1922.] Exhibits at the Imperial Fruit Show. 791 



Duchess and Catillac were the more prominent. In 

 some exhibits the pears were packed either in cotton 

 or wood wool ; in others they were wrapped in paper and 

 packed in boxes in a manner similar to that adopted for apples. 

 Where care in packing had been given both methods proved 

 satisfactory, though generally the packing of pears was at fault 

 and contrasts of the packing provided an excellent object lesson 

 to those willing to learn b}^ observation. 



The Conference section was strongly contested, but the stan- 

 dard was low as would be expected for Conference at this late 

 date. 



In the Great Britain section there was one exhibit from Sussex 

 of exceptionally large, fine quality Doyenne dn Comice, which 

 lost the first prize solely through bad packing. The first prize 

 was awarded to an exhibit from Kent of much smaller pears, of 

 even size and colour and excellently packed. Gener:ally this class 

 was but slightly contested. The standard of fruit was high, but 

 the packing poor. Much of the fruit rapidly deteriorated owing 

 to bruising due to faulty packing, and prices by auction ruled 

 low. The Dovenne du Comice in the Channel Islands section 

 were on the whole better than in the Great Britain section. The 

 fruits were larger, in better condition, and the best exhibits were 

 carefully packed, the fruit being separated with protective paper. 

 In many of the exhibits in this section the fruits were tumbled 

 together instead of being nicely separated and kept in position 

 by paper partitions. The Channel Islands fruit kept well and 

 the well packed fruit realised quite pood prices at the sale. 



Pitmaston Duchess figured largely in the " any other dessert 

 variety " class in both the Great Britain and the Channel Islands 

 sections, and some excellent, large bright specimens were shown. 

 The exhibits of Calebash and Durondeau were rough, the Louise 

 Bonne small, attractive and nicely packed. 



In the class for cooking pears, Catillac was shown in every 

 instance except one, and this won the first prize. The second 

 prize was awarded to an excellent and nicely coloured sample of 

 Catillac from Faversham. The other samples of Catillac lacked 

 uniformity and it was evident quality had been sacrificed to large 

 size. 



Grapes. — There were classes for grapes in the British Empire 

 section, the Great Britain section and the Channel Islands 

 section, but only in the last were there any material entries. 

 Generally Muscat of Alexandria was shown in the classes for 

 white grapes and Colmar as blacks. All exhibits were good, the 



