January 18, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 43 
18 th 
19 th 
20th 
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Royal Society at 4.30 P.M., Linnsean at 8 r.M. 
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21st 
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Septuagesima. 
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Society of Arts at 8 p.M. 
ON BIPENING AND PEESEEYING PEAES. 
HE question is asked by “Wiltshire 
? Eector ” (page 566) of the experience of 
o other fruit-growers, whether they have 
noticed a change of season in the ripen¬ 
ing properties of many of their Pears, 
and “ what can be the reason why a 
Pear should be ripe three months before 
its time in spite of its being kept in a cold 
fruit-room ?” Now I confess I should be far 
more surprised than I am at not a single reply 
being given on a subject of such universal 
interest—for how seldom at dessert is a dish of well- 
ripened late Pears allowed to pass !—were it not that 
I have long noticed, as one taking a somewhat prac¬ 
tical interest in these matters, that, put poetically, 
a flash of silence is all that follows. Except perhaps 
it be a short or very occasional notice of the relative 
merits of one Pear over another, our horticultural 
journals do not compare the experience of fruit-growers 
as they ought, very profitably to themselves and the 
public, on this most delicious of all luxuries. In spite 
of the editorial note appended to “ Wiltshire Sector’s ” 
question, I venture in all humility to send you a few 
remarks, more in the way of challenging discussion 
than for a moment imagining I am giving a definite 
solution. 
With the great majority of medium and late Pears 
of the two last unfavourable years, the constituent 
properties of the fruit was so bad, so manifestly de¬ 
ficient in the development of those gradual chemical 
changes so essential to their proper keeping, that this 
fact alone is almost a sufficient answer. Most Pears 
I assume, as grown of late, with few exceptions, except 
in highly favoured localities, were gathered as unripe 
or crudely developed Pears, however apparently full- 
sized and healthy, and as such incapable of keeping 
long even under the most careful and intelligent treat¬ 
ment. It is a matter of my own sad experience that 
not a tithe of my deficient crop of Pears survived the 
second sorting, and from what I hear this generally 
was the case. I give the following illustration from 
a useful publication, “ The Chemistry of Daily Life ” 
(Johnson and Church), as showing up to a certain 
point my meaning here. 
“ The ripening Pear (or Apple) presents us with an 
illustration of special chemical changes proceeding con¬ 
tinually in the plant to a specific and useful end. The 
unripe Pear shrinks in, refuses to retain its natural 
size, and cannot be kept for any length of time. The 
effects are the consequence of the thin bark which 
covers the fruit not having attained its matured com¬ 
position. While unripe this coating is porous and 
pervious to water, so that when moved from the parent 
plant the fruit gives off water by evaporation to the air, 
and this shrivels and shrinks in as has been described ; 
but when ripe this porous covering becomes chemically 
changed into a thin impervious coating of cork, through 
which water can scarcely pass, and by which, there¬ 
fore, it is confined within for months together. It is 
this corky layer which enables the winter Pear or Apple 
to be brought to table in spring of their full natural 
size.” 
On the hypothesis that Pears this year are gathered 
in the situation of Pears before they are ripe, this 
statement affords a solution to “ Wiltshire Lector’s ” 
questions, but only to a certain point—viz., in pointing 
to the deficiency of gradual chemical change in the 
development of the fruit; other and more important 
chemical changes must take place in the constituent 
properties of a Pear to insure a healthy and reliable 
ripening of the fruit in its due season. 
Popularly and broadly stated, as regards the bad 
effects on such fruits as Pears ripening and keeping 
well during the two last unfavourable seasons, it may 
be laid down that there was too little saccharine matter 
as an element of preservation and too much water as 
an element of decomposition. However, according to 
the latest scientific discoveries on the subject it has 
been for some time quite recognised as an established 
fact, that well-defined and even classified and named 
microscopic organisms of the family of the yeast plant 
attach themselves to the external surface of all fleshy 
fruits, such as Apples and Pears, at the season of ripen¬ 
ing: some adapted to aerial growth, while others are 
capable of living when submerged in fluid. These Sac- 
cliaromyces, or Sugar Funguses as they are called, 
exist principally by feeding on the decomposition of 
the saccharine matter with which they come in contact. 
Thanks to M. Pasteur, this knowledge that all healthy 
ripening and preserving properties in such fruits as 
Pears and Apples is connected with the growth of fungus 
yeast by a process of insensible fermentation, is capable 
of illustration. This distinguished French chemist 
obtained these fungus germs by washing ripe fruit with 
chemically pure water, which was rendered slightly 
turbid by the presence of myriads of small particles, 
such as atoms of dust, &c., including what seemed to 
be spores of funguses. 
These particles, widely in appearance differing among 
themselves, M. Pasteur cultivated in saccharine fluids. 
When under the microscope he was able to determine 
them as the true yeast plant or sugar-eating funguses, 
all differing from the other in size of cells, shape, and 
growth. 
Such living organisms, modern science thus clearly 
demonstrates, contribute to the life from whence they 
themselves derive their life-growth. If further illus¬ 
tration were necessary it might be found in this way. 
If, instead of affording saccharine fluid for these yeast 
plants’ or sugar funguses’ use, a solution, say, of gum 
was used, no sensible effect would take place ; and 
why not ? In the one case the minute plants have 
met wfith food congenial to them, in the other they 
have found nothing on which they could thrive and 
grow. 
This is just the condition of the present Pear crop 
in the main during the late cold and sunless seasons. 
The low temperature and thin watery juices have failed 
No. 134 *—Vol; VI., Third Series, 
Ko. 1790.— You LXIX„ OLD Series. 
