THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
310 
THE ORCHARD AND THE GARDEN 
RIPENING WINTER PEARS. 
More difficulty has been found in preserving winter 
pears, and bringing them to a fine eating condition, 
than some other wintef fruit. Some good Cultivators 
have been so unsuccessful, as to question the propriety 
of attempting to raise winter pears at all.. Others, 
again, have succeeded finely. This difficulty has re- 
suited from the rapidity with which winter pears be¬ 
come dry , or evaporate through the skin, a difficulty 
which scarcely exists in the apple. Hence, if the room 
in which they are kept, is too dry, they soon wither; 
if too moist, they decay. The latter more frequently 
proves the ruin of winter pears. Hence, it usually 
happens, that success uoes not depend on skill in rais¬ 
ing, but on the accident or possessing a cellar or store¬ 
room, of just such a degree of humidity as to avoid 
these two extremes. And, hence, the attention should 
be directed to remedy this difficulty, by removing the 
causes of too much moisture in one case, and dryness 
in the other. 
This can only be done by direct experiment, using 
the specimens as hygrometers, and lessening or increas¬ 
ing the moisture of the room, as may be needed. 
No person has perhaps given more attention to the 
ripening of winter pears than Sami. Walker, of Roxbury, 
Mass., and at different times he has given the results of 
his experience to the public. In an article from his pen 
published some months ago in the Horticulturist, he 
recommends two apartments—one a keeping, and the 
other a ripening room to be fitted up for the purpose. 
“ The floor of the keeping room should be of brick or 
stone ; the ripening room floor to be of wood, if you 
please, covered with a carpet, and to render it comfor¬ 
table and suitable for the purpose, a fire-place to heat 
the apartment, when necessary.” The cultivator of 
limited means, will make a portion or apartment of his 
cellar answer for the former, and a cupboard or set of 
shelves in, or adjoining the common, living'room, the 
latter. 
It is well known, that not only the; quality, but the 
period of maturity, in late autumn and winter pears, 
depends greatly on the - treatment they receive. The 
Doyenne, for instance, which so far north as Albany 
and Rochester, assumes, in ordinary seasons, the cha¬ 
racter of an early winter fruit, may'be ripened late in 
autumn in a warm room, or kept till mid-winter in one 
at a temperature a little above freezing. Success in 
ripening pears depends, in most Cases, on keeping the 
fruit at a low temperature till near the usual time of 
maturity, when a few days in a moderately warm room 
wiU perfect the process. In the article of S. Walker, 
already alluded to, are the following excellent practi¬ 
cal remarks, which cannot fail to be valuable to most 
pear raisers : 
“ All pears which come to maturity in the autumn 
and winter, should not be gathered till the fruit ,has 
attained its full growth, (about the middle of October 
at Boston.) This should be done by hand, some fine 
day when the fruit is perfectly dry, keeping each kind 
separate, and labeling the same with its name, the day 
it was gathered,, and the season of its ripening. [Bar¬ 
rels, boxes, baskets, or bins, are recommended, as the 
quantity of each kind may require.] The fruit being 
thus placed in the keeping room, care should be taken 
to keep the room cool, dark and dry ; shutters and cur¬ 
tains should be provided for the windows, to close them 
up during the day, if the weather is bright, dry, and 
hot; at night, 'when the weather will permit, the ther¬ 
mometer not ranging below 30 degrees, the windows 
may be all, or in part, left open for fresh air. They 
should be closed early in the morning to keep in the 
cool night air. If mould or mildew should be seen 
upon the fruit, it should be removed with a dry cloth 
or silk handkerchief ; if about the floor or other part of 
the building, strew a small quantity of air-slacked lime 
about the room. 
“As the period of ripening approaches, all the varie¬ 
ties should be examined; the fruit that shows signs of 
its soon coming to maturity, should be carefully packed 
up with layers of cotton batting, in tight boxes, and in 
no case should the box be opened, or the fruit unneces¬ 
sarily exposed.to the air. From the time fruit is gath- 
thered, until it is fully ripe, it, should, in my opinion, 
be kept in close, dry vessels. The pears thus boxed 
up should be placed in the ripening room, keeping the 
roOip at a temperature of from 55 to 75 degrees of 
heat.” 
The same article, in speaking of the different treatment 
which different varieties of the pear require, states that 
the Chaumontel will ripen when exposed to great changes 
of temperature; even if left upon the ground, covered 
with snow, and frozen, it is not injured, if the frost 
is gradually abstracted, and it is matured afterwards 
in the keeping and ripening room, as already directed. 
The Easter Burre and Burre Rans are supposed to be 
able to endure the same treatment; but the Vicar of 
Winkfield should never be exposed to frost, and needs 
many days in the warmest part of the ripening room 
to bring it to full maturity. T. 
The Early Joe Apple — Fig. 76. 
The Early Joe Apple. —From four years acquain¬ 
tance with this new and eminently productive summer 
variety, we have deliberately come to the conclusion, 
that when in perfect eating order, it is decidedly the 
most perfect and agreeable table apple we ever had the 
pleasure of touching. But to be thus excellent, the 
fruit must be of fresh well ripened specimens, and not 
those plucked immature, and ripened in the house, or 
on a railway voyage. A gentleman of veracity, who 
has long had a bearing tree, assures us that he has seen 
a man sit down by a basket of this delicious fruit, and 
taking up one after another, actually eat half a peck 
before he was aware of what he had done. Indeed, 
to hazard a mere conjecture, this must have been the 
identical apple which our friend Downing saw in the 
hand of Pomona, in his famous dream, that being the 
