VOLUME LXIX 



NUMBER 4 



THE 





Botanical Gazette 



APRIL iQ2o 



RIPENING OF PEARS AND APPLES AS MODIFIED BY 



EXTREME TEMPERATURES 



E. L. Overholser and R. H. Taylor 



This work was undertaken as the result of an article by Shamel 

 (8), in which he stated that a box of hard ripe Bartlett pears were 

 placed in a lemon storage room where the temperature ranged 

 from 79 to ioo° F*, with an average of 83. 5 , the relative hu- 

 midity varying from 85 to 96 per cent, with an average relative 

 humidity of 85.1 per cent. The pears were subjected to these 

 conditions from August 4 to September 3, 191 6. Even though 

 surrounded by these comparatively high temperatures, the pears 

 remained hard and green until the end of the experiment (a period 

 of 30 days). Within 6 or 7 days after being removed the pears 

 ripened normally and were excellent to eat. As a check, Shamel 

 compared these pears with other lots which had been stored in a 

 room of a dwelling, where no attempt was made to control the 

 temperature or relative humidity, but where one would assume 

 both these factors would be lower than in the lemon house. Pears 

 from this family storage room were ripe within a week, by 

 August 10. 



Shamel states that the "condition of high relative humidity 

 was a controlling factor in retarding the ripening of the pears." 

 He further states that "it is almost unbelievable that pears can 

 be held for 30 days at the high temperatures recorded, without 

 ripening or deteriorating." Shamel's observations seem startling 

 when considered wholly from the viewpoint of experience in the 



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