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even it has an advantage over the popular apple, if growers 

 know their business properly. Let us see what this 

 amounts to. Stated as a maxim resulting from experience, 

 it is that the pear is never delivered by the tree in a state 

 of perfection. The peculiar flavour of the choicest sorts, 

 for example, Beurre* Superfin, Beurre' Clairgeau or Duchesse 

 d'Angouleme, is not developed by the active chemistry of 

 the sunshine and air. To do justice to the fruit it must be 

 picked at an early outdoor stage of ripeness, and trans- 

 ferred to the lower temperature of a storehouse. There, 

 amid cool air and away from the light in closed boxes or 

 on shelves, the tissues have time to eliminate slowly the . 

 special amylic ethers which give the pear its distinction, 

 and melt down the insipid cell contents into a rich buttery 

 syrup. To eat pears from the tree is very poor epicurism, 

 and argues small knowledge of the capabilities of this 

 luscious dessert fruit. It is just such want of skilled judg- 

 ment in picking and skilled handling in the storeroom 

 which has led some to affirm that the climate of the Cape 

 is unfavourable to the production of any but the commoner 

 sorts of pear. The observation and experience of one season 

 devoted to learning the trick of the pear, as to precise 

 degree of out-ripeness, with dark storage to follow, would 

 settle once for all that easy libel on the land we live in. 

 And pray consider how this speciality of the pear plays 

 into the hands of the merchant, as if of direct intent. 

 There is nothing to prevent the storage-mellowing from 

 being given while the fruit is in transit. It may easily 

 be taken from the tree in the comparatively flavourless 

 condition at which it will just lift from the spur OH the 

 palm of hand being placed below, and gently pressed 

 against it, be packed in that state, and in due time come 

 to judgment at some distant market in the highest possible 

 condition a mouthful for the gods. What more could a 

 fruit do to assist the market grower ? 



If this speciality of the pear were universally known 

 and acted up to, the fruit would soon take its proper place 

 as a dessert delicacy of the highest class, and fine grown 

 specimens would sell at dessert prices. And as it is no 

 more costly to grow good fruit than bad, there would 

 probably be an end to the sackfuls of wretched little green 



