Pears should be picked several days or even two weeks before they are ripe, and then placed in a dry and well-ventilated room, as a chamber. Make very shallow piles, or, better, place on trays. They will then ripen up well. The fruits are picked when full grown but not ripe, and when the stem separates readily from the fruit-spur if the pear is lifted up. All pears are better for being prematurely picked in this way. Winter pears are stored in the same manner as winter apples.

Quinces are kept in the same way as winter apples and winter pears. Some varieties, particularly the Champion, may be kept until after New Year's in a good cellar.

Roots of all sorts, as beets, carrots, salsify, parsnips, can be kept from wilting by packing them in damp sphagnum moss, like that used by nurserymen. They may also be packed in sand. It is an erroneous notion that parsnips and salsify are not good until after they are frozen.

Squashes should be stored in a dry room in which the temperature is uniform and about 50°. Growers for market usually build squash houses or rooms and heat them. Great care should be taken not to bruise any squashes which are to be stored. Squashes procured from the market have usually been too roughly handled to be reliable for storing.