leathery skin. 



Conci usions . Although this study was conducted in England and is about 10 

 years old, it is likely that the perceptions revealed by the interviews are 

 widespread and still relevant. The study strongly suggests that pear sales and 

 consumption could be improved considerably by better promotion and information, 

 and especially by providing the consumer with more consistent quality, and with 

 information about how to handle pears once they have been purchased. 



POMOLOGICAL PARAGRAPH 



Wil 1 iam J. Lord 



Department of Plant and Soil Sciences 



Harvest Indices . Changes in firmness of flesh, surface color, seed color, size 

 of fruit, ground color, ease of separation from spur, days from full bloom, the 

 Starch-Iodine test, calendar date and ethylene production are indices of 

 maturity that a grower may follow to determine when to harvest his apples. 

 Ethylene level in the fruits clearly is the best measure to assess maturity, 

 ripening and storability but our experiences with a portable instrument to 

 measure this gas has been less than satisfactory. Among the indices that are of 

 little or no value are seed color, fruit size and fruit color. The seeds may 

 change color from light green to brown weeks before other indices indicate 

 picking maturity. Surface color is of no value with red strains because their 

 entire surface may redden when still wery immature. 



Recently, there has been renewed interest in using the Starch-Iodine Test for 

 evaluating apple maturity. As apples mature and ripen, the starch in the imma- 

 ture fruit changes to sugar. This decreasing level of starch can be measured by 

 treating the fruit with an iodine solution. Contact your Regional Fruit 

 Specialist for further information concerning the Starch-Iodine tests. 



Picking at the proper stage of maturity is particularly important if the 

 fruit is to be stored. But this is confounded by color required for sale, type 

 of storage and length of storage. Therefore, there is no such thing as optimum 

 maturity stage for all fruit. Fruit for long-term storage should be harvested 

 and stored before they gain the capacity to produce large quantities of ethy- 

 lene. However, those intended for shorter storage can and should be allowed to 

 remain on the trees longer to gain extra quality and sales appeal. 



