433 



through, the ripening process will assuredly commence, and 

 no subsequent attention will prevent, or substantially re- 

 tard its progress. The pears will either ripen prema- 

 turely, or they will wilt and become valueless. It is 

 doubtless from a want of proper attention at this point that so 

 many failures occur in attempting to keep winter pears ; and 

 that the regretful remark is so frequently made by fruit grow- 

 ers, "my winter pears all ripened off in December." Let the 

 fruit room, then, be dark, dry, and kept as nearly at the 

 temperature of 40 degrees as possible, cautiously admitting 

 air at night, or early morning, when necessary in order to 

 maintain an even temperature during the season of Avarm 

 days and cool nights ; and carefully and promptly removing 

 all overripe or decaying fruit. 



The middle of December will ordinarily be about the 

 right time to make arrangements for winter quarters. And 

 on examination it will be found that not all the crop of a given 

 season, nor all the pears of a given variety, nor all the produce 

 of a given tree, will alike be possessed of keeping qualities. 

 Some will be just ripe ; others will require a week or two, and 

 others a month or two to come to perfection; while others, and 

 usually much the larger part of the crop, will prove sound, 

 firm, and in good keeping condition for three or four months, 

 if desirable. A little experience will soon enable any com- 

 petent person to make a judicious selection for that purpose. 



The fruit may now be carefully placed in boxes —not more 

 than two tiers deep is preferable — with a thin sheet of cotton 

 wadding above and below each tier, in order to absorb any 

 superfluous moisture. Let the covers be tacked on, and the 

 boxes placed in a good, dry, cool barn cellar, (the cellar of 

 a dwelling house will generally prove to be too dry and 

 warm) taking care to keep the boxes at a suitable distance 

 from the walls and from the bottom of the cellar. The 

 plan adopted by the writer for several years with entire suc- 

 cess, has been to place the fruit in single layers in shallow 

 wooden trays, the trays fitting into a chest, and the chest 

 suspended by the handles in mid cellar. 



It is w^orthy of note that a dry and cold winter is much 

 more favorable for the preservation of fruit, than a mode- 

 rate and open one. Its superior condition in the spring 

 shows this in a very marked degree. 



It would seem almost superfluous to allude to the well 

 known fact that winter pears can at almost any period of 



ESSEX IXST. PROCEED. VOL. ii. 55. 



