HANDLING, SHIPPING, AND STOKAGE OF BARTLETT PEARS. 15 



month. Upon removal from cold storage the fruit ripened normally 

 and made a canned product of as high a quality as though it had not 

 been placed in storage. 



PEAR SCALD. 



During recent years, as Bartlett pears have been held an cold 

 storage in constantly increasing quantities, fruit has frequently come 

 out of storage in a blackened condition. The skin is black or brown 

 and tends to slozigh off very readily. The injury usually does not 

 penetrate the tissues very deeply, but when much of the surface of 

 the fruit is affected it renders the pear practically worthless. 



Many of the men who have put fruit in cold storage have attributed 

 this trouble to freezing in the storage rooms. This is not the case, 

 however, for fruit that has been held at temperatures never below 

 35° F. has been found badly scalded upon removal from storage. It 

 is apparently a trouble of pears in cold storage closely analogous to 

 the storage scald of apples. 



During two years of investigational work on pear storage the 

 writer found that this trouble developed several times when fruit 

 was removed from storage. In pears from the same trees and held 

 under exactly similar conditions in the storage rooms, it has inva- 

 riably been the early-picked fruit that scalded upon removal from 

 storage. During the summer of 1920, Bartletts were picked from 

 the same trees in a typical orchard in Sacramento, Calif., on June 

 30, July 9, 14, 24, August 3 and 13. Part of each lot of this fruit 

 was held at 35° and part of it at 30° F. On September 24 the fruit 

 was removed from the room having a temperature of 35° F. and 

 held at ordinary room temperature. At that time it was yellow ripe, 

 though still firm. The first three lots picked, from June 30 to July 

 13, showed practically 100 per cent scald. Lot No. 4, picked July 

 23, showed approximately 50 per cent scald, while lot No. 5, picked 

 10 days later, was almost entirely free from it. No scald showed 

 in lot No. 6, picked on August 13. Fruit from Santa Clara, Calif., 

 showed practically the same condition. Apparently, early-picked 

 fruit is far more susceptible to scald than that picked late. It is 

 particularly necessary, therefore, that fruit be well matured on the 

 tree before picking if it is intended for cold storage. 



In all of the tests so far conducted there has been less scald in fruit 

 held at 28° to 30° F. than in that held at higher temperatures. It 

 seems probable that this is because the fruit has been removed from 

 storage at the lower temperature when in a hard, green condition. 

 Scald appears to develop mainly on fruit that is removed from cold 

 storage in a. yellow-ripe condition. The late picking of fruit in- 

 tended for 'old storage, followed by its prompt removal to the cold- 

 storage rooms, appears to Ik- the best insurance against scald. Such 

 fruit can he removed after a reasonable season in cold storage while 



