12 BULLETIN" 1072, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
In the districts -where difficulty is experienced in 'keeping fruit 
shipped to eastern markets in good condition, precooling, when carried 
on as outlined above, has proved to be of great advantage. In some 
instances, however, commercial precooling has failed to give satis- 
factory results. The cause of this has invariably been the failure 
to cool the fruit in a limited time. Overtaxing the refrigeration 
capacity of the plant or attempting to cool closely stacked boxes 
of wrapped and packed fruit has in many cases resulted in a rate 
of cooling so slow that the injury caused by delay incident to the 
cooling has been greater than the benefits gained. Since ripening 
goes on until 'the fruit is actually reduced to the minimum tempera- 
ture, a delay incident to cooling is as serious as a delay while the 
fruit is en route. If shipment is delayed without actually getting the 
fruit cooled through and through, the results will be less satisfactory 
than if the pears are shipped immediately after picking. 
HANDLING FRUIT FOR THE CANNERIES. 
The handling of Bartlett pears for the cannery is quite different 
in the ultimate object to be attained from the handling of the same 
commodity for shipment in a fresh state. With the cannery man a 
fruit of high dessert quality is the first consideration. The number 
of days that must elapse between the time of picking and the time 
the fruit is in prime condition for canning is of less importance than 
the number of days during which the fruit may be canned or, in other 
words, between the time when the fruit becomes soft ripe and the 
time when it begins to break down. There is no doubt that the con- 
sumption of canned pears would be greatly increased if all this fruit 
that goes on the market was of the high quality found in certain 
cans. There is also no doubt that the greatest factor in the produc- 
tion of canned fruit of low eating quality is the inferiority of the 
fruit itself before canning. With proper handling there will be no 
occasion for much of the low-grade product that now goes into cans 
in many plants. 
Perhaps the greatest single cause of poor quality in canned Bart- 
lett pears is picking the fruit too early. There is a marked increase 
in sugar in fruit taken from the tree at successive intervals during 
the commercial picking season. During a delay of two weeks in 
picking the sugar content of the fruit will often increase by 10 per 
cent. In addition to the increase in sugar, late-picked pears lose 
much of the astringency characteristic of fruit picked early in the 
season. The highest quality in Bartlett pears is not attained until 
the fruit is showing a distinct tinge of 3-ellow color beneath the 
green at the time of its removal from the tree. Such fruit, if held 
at temperatures of 60° to 70° F., will be in good condition for can- 
ning comparatively soon after removing it from the tree. The exact 
time will vary with the section in which the fruit is grown. After 
