OCTOBER. 



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fruit-room, and we were obliged to secure them as we would 

 apples, in barrels in the cellar. Regretting the necessity of 

 doing this, and fearing we should lose much of our fruit, we 

 from week to week examined the barrels, but found no shriv- 

 elling or decay. On the contrary, the specimens were 

 greener, plumper, and fairer than ever ; and we were somewhat 

 surprised at this, after the very particular directions laid down 

 in books, that all pears should be placed on a shelf on the 

 bottom end, so as not to touch each other, and we began 

 to think our cellar must be unusually cool to preserve them 

 in such fine order. Winter was well advanced and yet the 

 pears were firm and soimd, with but little change in color, 

 and it was not till Christmas that our Duchesses, Beurre 

 Diels, &c., began to change color and show signs of maturity, 

 and during all January we had an abundance of Lawrence, 

 Winter Nelis, Lewis, Beuire Langelier, &c. &c. 



This led us to some reflection on the natural qualities of 

 fruit, and their capacity of retaining their juices unchanged 

 for a length of time, and to ask the question why a winter 

 pear should not keep as well as a winter apple. Further in- 

 quiry led us to the conclusion that fruit in small quantities, 

 placed away in a box, or laid out on a shelf, must be exposed 

 to greater or less currents of air, and their juices exhausted to 

 some degree ; while large quantities laid together prevented 

 this exhaustion. We know that it is on this principle that 

 the old orchardists act in preserving their apples ; that they 

 keep longer and fresher when stored in bins of fifty bushels, 

 than in single barrels. And why should not the same rule 

 hold good with the pear ? Will any one deny that it will 

 not ? If not, we should be glad to know the reason. It may 

 be said the pear is more likely to shrivel, as experience con- 

 firms it ; but, from the reason we have before named, this 

 will not apply — as those shrivelled specimens, the Easter 

 Beurre for example, were half grown. The Lawrence, it is 

 said, may be preserved sound and fresh as easily as the Russet 

 apple, — and if the Lawrence, why not other kinds ? If there 

 is a reason it is this, that the Lawrence, a native pear, is 

 suited to our climate, and attains its full growth, when we 



