BANANAS FOR 



it is gathered until it reaches the consumer's hands. 

 Pears are ready to pick as soon as the stem parts 

 readily from the spur when the fruit is raised up by 

 the hand. The fruit should always be picked by 

 raising it up in this manner, never by pulling it off. 

 The entire stem should always be left on. If you 

 are growing pears for a fine market, as I am doing, 

 the fruits should be ripened under cover. Pick 

 them when the stem parts, as described above, and 

 pile them in a dry room and cover with woolen 

 blankets. A very high and rich color and the very 

 highest flavors will be secured in this manner. As 

 soon as the color becomes pronounced, place them 

 upon the market. The length of this period of ri- 

 pening varies with the variety and season. It runs 

 from ten days to three weeks. 



Fine fruit should be marketed in small packages, 

 for it then ships better and is more attractive. I 

 use a bushel box, or choice sorts are sometimes put 

 up in smaller packages. Kegs and baskets are un- 

 satisfactory for the finer pears, as the fruit is apt 

 to become chafed. I have exported pears to a large 

 extent, and I find a good and growing foreign mar- 

 ket. Even in France the demand for American 

 pears is considerable. Of the medium-sized or 

 small pears, as Clairgeau and Lawrence, I place 

 four dozen in a box for exportation, and of the larger 

 kinds three dozen. The fruits are wrapped in pa- 

 per and packed in two layers, separated by excelsior. 



I grow the finest flavored pears I can secure, and 

 they pay me far better than the showy but poorer 

 fruits. More care is required in finding a suitable 

 market for these excellent sorts, but the extra effort 

 pays. My choice for standards is as follows : Ty- 



THE TABLE. 



son, Clapp, Bartlett, Seckel, Shelden, Anjou, Bosc, 

 Clairgeau and Lawrence. For dwarfs I have had 

 best success with Bartlett (preferably double- 

 worked), Anjou, and Duchess. For export, I grow 

 Anjou, Bosc, Clairgeau and Lawrence. One or two 

 of these varieties are not of the highest quality, 

 but they are particularly desirable in other respects. 

 The Seckel grows slowly, making short-jointed 

 wood, and it requires special treatment to be made 

 a success. It must have a great abundance of fer- 

 tilizing, and the culture must be the very best. 

 Upon an acre of Seckels, where the ground was 

 already rich, I last year applied 25 loads of good 

 stable manure, one-half ton 0/ commercial fertil- 

 izer and one-half ton of wood ashes. Although a 

 poor season, my crop of Seckels was superb. This 

 extra care and feed is necessary in order to get fruit 

 of good size, and with a fair, clean and tender skin. 

 The Bosc is a poor grower in the nursery, and it is 

 difficult to get a good tree of it. I remedy this de- 

 fect by top-working on the Kieffer. The Clairgeau 

 demands a high and dry soil, for on low and moist 

 soils it is likely to lose its leaves prematurely. I do 

 not grow the Kieffer for the reason that its fruit is 

 only fit for canning. There are other pears, as the 

 Bartlett, Anjou and Bosc, which are equally good 

 for canning, and which are also valuable in many 

 other ways. 



The profits of pear culture depend almost en- 

 tirely upon the man. Probably most of the or- 

 chards throughout the country do not pay a profit 

 per acre of more than ^50 or $75. My own or- 

 chards, however, net me from $500 to ^600 per acre, 

 one year with another. George T. Powell. 



BANANAS FOR THE TABLE. 



This IS the season when Cuba and other West In- 

 dian points embellish the markets with choice ba- 

 nanas. The fruit from those plantations is much 

 richer m flesh and color than the ordinary straw- 

 ripened bunches from Aspinwall. With their sun- 

 mellowed flavor and tropically gilded and reddened 

 rinds, they are decidedly more attractive than the 

 common thin plantation style of the usual steamer 

 lots. Without interfering with the dessert list, 

 northerners are learning to prepare bananas for tea 

 and breakfast relishes. It is remarkable that such 

 a fragile fruit will undergo the ordinary operation 

 of freezing and retain its delicacy. An easy West 

 Indian method of cooking either bananas or plan- 

 tains,* though the former should be exceptionally 



firm if used, is to slice them lengthwise about one- 

 third of an inch thick, melt a piece of butter, of 

 walnut size, for each banana, and fairly brown 

 quickly. 



When the fruit is rather fully ripe, it can be man- 

 aged by dipping it in egg and flour. This, of course, 

 requires slightly more fat. A showy tea-dish can 

 be formed by cutting into discs and covering same 

 with finely grated cocoanut and a suspicion of nut- 

 meg. Another plan likely to become popular is to 

 serve similar slices of bananas in heavy home-made 

 strawberry syrup. This wedding of flavors is truly 

 delicious. 



* In this sense practically a distinction without a difference, though 

 meant to signify the true Mnsa sapientum as differing from M. 

 sumairana, 'known as a cultivated plantain in the West Indies. — Ed, 



