The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-16

The Keiffer pear makes a very fine
pear for cooking if handled right, or
it will make a poor one under bad
In the first place they should be per-
feet in form. without knots and scab-
by spots, as we cannot make the best
fruit out of deformed specimens. 1t
would be better if the fruit were hand
thinned by taking out all imperfect
| specimens. What remains will be larg-
err and the tree will yield about as
much, If not more, and will command
a better price. Also when the fruit
is thinned down to normal the tree
is able to bear longer and not have
so great a strain on it. A tree must
have a certain amount of vitality to
mature each pear on the tree, and
unless the vitality equals the amount
of fruit, the latter is sure to suffer
in both quality and quantity. Corn
and other grain crops do not yield so
heavy per acre after reaching the limit
of capacity, but rather little below,
so it is with the pear, which does
the best when the crop is less than
it is able to support
A great deal depends upon the in
dividual tree as well as on the soil
We have three Keiffer pear trees.
bought at the same time, on the same
kind of soil. and yet the fruit is not
alike in size, nor the trees in bearing
qualities. One tree will have more fruit
than is good for the tree, while the
others will bear about half as full
And one tree will produce small fruit
and the others are large.
The time in which fruit is harvest
ed has as much to do with the quality
of the fruit as any other thing. If you
go to town after the pear crop has
been harvested by the small growers
and try to sell first-class fruit and say
81 per bushel, the answer will be, n
can buy pears for 70 cents a bushel,"
What kind of fruit is it? In nine
cases out of ten it proves to be fruit
just picked and unripe. or. fruit ripen-
ed on the tree. Both Glasses will
knock the bottom out of the mar
ket" and set people against the rightly
handled pear. That is natural, for
people, after being bitten once, are
not so keen to take hold again.
On the other hand a Keiffer pear
rightly handled will come out of the
storage room juicy. mellow, yellow,
with perhaps a russet color and fit to
can or put on any table for dessert.
Prof. M. B Waite has the following
to say in regard to the season to pick
pears: las choice a year as Clapp's
Favorite becomes dry and mushy' at
the core and very poor in quality IL
allowed to hang on the tree, while the
same fruit, picked when firm and hard.
but full grown, and ripened indoors,
will be of an even consistency, juicy
and delicious. During the last few
days that the fruit hangs on the tree
the development OF the hard, woody
kernels, the so-called stone cells Of the
pear, form rapidly. Picking before the
fruit is ripe seems to partly head on
the development of these cells, and the
subsequent ripening process still fur
Their softens and disintegrates them.
Among the years of medium and poor
er quality, such as the Duchess, Keir-
fer, etc, the rpening process may al
most be said to make the fruit edible.
at least make II At for dessert fruit.
Keiffers allowed to hang on the tree
until they are full colored and ready
to drop have the maximum amount or
stone cells; in fact the portion sur
rounding the core becomes a mass OF
woody matter under these circum-
stances. II. on the other hand, the
fruit is picked when IL first attains full
size, or even before and is ripened in
bulk in the dark. II will color up
beautiful delicate yellow. frequently
with red blush. and softens evenly
throughout, making a fairy good pear
TO eat out of the hard, and a most ex-