EXPERIMENTS IN PEAR STORAGE. 15 



grown by Mr. Waite on young trees in 1901, which was still hard and 

 greenish-yellow when stored ten days after picking, began to discolor 

 and soften at the core in a few days after entering the storage room, 

 though the outside of the pears appeared perfectty normal. After 

 forty to fifty da} r s the flesh was nearly all discolored and softened, 

 and the skin had turned brown. The fruit from the older trees on 

 the Derby farm in 1902, which was smaller and finer in texture, 

 appeared to ripen as much as the Waite pears during the ten days' 

 delay. This fruit, however, did not discolor at the core and decay 

 from the inside outward, but continued to ripen and soften in the 

 storage house and was injured at least 50 per cent in its commercial 

 value by the delay. Plate II shows the condition of the Kieffer pears 

 stored in a temperature of 32° F. as soon as picked and withdrawn in 

 March. Plate III shows the condition of fruit picked at the same time 

 and stored in the same temperature ten days after picking, when with- 

 drawn in January. (See also PI. IV, fig. 1.) 



The results of the experiments point out clearly the injury that may 

 occur by delaying the storage of the fruit after it is picked, and empha- 

 size the importance of a quick transfer from the orchard to the storage 

 house. If cars are not available for transportation and the fruit can 

 not be kept in a cool place, it is safer on the trees so far as its ulti- 

 mate keeping is concerned. It is advisable to forward to storage 

 the delicate quick-ripening varieties, like the Bartlett, in refrigerator 

 cars. The common closed freight car in warm weather soon becomes 

 a sweat box and ripens the fruit with unusual rapidity. The results 

 show clearly that the storage house may be responsible in no way for 

 the entire deterioration or even for a large part of the deterioration 

 that may take place while the fruit is in storage, and that the different 

 behavior of two lots from the same orchard may often be due to the 

 conditions that exist during the period that elapsed between the time 

 of picking and of storage. 



THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES ON KEEPING QUALITY. 



There is no uniformity in practice in the temperatures in which 

 pears are stored. Formerly a temperature of 36° to 40° F. was con- 

 sidered most desirable, as a lower temperature was supposed to dis- 

 color the flesh and to injure the quality of the fruit. The pears were 

 also believed to deteriorate much more rapidly when removed to a 

 warmer air. In recent }^ears a number of storage houses have carried 

 the fruit at the standard apple temperatures, i. e. , from 30° to 32° F. 

 Large quantities of Bartlett, Angouleme, and Kieffer pears have been 

 stored in 32° and 36° F. in the experiments of the Department. The 

 fruit of all varieties has kept longer in the lower temperature and the 

 flesh has retained its commercial qualities longer after removal from 

 the storage house. Bartlett pears were in prime commercial condition 



