124 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



growers who are very apt to l^lame the commission men if they 

 do not get a good price ; they are apt to blame the storage men, 

 and say the trouble lies in the house. 



Some growers seem to feel, as I have observed, that there 

 is something magical in cold storage ; that cold storage is a 

 plan by which first-class fruit can be made out of second-class 

 fruit. They put in a lot of stuff that ought to go to the pig- 

 pen and then kick up a row^ if it does not come out in first-class 

 condition. They wonder why the fruit does not come out good. 

 That has been the feeling, and that, very generally, the con- 

 dition of affairs, and so there came to the Government requests, 

 not only from the storage men, but from the fruit growers 

 also, to make a comprehensive study of the various questions 

 that affect the keeping qualities, and also the conditions that 

 affect the growth of fruit which is to be placed in cold storage. 



Now I wish to briefly outline the work which has been taken 

 up by the Department. Congress appropriated a small amount 

 of money last year for an investigation of the keeping qualities 

 of fruit in cold storage. That was a start for the work. The 

 Department of Agriculture outlined some experiments along 

 this line. First, w' e w'anted to know something about the proper 

 time, or maturity of fruit for cold storage, and we wanted to 

 determine something about the temperatures in which certain 

 fruits kept best. Working along that line, we took up the 

 question of the keeping qualities of pears. We experimented 

 with the Kieffer pear — the great pear of the southwest — with 

 the view to determine its degree of durability in cold storage, 

 and I want to say in regard to that pear, that the storage men 

 had absolutely refused to receive it because it almost invariably 

 went down. Cold storage had not seemed to keep the fruit in 

 good condition. So this year we made three different pickings 

 of these pears. The first was made about the first of October, 

 another the loth, and another the 20th ; and of each one of these 

 pickings we made two storages : one on the next day after 

 picking, another some ten days after the fruit had ripened out, 

 and some while still hard and firm when it went in. Under 

 each of these it went in at 32 and 36. Now I will just sum 

 up. We found this : that the Kieffer pear must he picked when 

 it is firm and hard and green, and be put into storage as soon 

 as you get it off the trees. Every day that is lost after the pear 

 comes off' lessens its durability after it is put in storage. 



