CHAPTER XX. 



Wrapping Fruit. 



WHILE nobody claims that either Le Conte, Kieffer, 

 or Garber, the only successful pears here, are as 

 good in quality as some of the old varieties, still, if 

 properly ripened, they are excellent eating, and both Prof. 

 Bailey, of Cornell, and the editor of The Rural New- Yorker 

 (the latter the Kieffer's long-time enemy) pronounced speci- 

 mens of Kieffer I sent them a few years ago as almost equal 

 to any pear. There is no question that after a crop or two 

 of Le Conte have been taken off, and the potash of the soil 

 somewhat exhausted, that the fruit is liable to rot more 

 quickly at the core, and also to deteriorate in quality, as well 

 as hang on less tenaciously. I have noticed these points 

 particularly. But the most important observation from ex- 

 perience is, that if taken off just before or when full grown, 

 and packed in quite tight boxes or barrels, the quality of the 

 fruit is greatly improved. If, however, it is picked at that 

 stage before fully developed, and exposed to the air or 

 wrapped in paper, the fruit not only shrivels in a few days, 

 but that wrapped in paper will become quite tasteless. It is 

 certain that besides losing quality, as noted elsewhere, 

 from the trees not being allowed to form genuine surface 

 roots, the California fruits shipped east are also greatly 

 damaged in their eating qualities by being picked immature 

 and wrapped in paper. When perfectly ripe such effects do 

 not follow. But fruit at all green, or only partially ripe, as 

 most of their fruit has to be picked to stand shipment, 

 certainly loses flavor by the wrapping. I learned this very 

 important point at a cost of nearly one hundred dollars for 

 paper, that was bought at the urgent solicitation of my com- 

 mission merchant in Chicago, who insisted that he could get 

 twice as much for wrapped pears as for the plain. So I 



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