1878.] 
ON RIPENING PEARS. 
147 
a Merveille, La Grandesso, Mont Blanc. 
Single yellow: Ida, Bird of Paradise. Single 
lilac or mauve: Czar Peter, De Candolle, 
Haydn, Sir Henry Havelock. Double red: 
Koh-i-noor, Lord Wellington. Double blue: 
Laurens Koster and Van Speyk. This list 
contains very few double varieties ; Koh-i-noor 
is semi-double only. The doubles have not 
such compact symmetrical spikes as the single 
varieties, and although I grow a few, they are 
very seldom exhibited, but there are a few of 
the doubles very useful for decorative purposes 
at home. The best besides those named are : 
— Bed: Noble par Merite, Princess Louise, 
Regina Victoria. White: Anna Maria, La 
Tour d’Auvergne, Prince of Waterloo, Triomphe 
Blandina. Blue: Bloksberg, Garrick, Louis 
Philippe.—J. Douglas, Loxford Hall, Ilford. 
ON RIPENING PEARS * 
S JIILE the cultivation of the Pear in 
favoured localities is easier than that 
of Apples, the proper ripening and 
marketing of the Pear are attended with more 
difficulty. Indeed, there are but few people 
who know how to handle Pears so as to ripen 
them in a way to obtain their best colour and 
flavour, and to bring them to maturity at just 
the most desirable time; or, having satisfac¬ 
torily ripened them, they put them into market 
in a condition to obtain the best returns. A 
good Pear may be ripened so as to be solid, 
juicy, and sweet, with a good rich colour to its 
skin; or it may be made corky, insipid, and 
rotten at the core; or again, it may be shrivelled, 
sour, and unattractive; and these different con¬ 
ditions may all be obtained the same season, and 
from fruit grown on the same tree. 
This being the case, the importance of 
proper ripening will readily be seen. While 
different varieties may require slightly 
different treatment, owing to their indi¬ 
vidual characteristics and the season, yet 
the same general rules will apply to 
all. I believe that nearly all Pear-growers 
agree that all kinds of Pears should be 
picked while green and ripened in the house, 
but at just what time they should be picked, 
and just how they should be handled to ripen 
them, are subjects on which there is much 
diversity of opinion. But in order that we 
may intelligently understand this subject, let 
us see what this ripening process is, and what 
* From a Prize Essay, read at a Meeting of the Massa¬ 
chusetts’ Horticultural Society, January 12, 1878. 
arc the conditions essential to its most perfect 
development. Chemists tell us that about 
fourteen per cent, of the Pear is soluble 
matter, and that it is composed of a trace of 
free acid and twenty-three hundredths of one 
per cent, of albuminoids, and that the rest of 
the soluble matter is made up of sugar, starch, 
cellulose, dextrine, and other farinaceous sub¬ 
stances. Now this ripening process is a sac¬ 
charine fermentation, and is analogous to the 
malting of brewers’ grains. In malting, 
diastase is formed by a change of albumen in 
the grain, and this diastase acts as a fer¬ 
ment on the starch, gum, and cellulose 
of the barley, and changes a portion of these 
substances to glucose or grape-sugar. In the 
ripening of Pears, the vegetable acids which 
they contain act on the farinaceous sub¬ 
stances of which the Pear is so largely com¬ 
posed, and if the fruit is removed from the 
trees and kept at a temperature which favours 
this saccharine fermentation, its cellular tissues 
will be broken down, its water and aroma set 
free, and glucose or grape-sugar will be formed 
from its farinaceous substances, giving us a 
sweet, juicy, high-flavoured Pear. Now, what 
we want in ripening Pears is to obtain the 
most perfect development of this fermentative 
process, but at the same to avoid any vinous 
or destructive fermentation, which would 
destroy the sugar or induce decay. We also 
want to have the fruit as large and plump as 
possible, avoiding any wilted or shrivelled 
appearance, and to obtain its best colour—as 
much of bright straw-colour, with a tinge of 
red, as possible. Now, how shall we make a 
practical application of these principles so as 
to obtain the desired results ? 
Summer and early-fall Pears should be 
picked just before they begin to turn, and 
when they are nearly grown, should be handled 
with great care to avoid bruising, and should 
be placed in barrels or boxes in a room or 
cellar, where the temperature may be kept at 
about 70°, and a moderate degree of moisture 
maintained. A very dry air is not so good, as 
it absorbs the moisture and aroma from the 
fruit, injures its flavour, and causes it to wilt 
and shrivel up. After being kept in such a 
room a few days, they will begin to turn, and 
some of them will mellow; then they should 
be sold or used, before they soften. The boxes, 
L 2 
