HOW TO KEEP PEARS. 89 
fully taken out and the chaff exposed on a cold, dry 
night. Early the next morning the fruit and cold 
chaff are replaced in the barrel and put away in the 
cellar until it is time to make use of the pears. The 
fruit may be kept much later than its proper date of 
ripening by exposing the chaff three or four times 
during the winter to a severe frost. 
Buckwheat or rye chaff will answer equally well 
for this purpose. It is neither necessary nor judi- 
cious to surround the fruit with cotton, charcoal, 
sand, or other material. With such treatment pears 
lose their flavor, and become comparatively valueless ; 
even unsized or absorbent paper will in a measure 
have the same injurious effect upon them. 
