132 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Prof. Powell : I have no doubt but that is true with regard 

 to the Bartlett pear, but in our experiments we have not as 

 yet touched them. I would state this, however, that I think 

 one of the things which will help to ripen up these hard pears 

 is to push the fruit room where the temperature is, or should 

 be, about 31, up to 40. I think the Bartletts can be kept at 

 31. In fact, the more I see of pear storage the more I begin 

 to feel that we have been holding our pears at altogether too 

 high temperatures. I have seen Bartletts held at 31 right up 

 to date. In fact, I know that they will keep in a temperature 

 of 31 or 32. 



A Member : Don't they freeze ? 



Prof. Powell : No. The freezing point of fruit under such 

 circumstances is not the same as the freezing point outside. 

 Just what is the freezing point we do not know. The natural 

 freezing point, which is unsettled, runs from 28 to 31. No 

 work has been done in America to determine accurately that 

 exact point. 



Mr. Comstock : What is the advantage of closed or venti- 

 lated packages when the fruit is sent to cold storage? 



Mr. Berry : I would like to say in regard to that, that I 

 have been in a position to recommend to different growers as 

 regards the style of package that they should use when sending 

 fruit to cold storage, and I have taken that matter up with one 

 party in particular, and recommended that he ventilate his 

 apple barrels before packing the fruit into the barrels, and to 

 allow them to go to cold storage in that condition. I recom- 

 mended that he bore five or six augur holes at different places 

 in the barrel, say of half an inch bore. I have kept watch of 

 those apples and find they are decidedly better than those that 

 came in without that small system of ventilation in any of 

 the barrels. The sweat that the growers think is produced 

 after being picked, is allowed to form while laying in the 

 orchard, and I think that is avoided in great measure, or to 

 some extent, by ventilation in that way. 



Mr. Sharp: At our Massachusetts meeting last year one of 

 the professors from our experiment station had several sam- 

 ples of apples packed in different ways, boxes, barrels, half- 

 barrels, etc., and they were examined at our meeting in March, 

 and it was decided that perfectly tight packages, as near air- 



