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Pear
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The cultivation of the common Pear tree (Pyrus communis), from which, over the centuries, have developed most of the forms cultivated today, goes back to very ancient times. According to paleontological findings, its cultivation could date back to 35 to 40 centuries ago. It seems to have originated in western Asia and around the Caspian Sea. It has been known for many centuries in Europe. Both the Greeks and Romans prized it highly. Homer names the pear tree in listing the plants growing in Alcinous's garden. Some centuries later Theophrastus, Cato and Pliny also mention it. Theophrastus has handed down some extraordinary information. He considers separately the wild and cultivated species, and, for the latter, describes the methods of propagation by seeds and by grafting, and the methods of cultivation. He also wrote a long and knowledgeable dissertation about the usefulness of cross-pollination, so we know that even in those times the pear's cultivation was wide-spread. Later, Cato identified six varieties, and Pliny nearly forty, although Virgil had written of only three. The varieties of the pear have been continuously increasing, especially since the mid-eighteenth century. Today more than five thousand varieties can be listed, some of them spread throughout the world, others found in only one country, or even limited to a small locality. Although the cultivated varieties are numerous, the fruit industries try to restrict cultivation to those varieties that offer the best commercial guarantee, because of their limited requirements and adaptability to their environment, or their resistance to disease, or ripening period. Commercially the latter is an extremely important characteristic. Pears are one of the fruits most in demand not only when fresh because of their flavor, the abundance of vitamins and the percentage of carbohydrates which make them so nourishing, but also as preserves, jelly, candied or canned fruit, etc. However, this fruit ripens and is harvested during an extremely short period of the year, so supplying the market for many months with fruit harvested long before is a problem to be overcome. It is a horticultural achievement that fresh pears are available during winter and even spring, when the trees have not even begun to bloom. The logical result of this desire for around-the-year consumption was the large-scale development of cold storage, requiring two well-defined stages: first, the harvesting of the pears when still unripe, then their storage under conditions that slow down the processes of maturation. The farmer's experience plays a decisive role during the first phase, since there are no instruments that can determine the degree of ripeness. In the second stage it is necessary to provide a constant temperature during the long stay in the cold rooms, proper humidity level, so that there will be no weight loss in the stored product, and periodic ventilation and purification of the air. At the end of this waiting period in cold storage at a temperature of 30 - 33 degrees Fereinheit (-1 to +1 degrees Celcius), with a maximum of 35 degrees Ferenheit (2 - 3 degrees Celcius), the pears that are not [Bianchini, Francesco, Corbetta, Francesco, Pistoia, Marilena, The Complete Book of Fruits and Vegetables, United States Translation: Crown Publishers, New York, 1976; Originally published in Italy as I Frutti della Terra, Arnoldo Mondadori Publisher, Italy, 1973]