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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



September, 191 \ 



connecting and disconnecting the air 

 ducts, and filling the bunkers with ice 

 after cooling is finished. The California 

 plants use what is known as the "Inter- 

 mittent Vacuum System," which is 

 covered by Canadian patents. In this 

 system, there is an arrangement of 

 valves in the air ducts, the operation of 

 which is supposed to create a partial 

 vacuum in the car from time to time, but 

 the writer is of the opinion that a direct 

 current of cold air would be quite as 

 effective in cooling the fruit. 



Pre-cooling in cars has the advantage 

 that it saves handling, and the fruit is 

 not exposed to changes of temperature, 

 as it is in being transferred from ware- 

 house to cars. With plenty of refriger- 

 ating power, a low temperature can be 

 employed in car-cooling to extract the 

 heat rapidly from the fruit. It is quite 

 safe to employ temperatures below the 

 freezing point while the heat is still in 

 the fruit. A pre-cooled car will carry 

 very much farther without being re- 

 iced than one started with warm con- 

 tents. 



The only difficulty in the way of adopt- 

 ing the pre-cooling of cars in Canada is 

 the cost of equipping the necessary 

 plants. This will be prohibitive except 

 in districts where there will be a large 

 number of cars to be cooled. 



We must not forget that cold storage 

 or pre-cooling will not do everything, or 

 remove all the difficulties met with in 

 long distance shipment of tender fruit, 

 or in long keeping of the hardier varie- 

 ties. There has been infinitely greater 

 waste caused by fungus and insect pests 

 than by lack of cold storage, and there 

 is much improvement yet to be made 

 through the exercise of greater care in 

 preventing injuries, such as skin punc- 

 tures and bruises. 



Picking and Packing Pears 



W. E. Beman, Newcastle, Ont. 



BY way of making conversation, I 

 once said to a man with whom I 

 was talking: "How would you 

 go about picking and shipping a lot of 

 pears? 



He looked at me in surprise for a 

 minute, then replied: "Why, I'd pick 

 them or shake them down; then I'd put 

 them into barrels, nail the head down 

 good and tight, and send them to the 

 nearest market. How else would any- 

 one do it " I laughed and changed the 

 subject, for I did not have time to go 

 into, details just then ; but I thought that 

 he surely must be an Irishman, and only 

 accustomed to growing "apples of the 

 earth," as the French call potatoes. 



There is no fruit which requires more 

 careful handling in every particular 

 than the pear. In the first place I al- 

 ways instruct my men how to pick, for 

 I have often seen the fruit pulled from 

 the branch and tossed into the basket. 

 This is almost as bad as the Irishman's 

 way of shaking the tree. 



Pears should always be turned up, in- 

 stead of pulled off, and then laid care- 

 fully into the basket ; for a pear is much 

 easier bruised than an apple, and being 

 very juicy will start to rot much more 



quickly. 



WHEN TO PICK. 

 Perhaps one of the most difficult 

 things in the handling of pears is to 

 know just when to pick them. It is 

 said that you can tell by turning a pear 

 up, and if it parts readily from the 

 branch it is ready to pick ; but I have 

 found that this is not always [correct, 

 for some varieties, if left until then, 

 would be too ripe for shipping. In 

 crder to reach the market in good con- 



Cooling a Car, Showing the Method of Attaching the Cold Air Blast to the Car 



dition, a pear must be picked green. 

 This is especially true when shipping in 

 barrels, f!or pears ripen more quickly 

 in barrels than in small ventilated 

 packages. 



It would be very difficult to give an 

 infallible rule with regard to the cor- 

 rect time of picking pears. Some var- 

 ieties need to be picked much greener 

 than others. Experience is the best 

 teacher on that point. In our orchards we 

 judge a good many of the earlier varie- 

 ties by their changing from a dark green 

 to a lighter shade, but I know this is 

 a very indefinite rule, and one would 

 hardly become an expert in one season. 

 Winter pears may be left on the tree 

 as long as there is no danger of frost. 



BARREL PACKING 



While picking is in progress, when 

 the baskets are full, they are emptied 

 into bushel boxes made of slats. It is 

 a good idea to plane off the sharp edges 

 of these slats before making the boxes 

 up in order to prevent the pears from 

 being cut by them. 



As soon as a load is ready, I draw it 

 into the packing house and unload it, 

 but I let the pears remain in the boxes 

 until they cool off. If pears are packed 

 as soon as they are picked, they will 

 sweat. This will cause them to ripen 

 far more quickly than they otherwise 

 would. 



Later, they are emptied on the table 

 -ind sorted into three grades. The differ- 

 ent grades are then put into barrels, 

 boxes or baskets, according to the mar- 

 ket to which they are to be shipped. A 

 market where the fruit is all consumed 

 at home usually calls for the smaller 

 packages, while a market which re- 

 ships to smaller points generally prefers 

 the three-bushel barrel. 



BARREL PICKING 



In facing a barrel, pick out pears of 

 uniform size, avoiding extra large ones, 

 as these would spoil the appearance of 

 the barrel when opened. Starting at 

 the outside edge, lay the pear on its 

 side, with the stem pointing to the 

 centre, and continue in this way until 

 the barrel is faced. Empty the pears 

 in carefully out of the baskets, and 

 shake the barrel gently every few min- 

 utes. When heading up the barrel, do 

 not press as tightly as for apples. The 

 pear is a firmer fruit than the apple, and 

 will not give quite as much. 



With regard to the grading of pears, 

 it is very important that each grade 

 should be as much as possible of uni- 

 form size, for if a few large ones are 

 put into a barrel marked No. 1, it gives 

 the buyer the impression that the pears 

 are not a good sample, the large ones 

 making the others look smaller by com- 

 parison. 



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