174 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



bought the paper, when about to ship the first car load of 

 that phenomenal nine thousand bushel crop, and we wrapped 

 all but about fifty boxes, which were left unwrapped to test 

 the quality, as the fruit was not fully mature. On arrival, 

 and after ripening, he tasted the wrapped and those not, and 

 at once telegraphed me to wrap no more. He explained by 

 letter that the wrapped fruit had not only shrivelled slightly, 

 the dry paper having absorbed the moisture from the imma- 

 ture fruit, but was also quite insipid, while that in the fifty 

 boxes not wrapped was of excellent quality. The Kieffer is 

 also positively damaged in quality by wrapping if not per- 

 fectly mature. There seems to be something in a confined 

 atmosphere that greatly improves the quality of both apples 

 and pears. We can all remember of making, when boys, 

 apple "dens," or holes in the ground, where, buried in soil 

 or straw, apples would keep for months, often, and come out 

 with a most delicious flavor. In fact, I never in my life ate 

 apples that tasted like those from an apple "den." The 

 same holds good of Kieffer pears. For years this fruit was 

 abused for its poor quality and hard and tasteless flesh, by 

 those who knew not how to ripen it, and still is abused by 

 some ignorant people, though it can be ripened up to almost 

 equal Anjou or the best of the older winter varieties. When 

 the Kieffer was awarded a very high premium at the Cen- 

 tennial of 1876, I read an account of it arid its delicious 

 flavor as described by Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, who 

 was a neighbor of old Peter Kieffer, and had often eaten the 

 fruit as ripened by the old originator. Mr. Meehan went so 

 far as to say that he felt, after eating one of old man Kieffer's 

 pears, like never eating any other pear again, for fear of 

 losing the recollection of its delicious flavor. It was that 

 extravagent statement that induced me to plant the Kieffer in 

 1883, and when it came into bearing, like everybody else who 

 tries to ripen it exposed to the air or on shelves, it proved to 

 be a great disappointment. By a mere accident I hit upon 

 what I am sure must have been old Peter's method, yet, 

 strange to say, he died without telling any body of it, though 

 he lived long enough to hear its quality condemned. When 



