THE HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



97 



During the Swelling Period, Pears should, 

 as far as possible, be protected from any cbeck, 

 either at root or top. Sudden changes of tempera- 

 lure are almost beyond our control, but these are 

 less injurious than great alternations of drought and 

 moisture, and it is chiefly these that result in that 

 most trying of all phases in Pear-culture, the crack- 

 ing of the fruit. A good mulch, and a frequent 

 soaking of sewage at the roots, and a daily syringing 

 •overhead, about 5 p.m., during hot dry weather, are 

 among the surest antidotes to Pear- splitting. 



Ripening. — As the Pear approaches maturity 

 all stimulating treatment at root or top must be 

 withdrawn. If the summer pinching and stopping 

 have been attended to as directed, the fruit will be 

 fully exposed to light and air. Leaves may be 

 manipulated, or even removed, if needful, in modera- 

 tion, in pursuit of the final process of maturing the 

 fruit in perfect condition. The more light and air 

 the higher the colour, and the fuller and more luscious 

 the flavour. 



The finer the fruit is, the more carefully it must be 

 guarded against birds and wasps. The mere touch 

 •of either proves fatal to their perfect finish or keep- 

 ing. It is less what they eat than what they destroy 

 by touching that makes these pests so troublesome 

 in the Pear garden. Unfortunately, the very lus- 

 ciousness of the fruit gives forth the news far and 

 wide that something good is going, and the insect 

 pests come in swarms at the odoriferous call of the 

 luscious Pears. 



Many means have been devised to protect the fruit, 

 and keep out the pests by fine-meshed nettings or 

 muslin bags, or destroying them. None are half 

 so effective, simple, and safe as the prompt gathering 

 of the fruit. As soon as the luscious odour proceeds 

 from the fruit it is sufficiently ripe to gather, possibly 

 over-ripe, and already hung into mellowness. Now 

 a mellow Pear is a Pear already passe to connois- 

 seurs, and there is, therefore, no need to leave Pears 

 on the trees to hoist high and far and wide to all 

 destructive pests the odorous signal. 



G-athering and Packing of Pears. — Ripe 

 Pears cannot be too carefully handled ; flat baskets, 

 •only to hold one row of fruit, are best, and in 

 these they should be carried to the fruit-room and 

 laid on shelves single file. But in packing for mar- 

 ket it is impossible to adopt this system, and the 

 next best thing to do is to bottom the basket with 

 soft hay or moss, fill it as full as possible with fruit 

 as gathered, sprinkle a slight litter of the same 

 material over the top, and fix firmly down, and 

 despatch at once. Pears thus packed will mostly 

 arrive at market nearly as fresh as they left the 

 79 



trees. It is the frequent removals that make the 

 saddest havoc among Pears and other fine fruits. 



Sorting and Storing the Fruit at Home. 



— The sorting is almost the most important. Each 

 sort should be placed at once where it will remain 

 until consumed. A few sorts, such as the Citron des 

 Carmes, and the Jargonelle, are so sensitive and so 

 perishable that they should hardly be stored. They 

 are best eaten off the trees. Eor the rest, the early, 

 mid-season, and late Pears should all be stored in 

 groups by themselves, and there is no better way 

 nor place than on an open shelf in a fruit-room, cool 

 and dry, that is, commanding as nearly as may be a 

 temperature of 45° summer and winter. 



Storing in drawers, jars, &c, may also be prac- 

 tised for the winter and spring varieties if jDreferred. 

 But the jars and drawers should be empty of all 

 else but Pears. No paper, moss, hay, sand, nor soil, 

 nor salt, only clean sweet drawers and jars or 

 flower-pots filled with chosen fruit, and covered 

 over with earthenware or other tops. But shelves 

 are better, as on these one can see at a glance how it 

 fares with the Pears. 



Culture of the Trees after Gathering the 

 Fruit. — All unduly late growths should be pinched 

 or cut off, any breast-wood left too long cut back, and 

 having harvested one and the main crop, that of 

 the fruit, every attention should be bestowed on the 

 harvesting of a second, hardly of secondary impor- 

 tance, that is, the nut-brown fruit-buds, the Pears in 

 embryo for next year, in an equally creditable state. 



Varieties of Pears. — Though less numerous 

 than Apples, these are very numerous. The old po- 

 mologists used to divide their catalogues into tame 

 Pears and wildings, and both did not number a score. 

 Soon, however, they mounted up to fifty, and early in 

 the sixteenth century to one hundred, two hundred, 

 and three hundred. In the seventeenth century less 

 increase was chronicled ; early in the nineteenth 

 century, over four hundred ; and in 1831 the number 

 of Pears described in the catalogue of the Royal Hor- 

 ticultural Society of London was over six hundred. 

 Within the last half-century the number of Pears 

 has increased, until now it is supposed there may be 

 three thousand varieties in cultivation, and some of 

 our. largest growers cultivate as many as a thousand 

 sorts. Pear-trees of different varieties run into al- 

 most every variety of form, from something like the 

 narrow spire of the Lombardy Poplar, to the broad 

 umbrageous sweep of the round-headed English Oak. 

 Among other recent Pears worth a trial besides 

 those named are Lucy Greive, Duchesse de Bordeaux, 

 and Mdlle. de Potolange. 



