12 BULLETIN 1072, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



In the districts where difficulty is experienced in keeping fruit 

 shipped to eastern markets in good condition, precooling, when carried 

 on as outlined above, has proved to be of great advantage. In some 

 instances, however, commercial precooling has failed to give satis- 

 factory results. The cause of this has invariably been the failure 

 to cool the fruit in a limited time. Overtaxing the refrigeration 

 capacity of the plant or attempting to cool closely stacked boxes 

 of wrapped and packed fruit has in many cases resulted in a rate 

 of cooling so slow that the injury caused by delay incident to the 

 cooling has been greater than the benefits gained. Since ripening 

 goes on until the fruit is actually reduced to the minimum tempera- 

 ture, a delay incident to cooling is as serious as a delay while the 

 fruit is en route. If shipment is delayed without actually getting the 

 fruit cooled through and through, the results will be less satisfactory 

 than if the pears are shipped immediately after picking. 



HANDLING FRUIT FOR THE CANNERIES. 



The handling of Bartlett pears for the cannery is quite different 

 in the ultimate object to be attained from the handling of the same 

 commodity for shipment in a fresh state. With the cannery man a 

 fruit of high dessert quality is the first consideration. The number 

 of days that must elapse between the time of picking and the time 

 the fruit is in prime condition for canning is of less importance than 

 the number of days during which the fruit may be canned or, in other 

 words, between the time when the fruit becomes soft ripe and the 

 time when it begins to break down. There is no doubt that the con- 

 sumption of canned pears would be greatly increased if all this fruit 

 that goes on the market was of the high quality found in certain 

 cans. There is also no doubt that the greatest factor in the produc- 

 tion of canned fruit of low eating quality is the inferiority of the 

 fruit itself before canning. With proper handling there will be no 

 occasion for much of the low-grade product that now goes into cans 

 in many plants. 



Perhaps the greatest single cause of poor quality in canned Bart- 

 lett pears is picking the fruit too early. There is a marked increase 

 in sugar in fruit taken from the tree at successive intervals during 

 the commercial picking season. During a delay of two weeks in 

 picking the sugar content of the fruit will often increase by 10 per 

 cent. In addition to the increase in sugar, late-picked pears lose 

 much of the astringency characteristic of fruit picked early in the 

 season. The highest quality in Bartlett pears is not attained until 

 the fruit is showing a distinct tinge of yellow color beneath the 

 green at the time of its removal from the tree. Such fruit, if held 

 at temperatures of 60° to 70° F., will be in good condition for can- 

 ning comparatively soon after removing it from the tree. The exact 

 time will vary with the section in which the fruit is grown. After 



