The pears of New York
by U. P. Hedrick · English · Gutenberg #46994 · 1,983,864 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The pears of New York
Author: U. P. Hedrick
Contributor: E. H. Francis
G. H. Howe
O. M. Taylor
H. B. Tukey
Release date: September 29, 2014 [eBook #46994]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PEARS OF NEW YORK ***
[Illustration: Marshall P. Wilder]
STATE OF NEW YORK--DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Twenty-ninth Annual Report--Vol. 2--Part II
* * * * *
THE
PEARS OF NEW YORK
BY
U. P. HEDRICK
ASSISTED BY
G. H. HOWE
O. M. TAYLOR
E. H. FRANCIS
H. B. TUKEY
Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1921
II
ALBANY
J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS
1921
NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION,
GENEVA, N. Y., _October_ 1, 1921.
_To the Honorable Board of Control of the New York Agricultural
Experiment Station_:
GENTLEMEN:--I have the honor to transmit herewith the manuscript of
the sixth of the series of monographs on fruits, to be entitled "The
Pears of New York." I recommend that, under the authority of chapter
636 of the Laws of 1919, this be submitted for publication as Part II
of the report of this Station for 1921.
The wide-spread use of and frequent expressions of appreciation
for the preceding books of this series are ample justification for
the preparation and publication of this similar treatise on pears.
Further, the added years of experience and observation of Dr. Hedrick
and his assistants serve to bring each successive monograph to a
higher state of excellence and completeness. The present work is a
splendid example of painstaking care in the collection and compilation
of all available evidence concerning all known varieties of pears.
With the publication of this volume, the series will include books
on apples, peaches, plums, cherries and pears, all of our leading
tree-fruits of the non-citrus type. The book on grapes and the
"Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants" are similar treatises published
in uniform style with those dealing with tree-fruits and it is
hoped that the series may eventually be extended to include similar
discussions of small fruits.
"The Pears of New York" cannot fail to find an extremely useful place
in the literature of fruit-growing, and its publication will be
welcomed by the fruit growers of the State and by horticulturists the
world over.
R. W. THATCHER,
_Director_
PREFACE
_The Pears of New York_ is sixth in the series of books on hardy fruits
being published by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. The
object and scope of these treatises have been given in prefaces of
the preceding books, and though this work does not differ from its
predecessors, for the convenience of readers the aim and the contents
of the book in hand are set forth in this foreword.
Broadly speaking, the aim is to make _The Pears of New York_ a complete
record of the development of the pear wherever cultivated up to the
present time. With this end in view an attempt is made: To give an
account of the history and uses of the pear; to depict the botanical
characters of cultivated pears; to describe pear growing in this
country and more particularly in New York; and, lastly, to give in
full detail the synonymy, bibliography, economic status, and full
descriptions of the most important cultivated pears with brief notices
of varieties of minor importance.
The reader will want to know what considerations have governed the
selection of varieties for color plates and full descriptions. These
are several: (1) The value of a variety for home or commercial
orchards. (2) Noteworthy new varieties. (3) Varieties desirable in
breeding new pears. (4) A few sorts are described and illustrated to
show the trend of evolution in the pear.
In the use of horticultural names the rules of the American Pomological
Society as adopted at the meeting in Columbus, Ohio, in 1919, have been
followed. With a very few varieties these rules have not been followed
since the changes required by their strict observance would augment
rather than diminish confusion.
The references given are those that have been used in ascertaining
the history and economic status or in verifying the description of
varieties. The synonyms created by pomologists whose works we have had
have been noted, but in no case are synonyms given only when quoted by
pomologists from another writer. One of the chief aims of _The Pears of
New York_ is to set straight in high degree the names of pears.
Biographical sketches of men who have been most prominent in pear
growing in the United States are to be found in the footnotes. These
are written to give in some measure the credit and honor due to those
who introduced new varieties or improved their culture. A knowledge of
the career of these men is indispensable to a full comprehension of the
industry of growing pears.
U. P. HEDRICK,
_Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station_
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS ix
CHAPTER I.--HISTORY OF THE PEAR 1
CHAPTER II.--SPECIES OF PEARS AND THEIR CHARACTERS 57
CHAPTER III.--PEAR CULTURE 83
CHAPTER IV.--LEADING VARIETIES OF PEARS 122
CHAPTER V.--MINOR VARIETIES OF PEARS 236
BIBLIOGRAPHY, REFERENCES, AND ABBREVIATIONS 589
INDEX 599
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT OF MARSHALL P. WILDER _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
DESCRIPTION OF A PEAR 68
VARIETIES
ANDRÉ DESPORTES 122
ANSAULT 122
BARTLETT 124
BELLE LUCRATIVE 126
BEURRÉ D'ANJOU 128
BEURRÉ BOSC 130
BEURRÉ CLAIRGEAU 132
BEURRÉ DIEL 134
BEURRÉ GIFFARD 134
BEURRÉ HARDY 136
BEURRÉ SUPERFIN 138
BLOODGOOD 138
BRANDYWINE 140
BUFFUM 142
CLAPP FAVORITE 142
COLONEL WILDER 144
COLUMBIA 144
DANA HOVEY 146
DEARBORN 148
DORSET 150
DOYENNÉ D'ALENÇON 152
DOYENNÉ BOUSSOCK 152
DOYENNÉ DU COMICE 154
DUCHESSE D'ANGOULÊME 156
DUCHESSE D'ORLÉANS 156
DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU 158
EARLY HARVEST 158
EASTER BEURRÉ 160
ELIZABETH 162
FLEMISH BEAUTY 164
FONTENAY 166
FREDERICK CLAPP 170
GANSEL SECKEL 170
GLOU MORCEAU 172
GUYOT 174
HOWELL 174
IDAHO 176
JARGONELLE 178
JOSÉPHINE DE MALINES 180
KIEFFER 182
KOONCE 184
LAMY 184
LAWRENCE 186
LE CONTE 188
LÉON LECLERC (VAN MONS) 190
LINCOLN 190
LINCOLN CORELESS 192
LOUISE BONNE DE JERSEY 194
MADELEINE 196
MARGARET 196
MARIE LOUISE 198
MOUNT VERNON 200
ONONDAGA 202
ONTARIO 202
P. BARRY 204
PASSE COLMAR 206
PITMASTON 208
POUND 208
PRÉSIDENT DROUARD 210
PYRUS BETULAEFOLIA 80
PYRUS SEROTINA 74
REEDER 212
RIEHL BEST 212
ROOSEVELT 214
RUTTER 214
SECKEL 216
SHELDON 218
SOUVENIR DU CONGRÈS 218
SOUVENIR D'ESPÉREN 220
SUDDUTH 220
SUMMER DOYENNÉ 222
TYSON 222
URBANISTE 224
VERMONT BEAUTY 226
VICAR OF WINKFIELD 228
WHITE DOYENNÉ 230
WILDER EARLY 230
WINTER BARTLETT 232
WINTER NELIS 234
WORDEN SECKEL 234
THE PEARS OF NEW YORK
CHAPTER I
HISTORY OF THE PEAR
The pear has no history if history be defined as a record of evolution.
Even the annals of the pear, which but state events in chronological
order, are a heap of confused facts and dates with important data
missing at every turn. The origin of the cultivated pear is so
completely hidden in prehistoric darkness that it can never be known
precisely from what wild pear it came. The historian must content
himself with recording what the pear was when written records began;
what the touch of time has done since the first written accounts; and
what the events and by whom directed which have aided time in making
its impressions since cultivated pears have accompanied its flight.
Happily, it does not matter much what the pear was before husbandmen
appeared on the scene. But from the day the pear began to supply the
needs of men, and in its turn to require ministration from those it
nourished, its history becomes of importance to all mankind. Those whom
it helps sustain as well as those who tend the pear, may well ask:
What was the raw material when the domestication of the pear began?
How has this material been fashioned into the pear of the present? Who
began domestication and who has carried it forward? And, gauged by
past progress, what further progress is possible? These are questions
of prime importance to those who seek to improve the pear; they throw
light on the culture of the pear; and they are of general interest
to all husbandmen, and to all interested in the world's food supply.
The history of the pear is important, as has been said, only as it is
connected with the history of man. Yet, this history must begin with
the wild pear.
WILD PEARS
Botanists number from twenty to twenty-five species of pears, all of
which are found in the northern hemisphere of the Old World, there
being no true pear native to the southern hemisphere or to the New
World. Some ten or twelve wild pears are found in China, several of
which overrun the limits of China; three or four are natives of Japan;
at least one has its habitat in Korea; another is to be found in the
western Himalayas; while the remainder, some eight or ten species,
are found westward from Turkestan, through Persia and Asia Minor into
southern and western Europe and northern Africa. From these statements
as to habitats it is seen that pears grow wild over a very extended
area and under quite varied conditions; therefore, it would be expected
that the several species are quite distinct, differing chiefly,
however, from a horticultural point of view, in the fruits.
But three of these wild species are now under common cultivation,
though it is possible that through hybridization the blood of one or
two more are to be found in cultivated varieties. Several others have
horticultural possibilities either for their fruit, as means through
which new characters may be introduced into cultivated pears, or as
stocks upon which to grow orchard varieties. The three species of chief
horticultural importance are _Pyrus communis_ Linn., _P. nivalis_
Jacq., and _P. serotina_ Rehd.
The pear of common cultivation in ancient and modern orchards is _Pyrus
communis_, native of southern Europe and Asia as far east as Kashmir.
The species is now to be found naturalized in forests and byways of
northern Europe, as it is in parts of America, so that it is impossible
to tell precisely what its ancient habitat was. While most often to be
found in mountainous regions in the great area which it inhabits, wild
pears are common enough in the forests of Europe and western Asia so
that it is probable that most of the early inhabitants of this part
of the Old World enlivened their fare, obtained with the spear or the
bow, with ready-made food from the pear. The species runs into at least
three botanical forms, a dozen or more horticultural divisions and
between two and three thousand orchard varieties.
_Pyrus nivalis_, the Snow pear, is a small tree native of southern
Europe, more particularly of Austria and northern Italy, from which
region it has spread in modern times as an escape from cultivation
into neighboring countries. It is called Snow pear because the fruits
are not fit to eat until after snow falls. The French call it the
"Sage-leaved pear" (_Poirier sauger_), from the fact that the under
side of the leaves is covered with down so that the leaf resembles
that of garden sage. The Snow pear is cultivated in southern Europe,
particularly in France, for the making of perry for which purpose
several varieties are grown. Probably the Greeks and Romans used fruit
of this species for perry so that it may be said to have had attention
from man, if not care under cultivation, from the earliest times. It
is doubtful if it has been hybridized with _P. communis_, parent of
nearly all cultivated pears. The Snow pear is not cultivated in America
but is to be found in botanical collections.
From _Pyrus serotina_ came the Japanese, Chinese, or Sand pears of
pomologists. The species is a native of central and eastern China and
is found wild in Japan, but whether as a native or as an escape from
cultivation it is impossible to say. There are three botanical forms of
the species and possibly a score of horticultural varieties cultivated
for their fruits and as ornamentals. Of all the species of Pyrus found
in western Asia, this, in the light of present knowledge, is most
closely related to the common pear, with which it hybridizes freely.
We have now discovered in what countries the progenitors of cultivated
pears grow spontaneously, and are therefore ready to search for the
first landmarks in the domestication of the three cultivated species.
What has ancient literature to say on the subject? We turn first to the
Bible and find that the pear is not mentioned in sacred literature, and
that, according to commentators on the Sanscrit and Hebrew languages,
there is no name in the tongues of Biblical lands for the pear. Nor
should we expect ancient notices of the pear in north-west India or
Persia, for the pear does not flourish in hot countries. The survey
next turns to ancient Greece where landmarks are at once sighted which
must be put down as the earliest records of the pear, and as such
deserve full consideration.
THE PEAR IN ANCIENT GREECE
In ancient Greece we find the first landmarks and begin the history
of the pear as a cultivated plant. It is wrong, however, to assume
that the beginning of the cultivation of the pear, or of any plant,
was contemporaneous with the writing of even the oldest books. Mention
of a cultivated plant in a book is proof that its domestication
antedates the writing of the book. It is not easy to imagine tribes of
semi-civilized men in southern Europe and Asia who did not make use of
the apples, pears, quinces, plums, cherries, almonds, olives, figs,
pomegranates, and grapes which grew wild in this land of gardens and
orchards, and who did not minister to their needs as husbandmen long
before men wrote books. Names for orchard operations, as planting,
grafting, and pruning, in the simplest dialects of primitive peoples,
establish the fact that husbandry long antedates writing, as would be
expected from the greater need of the one than of the other.
Plutarch, a Greek writer, A.D. 50-120, enlightens us as to the early
use of the pear by the Greeks, and also as to the Grecian name for the
fruit and tree. He says in his Greek Questions (51):
"Why do the boys of the Argives playing at a certain festival call
themselves Ballachrades? (_Ballo_, I throw; _achras_, a wild pear.)
"It is because they say that those who were first brought down by
Inachus (founder of Argos) from the rural districts into the plains
were nourished on wild pears (_achrades_). But wild pears (they say)
were first seen by the Greeks in Peloponnesus, when that country was
still called Apia; whence wild pears were named _apioi_. (_Apios_, a
pear-tree; _apion_, a pear.)"
The pear is one of the "gifts of the gods" which Homer tells us grew
in the garden of Alcinöus. It is certain, therefore, whether or not
this is the earliest mention of the pear in Greek literature, that in
Homer's time, nearly one thousand years before the Christian era, the
pear was cultivated in Greece. As this garden of Alcinöus furnishes the
earliest noteworthy landmarks of the pear, and is moreover the most
renowned of heroic times, an early paradise of trees, vines, and herbs,
it is worth while to take a look at it with a view of discovering the
status of the pear at this early date. Stripped of the harmonious rhyme
and pleasing rhythm of Homer's poetry, the garden is described in
English prose as follows:
"And without the court-yard hard by the door is a great garden,
of four plough-gates, and a hedge runs round on either side. And
there grow tall trees blossoming, pear-trees and pomegranates, and
apple-trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs, and olives in their
bloom. The fruit of these trees never perisheth, neither faileth
winter or summer, enduring through all the year. Evermore the West
Wind blowing brings some fruits to birth and ripens others. Pear upon
pear waxes old, and apple on apple, yea, and cluster ripens upon
cluster of the grape, and fig upon fig. There too hath he a faithful
vineyard planted, whereof the one part is being dried by the heat, a
sunny plot on level ground, while other grapes men are gathering, and
yet others they are treading in the wine-press. In the foremost row
are unripe grapes that cast the blossom, and others there be that are
growing black to vintaging. There too, skirting the furthest line,
are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, that are perpetually
fresh, and therein are two fountains of water, whereof one scatters
his streams all about the garden, and the other runs over against
it beneath the threshold of the court-yard, and issues by the lofty
house, and thence did the townsfolk draw water.--These were the
splendid gifts of the gods in the palace of Alcinöus.[1]"
Divested of the spell with which the poet's flight of imagination
bewitches us, we find that the wonderful garden of Alcinöus is, after
all, rather trifling, probably of small extent, and containing an
orchard, a vineyard, garden beds and two fountains of water, which
brings us to the conclusion that this renowned garden would cut but a
sorry figure beside modern gardens; but, on the other hand, we are made
sure that certain fruits, among them the pear, were commonly cultivated
in Greece a thousand years before Christ's time. There is no hint in
Homer as to whether there were as yet varieties of pears, or as to
whether fruits were as yet pruned, grafted, fertilized and otherwise
cared for. For indications that these arts of the orchard were under
practice, we must pass on to the writings of another great Greek,
Theophrastus.
Between Homer and Theophrastus nearly 600 years intervene, in all
of which time traces of the pear are few and uncertain. But from
Theophrastus, to whom botanists accord the title "Father of Botany," we
know that orcharding had been making progress, and that the pear, among
other fruits, must have been as well known and nearly as well cared
for in his time, 370-286 B.C., as in this twentieth century. All the
expedients we now know to assist nature to bring pears to perfection,
save spraying and cross-pollination, were known to Theophrastus,
although of course the evolution from the wild state as indicated by
number and diversity of kinds had not progressed so far. Out of one of
the books of Theophrastus, _Enquiry into Plants_, a very good treatise
on the pear might be compiled and one better worth following than
many of his more modern imitators. To quote Theophrastus at length is
impossible, but space must be given to a summary of what he says about
pears.
Theophrastus distinguishes between wild and cultivated pears and
says that the cultivated forms have received names. He speaks of
the propagation of pears from seeds, roots, and cuttings and makes
plain that plants grown from seed "lose the character of their kind
and produce a degenerate kind." Grafting is described. The nature of
the ground is said to regulate the distance for planting pears, and
the lower slopes of hills are recommended as the best sites for pear
orchards. Root-pruning, girdling the stems, and driving iron pegs in
the trunk and other methods of "punishing" trees are said to hasten the
bearing time. Even the necessity of cross-pollination is recognized
though of course the reasons for it are not known. Thus, Theophrastus
says: "Trees which are apt to shed their fruit before ripening it are
almond, apple, pomegranate, pear, and, above all, fig and date-palm;
and men try to find the suitable remedies for this. This is the reason
for the process called 'caprification'; gall-insects come out of the
wild figs which are hanging there, eat the tops of the cultivated figs,
and so make them swell." The growth of the pear on various soils and in
diverse situations is compared; he makes mention of a "peculiar, red
and hairy worm" which infested the pear of these old Greek orchards. In
Pontus, it is stated, "pears and apples are abundant in a great variety
of forms and are excellent." "General diseases" are enumerated as
"those of being worm-eaten, sun-scorched, and rot." Certain affections
due to season and situation are mentioned, as freezing, scorching, and
injury from winds.
This is but a brief epitome of what Theophrastus writes of the pomology
of the Greeks, and only topics in which the pear is specifically
mentioned are set down and not all of these. By inference, one who
reads Theophrastus might apply much more to the pear. Yet enough has
been said to prove the point that pear culture was as well established
in Greece 300 years B.C. as in 1900 years A.D. One leaves Theophrastus,
satisfied that pear-growers of his day had about the same problems that
growers have nowadays and solved them by the same sort of reasoning
intelligence.
In crediting Theophrastus as the earliest writer on pomology, we may
assume that there were earlier writers from whom he must have received
much knowledge. Perhaps greater writers on botany and pomology preceded
him, since he cites older authors on the same subjects whose books have
been lost. His alone of the books of its kind have come down to us from
ancient Greece. Theophrastus was the friend and pupil of Aristotle,
another philosopher and prince of science, and both in turn were taught
by Plato. Who shall say, then, from whence Theophrastus received his
knowledge? Aristotle is said to have written two books on botany
antedating the _Enquiry into Plants_ of Theophrastus, neither of which
has survived the passing centuries. May not these great minds have
been indebted to authors whose books and names have perished? These
speculations serve to remind us again that the beginnings of botany and
pomology long antedate written records.
There were Greeks who wrote on agriculture after Theophrastus, and
before the Roman treatises on farm management, a few of which are to be
mentioned in the next topic. Of books, as monuments of vanished minds,
however, there are none to indicate the activities of Greek farmers who
wrote, but there are citations to show that ancient Greek literature
on farming was voluminous. Thus, Marcus Terentius Varro (B.C. 116-28),
called "the most learned of the Romans," in his eightieth year wrote a
book on Roman agriculture for the guidance of his wife in the practice
of farming. Learned old Varro believed in "book farming," or science
with practice, of which we hear so much nowadays. He begins his
treatise by invoking Greek and Roman deities to aid his wife, and names
fifty monographs on husbandry written by Greeks, in which, he tells
this early farmerette, she will find all of the practical information
she needs. This is but one of several sources from which we learn that
in the making of books on agriculture there was no end in the heroic
days of Greece as in modern times.
THE PEAR IN ANCIENT ROME
Italy, by common consent, is the garden of the world, and it would
be strange if the pear had not been taken to this favored land with
the earliest tillers of orchards, or if attempts had not been made to
domesticate the wild pears found in the northern mountains. And so we
may assume, with no very definite proofs, that the pear was cultivated
in ancient Rome some hundreds of years before the Christian era. In
Cato, the first book written in Latin on agriculture, the pear is
discussed, and six varieties are named and described. What had this
illustrious Roman, known generally as a statesman and scholar, to do
with pomology?
Marcus Portius Cato (B.C. 235-150), called the elder Cato, besides
serving Rome in state and army, wrote a treatise on farming,
fruit-growing, and gardening, which, first of its kind in Latin
literature, may be read with greater profit than the works of most
writers of our own day in agriculture. Cato was preeminently the first
agricultural philosopher, and no one who has followed him has packed
more shrewd agricultural philosophy in a book than he. But it is as
a pomologist that Cato concerns us most at this time. Cato describes
almost every method of propagating, grafting, caring for, and keeping
fruits known to twentieth-century fruit-growers. He describes, also,
many varieties of fruits, as well as of vegetables, grains, and breeds
of farm animals. Among Cato's fruits are six varieties of pears. What
is of especial interest in this history is that Cato writes as if the
practices of agriculture and the plants and animals he described were
not only established but ancient in his time.
Varro, whose standing as a Roman writer on agriculture is noted above,
says nothing of varieties of pears, but gives directions for grafting
pear-trees, among other methods that of inarching of which he seems
the first ancient writer to take note, thereby justifying, in small
degree, it is true, the appellation often given him, "the most modern
of all the ancients." Varro also tells how pears should be stored.
While, therefore, he says nothing that helps in following the evolution
of the pear, yet his accounts of grafting and storing make plain the
fact that this fruit was a standard product of the times. Were it worth
while, still other early Roman treatises on husbandry might be quoted
to establish the place of the pear in the agriculture of ancient Rome,
but it is chiefly in the evolution of the fruit we are concerned and so
pass from Varro to Pliny, who, in his _Natural History_, adds to Cato's
six varieties thirty-five new sorts, giving a total of forty-one for
the generation following Christ.
Pliny, more or less discredited as a scientist because he was a
compiler and, as the men of science for science sake never forget to
point out, at all times of a utilitarian bent of mind, makes a most
important contribution to the history of the pear as a domesticated
fruit. Indefatigable compiler as he was, few cultivated pears of his
or more ancient times could have escaped his notice, and the thread of
the utilitarian running through his _Natural History_ makes all the
more important what he has to say in this study of the domestication
and improvement of the pear. A good authority says that there are sixty
manuscript copies of Pliny and eighty different editions, no two of
which are exactly alike. Allowing some latitude, therefore, to the
translator, Pliny's descriptions of pears run as follows:
"For the same reason (as in the case of apples) in the case of pears
the name Superba (proud) is given; these are small, but earliest
ripe. The Crustumia are most pleasant to all; next to these the
Falerna, so called from the wine, since they have such abundance of
sap or milk, as it is called; among these are those which others
call Syrian from their dark color. Of the rest, some are called by
one name in one place and by another in another. Some by their Roman
names reveal their discoverers, as the Decimiana, and what they call
the Pseudo-Decimiana, derived from that; the Dolabelliana with their
long stalk; the Pomponiana of protuberant (full-breasted) shape;
the Liceriana; the Seviana and those which spring from these, the
Turraniana, distinguished by their length of stalk; the Favoniana
of reddish color, a little larger than the Superba; the Lateriana;
the Aniciana, which ripens in late autumn and has a pleasant acid
flavor. The Tiberiana are so called because the Emperor Tiberius
was very fond of them. They get more color from the sun and grow to
larger size, but otherwise are the same as the Liceriana. These bear
the name of the country from which they come; the Amerina, latest of
all; the Picentina; the Numantina; the Alexandria; the Numidiana; the
Greek and among them the Tarentine, the Signina, which others from
their color call Testacea (like tiles, or brick-colored), like the
Onychina (onyx) and Purpurea (purple). From their odor are named the
Myrapia (myrrh-pear), Laurea (laurel), Nardina (nard); from their
season the Hordearia (barley, at the barley-harvest); from the shape
of their neck the Ampullacea (flask). The Coriolana and Bruttia have
family-names (Coriolanus, Brutus); the Cucurbitina (gourd-pears) are
so called from their bitter taste. The origin of the name is unknown
in the case of the Barbarica and the Veneria which they call colored;
the Regia, which are attached to a very short stalk; the Patricia; the
Voconia, which are green and oblong. Virgil mentions also the Volema,
taken from Cato, who names also the Sementiva and the Mustea.[2]"
It is pertinent to inquire, now, as to what types of pears the ancients
had. Such an inquiry leads up to another and much more important
question: Have new characters appeared in pears since Pliny wrote? If
so, it may be possible that we shall be forced to assume that man's
dominancy over this fruit has produced the new characters, in which
case search might be made for the key to unlock more new characters.
For the present, however, only the first question can be considered,
before going into which it is necessary to know what the most prominent
characters of the pear are. Only those of the fruit need be named.
There are twenty outstanding characters which differentiate the
varieties of pears now cultivated, not taking account of those
introduced by the hybridization of _P. communis_ with _P. serotina_
which has given pomology the Kieffer-like varieties. These characters
are: Smooth or russet skin; red, yellow, or green color; large or
small size; early or late season; long or short stem; round, oblate,
ovate, and pyriform shapes; granular, buttery, or breaking flesh;
sweet or acid flavor. In the pears described by Pliny so many of
these characters are mentioned or may be assumed to be present from
inference, that the conclusion is forced that in the many new pure-bred
pears of _P. communis_ which have come into existence since Pliny's
time, showing a great shuffling of characters in pear-breeding, it is
doubtful whether new characters have come into being in 2000 years.
This, in turn, forces the conclusion that if this fruit is to be
greatly changed, the change must come about through hybridization with
other species.
Another quotation from Pliny shows that the Romans valued pears
as a medicine as well as a food, had curious notions as to their
digestibility, and, as with most plants, ascribed other marvelous
qualities to them. Thus, Pliny says:
"All kinds of pears, as an aliment, are indigestible, to persons in
robust health, even; but to invalids they are forbidden as rigidly as
wine. Boiled, however, they are remarkably agreeable and wholesome,
those of the Crustumium in particular. All kinds of pears, too,
boiled with honey, are wholesome to the stomach. Cataplasms of a
resolvent nature are made with pears, and a decoction of them is
used to disperse indurations. They are efficacious, also, in cases
of poisoning by mushrooms and fungi, as much by reason of their
heaviness, as by the neutralizing effects of their juice.
"The wild pear ripens but very slowly. Cut in slices and hung in the
air to dry, it arrests looseness of the bowels, an effect which is
equally produced by a decoction of it taken in drink; in which case
the leaves are also boiled up together with the fruit. The ashes of
pear-tree wood are even more efficacious as an antidote to the poison
of fungi.
"A load of apples or pears, however small, is singularly fatiguing
to beasts of burden; the best plan to counteract this, they say, is
to give the animals some to eat, or at least to show them the fruit
before starting."
There is in the books of these old farmer-writers a mass of sagacious
teachings which can never be outlived--will always underlay the best
practice. Followed carefully, except in the matter of pests, the
precepts of Cato and Varro would as certainly lead to success as the
mandates of the modern experiment stations with all the up-to-date
appliances for carrying out their commands. Sagacity fails, however,
in one respect in these Roman husbandmen--all are fettered by
superstitions. In these old books on the arts of husbandry, woven in
with the practical precepts, which stand well the test of science,
superstitions abound beyond present belief. Thus, whenever the
discourse turns to pears, from Diophanes, who lived in Asia Minor a
century before Christ, down through the ages in Greece, Italy, France,
Belgium to the eighteenth century in England, runs the superstition,
with various modifications, that to grow the best pears you must bore
a hole through the trunk at the ground and drive in a plug of oak
or beech over which the earth must be drawn. If the wound does not
heal, it must be washed for a fortnight with the lees of wine. As the
superstition waned, the apologetic injunction usually follows, that, in
any event the wine-lees will improve the flavor of the fruit. Another
superstition, current for centuries, accepted by Cato and Varro, and
handed on with abiding faith almost to modern times was, as stated by
Barnaby Googe, a farmer and writer subject of Queen Elizabeth, "if you
graffe your peare upon a Mulbery, you shall have red Peares." Stories
of promiscuous grafting abound in the old books. Another is that if an
apple be grafted on the pear, the fruit is a "pearmain."
After Pliny follows a dreary and impenetrable period of 1500 years,
in which time but few new facts regarding the evolution of the pear
come to light in what is now Italy. The pear is mentioned, it is true,
by many Roman writers, but all copy Theophrastus, Cato, and Pliny.
Dioscorides, a learned Greek physician and botanist, who may be said to
have been the author of the first book of "applied science" in botany,
was the great botanical and pomological authority for the first 1600
years of the present era, many editions of his book appeared and in
several languages, and it is he who is most often quoted by writers
on fruits even until the seventeenth century, but he adds nothing new
on the pear, and does not even extend the list of known varieties.
During these 1600 years a great number of voluminous commentaries
on Dioscorides appeared, in several of which names of new pears are
mentioned, but, with the exception of one writer, the descriptions are
so terse that the new sorts cannot be connected with older or later
periods. The exception is Matthiolus (1501-1577), but since the English
herbalists, in their turn, largely copy Matthiolus, with valuable
amplifications, it is better to give space further on to them.
Perhaps one more name should be mentioned among the Roman writers.
Messer Pietro de Crescenzi, an Italian born at Bologna in 1230, wrote
a book on agriculture in which the chapters on fruits are especially
well written. For reasons to be mentioned, this book had a remarkable
influence on the horticulture of Europe for the next three or four
centuries. With the discovery of printing, nearly two centuries after
the book was written, Crescenzi was published in numerous editions and
in several languages to the great enlightenment of pomologists on the
cultivation of fruits, but with small additions to the knowledge of
the fruits themselves. Whether because the book was really the most
serviceable of its kind in the world for four centuries, or whether
by virtue of the happy circumstance of being many times printed, it
had absolute supremacy over other agricultural texts, is now too
late to judge. There is good reason to suspect that Crescenzi's is
the precedence of circumstance, for he stole page after page from
Palladius, of the fourth century, who, to be sure, in his turn, copied
Columella and the Greeks. Most of these borrowings, however, meet the
requirement of being "bettered by the borrower" that separates adoption
from plagiarism.
One other landmark, though a somewhat inconspicuous one, in the history
of the pear in Italy, is deserving brief mention. Toward the middle of
the sixteenth century Agostino Gallo, an Italian, wrote _The Twenty
Days of Agriculture and the Charms of Country Life_. With the fall of
the Roman Empire in the fifth century, agriculture was reduced to the
production of the necessities of life and pomology all but perished.
It required a thousand years to recover from the domination of the
barbarian conqueror of Rome. Hence, it is not surprising that Gallo
names but twelve varieties of pears instead of the forty-one of Pliny.
Gallo says that he does not name all of the summer pears, but leaves
the inference that his list is complete for autumn and winter sorts.
There probably was a greater number under cultivation at this time
in Italy, but Gallo's list shows that the number was small. Gallo
is regarded as the restorer of agriculture in Italy after the dark
ages, and as one of the most enlightened men of his time, so that we
may accept him as an accurate historian. Besides furnishing a list
of the pears of his day in Italy, Gallo names two that are now under
cultivation--Bergamot and Bon Chrétien.
THE PEAR IN FRANCE
Who introduced the pear in France matters little. The Greeks who
founded Marseille 600 B.C. may have done so. The Romans, masters
of ancient Gaul for centuries, undoubtedly planted pears at widely
separated places and in earliest times of Roman occupation. Or,
and quite possibly, the original natives of the land began the
domestication of the pear for, as we have seen, two cultivated species
grow wild in what is now France. Date and manner of introduction matter
less than a recognizable landmark in the history of the pear as an
orchard plant in France. There is such a landmark and a conspicuous one.
Charlemagne, the many-sided genius who ruled the Franks in the ninth
century, exercised his powerful influence in behalf of agriculture
during the time of his reign, and to him is due credit for establishing
the first notable landmark in the history of the pear in France. We
are well informed of Charlemagne's various activities while in power,
for official annals were kept at the Frankish Court. Charlemagne's
secretary has left a biography of his master, and many of the King's
_Capitularies_, or lists of laws, are extant. In these records,
agriculture is a matter of constant comment and the pear is often
up for discussion. One quotation serves to show that this fruit was
cultivated in considerable variety in Charlemagne's orchards.
In the _Capitulaire de Villis_, Chapter LXX, Charlemagne is reported
to have commanded his orchardists to plant pears of distinct kinds for
distinct purposes. That the command was of sufficient importance to
be recorded in a capitulaire indicates that Charlemagne esteemed this
fruit. The order runs: "Plant pear trees whose products, because of
pleasant flavor, could be eaten raw, those which will furnish fruits
for cooking, and, finally, those which mature late to serve for use
in winter." There is little information in this brief command, but it
tells us that a considerable number of varieties of pears were grown
in France in the ninth century, and that they were of sufficient
importance to hold the attention of a great and busy monarch.
Either the culture of the pear abruptly ceased with the death of
Charlemagne or records ceased to be kept that would throw light on
the agriculture of the next five centuries, for from the tenth to the
fifteenth century is an uncharted waste in the history of the pear in
France. Undoubtedly pears were cultivated during this time by the monks
who had the time, the taste, and the land for carrying on agriculture.
When the pear comes to light again in the happier period for pomology
of the sixteenth century, the many names of monasteries in the list of
varieties suggest that the monks not only busied themselves with the
culture of the fruit but greatly increased the number of kinds of pears.
Three great minds now appeared to make France the leading country
in the production of agricultural literature in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries and all paid attention to pomology. The names
of Charles Estienne, Olivier de Serres, and Le Lectier in agriculture
mark the departure from traditions handed down from the old Greeks and
Romans to the beginning of a new agriculture founded on first-hand
study and observation. The printing-press, it is true, was now an
invaluable ally, but these three men were of an original bent of mind
and would have been distinguished in any period before printing.
Charles Estienne, the first and the least of these three early geniuses
of French agriculture, published several works on agriculture, mostly
compilations, but all containing original observations, in one of
which, his "Seminarium," printed in Paris in 1540, is a list of sixteen
pears with brief descriptions of each. Not one of Estienne's pears is
now important, but all appear in the histories of minor sorts in the
last chapter of this text.
De Serres, known in France as "The Father of Agriculture," published
his _Le Théâtre d'Agriculture_ in 1608, a book ever to be notable in
agriculture as the first to break wholly away from the 1600 years
of repetition of book after book in the languages of Europe which
but copied the ancients. De Serres was a good farmer--most of his
farming operations have not been improved upon; he founded the first
experimental farm of which there is record at his home near Pradel
and so became the first of a long line of modern experimenters in
agriculture. Lastly, De Serres was a charming writer and his book
rapidly ran through many editions and was translated into several
languages. To him must be given credit for first sounding the alluring
call of "back to the land" which rings from nearly every page of his
books. Here is his appeal to plant pears; and words could hardly make
it simpler, more charming, and more compelling:
"There is no tree among all those planted which abounds so much
in kinds of fruits as the pear tree, whose different sorts are
innumerable and their different qualities wonderful. For from the
month of May to that of December pears good to eat are found on the
trees. In considering particularly the different shapes, sizes,
colors, flavors, and odors of the pear, who will not adore the wisdom
of the creator. Pears are found round, long 'goderonnees'[3] pointed,
blunt, small, and large. Gold, silver, vermillion, and satin green are
found among the pears. Sugar, honey, cinnamon, clove, flavor them.
They smell of musk, amber, and chive. In short, so excellent are the
fruits that an orchard would not be worth while in a place where pear
trees do not thrive."
This laudation of the pear, in which it is made manifest that many
pears of diverse shapes, colors, flavors, and perfumes existed in the
year 1600, is all that space permits from De Serres, though much could
be quoted as to the care of pear orchards, and a list of kinds could
be given, of which, however, the descriptions count for but little. Le
Lectier, to whom we now come, is a better authority on varieties.
Le Lectier, an attorney of the king at Orleans, was an amateur fruit
collector, but a collector who reflected and printed his reflections.
He seems to have been about the first of the many collectors who,
with fruit-growing as an avocation, have zealously sought to improve
and distribute varieties, and thereby have done as much or more for
pomology than those who have made fruit-growing a vocation. Though Le
Lectier collected all of the fruits of his time and country, the pear
was mistress of his passion, a passion which gave him such pleasure
that it excited others to become amateurs and emulate him. The result
was that a country-wide taste for pears was stimulated and a veritable
craze for this fruit was started--everybody planted pears.
The famous collection of fruits was begun by Le Lectier in 1598. By
1628, the infatuation to plant had progressed until Le Lectier could
send to his fellow amateurs a catalog of his possessions of fruits
with the desire to exchange. His offer to exchange shows all of the
collector's zeal. It reads as follows:
"I beg all those who have good fruits (not contained in the present
Catalogue) when he obtains them to inform me of it, so that I can have
grafts of them in exchange for those which they have not, but which
they wish to get from me, and which I will furnish them.
"Signed, Le Lectier, Attorney of the King at Orleans.
20th of December, 1628."
From Le Lectier's list we learn that 300 years ago the French had at
least 254 pears. In this catalog are many pears in the pomologies
of today, but, unfortunately without descriptions or any attempt
to determine duplicates in names or varieties, the list serves for
little more than a monument for one of the first and one of the most
zealous collectors of pears. Le Lectier, however, may be said to have
introduced the golden age of pomology in France; for, during historical
times there seems to have been no other period in which pomology
exercised the minds and hands of well-to-do people as in the century
that followed Le Lectier. Even the kings of France took pleasure in
using the spade and the pruning-knife. La Quintinye, the best of
the pomological writers of the day, complained that the country was
overwhelmed with books on pomology. Thus, was ushered in the period
which we may call our own in which the history of the pear may be read
in books innumerable.
As steps in the progress of the pear, the number of varieties may be
noted as given by French pomologists in the modern era of pear-growing.
Merlet, 1667, describes 187 varieties; La Quintinye, 1690, 67; Duhamel,
1768, 119; the Chartreuse fathers, 1775, 102; Tollard, 1805, 120;
Noisette, 1833, 238; while Leroy, 1867, from whom the figures just
given were taken, says that in the half century preceding, the number
of pears in France was quadrupled and that there are 900 varieties
for which there are 3000 names. Leroy notes three events as the cause
of the generous multiplication of pears in the period of which he
writes: The introduction of the many varieties grown by Van Mons and
other Flemish pomologists beginning about 1805; a little later, the
establishment of exchange relations with English nurseries; and still
later, 1849, the importation of a great number of new varieties from
America. To Americans, it is particularly significant to note that the
great progress of the pear in France is due to amateur tendance and not
commercial success.
THE PEAR IN BELGIUM
Providence ordained Belgium to produce the modern pear. The evolution
of the pear proceeded slowly, indeed, until its culture became common
on the clayey and chalky soils in the cool, moist climate of Belgium,
where flavor, aroma, texture, size, and color reach perfection. The
pear was improved more in one century in Belgium than in all the
centuries that had past. The part Providence played in endowing the
Belgians with an ideal soil and climate for the pear, is but one of
two causes of the results in improving the pear in this country. The
other is that the Belgians, ever notable horticulturists, give the
pear assiduous care, cultivate only the most approved varieties, and
in breeding, aim ever at high quality, so that Belgian pear-growers,
as well as an ordained soil and climate, must be given credit for the
modern pear.
The early history of the pear in Belgium follows step by step that of
the pear in France. In the sixteenth century, botanists were numerous
in the Low Countries, their zeal and activity showing forth in several
of the best of the early herbals. These herbalists, however, gave scant
attention to the pear. Dodoens, most noted Belgian botanist of the
century, dismissed the matter of varieties with the statement that the
names change from village to village, and that it is therefore useless
to give them. From this we may assume that a considerable number of
pears were cultivated in Belgium at the time Dodoens wrote, about the
middle of the sixteenth century.
Pear-breeding began in Belgium about 1730, when Nicolas Hardenpont,
1705-1774, a priest in his native town of Mons, made a large sowing of
pear seed with a view of obtaining new pears of superior quality. Time
is fleeting in breeding tree fruits, and the Abbé Hardenpont waited
nearly 30 years before introducing his selected seedlings, and then,
beginning in 1758, he introduced one new variety after another until a
dozen or more new pears were accredited to him. At least six of these
are still grown in Europe, but only one, the Passe Colmar, is known
in America. But before going further with the work of the Belgian
breeders, it is necessary to take stock of what was on hand before
their time.
La Quintinye, the most noted French pomologist of his time, in 1690
listed 67 pear varieties. The Belgians probably had all of these.
What were they? Most of them were old sorts--some were centuries old.
All, so far as their histories show, originated by chance in garden,
orchard, hedge row, and forest. No one seems yet to have planted seed
with a view of obtaining new and better pears. Camerarius in 1694
had made known the fact of sex in plants. Soon after, experiments in
hybridization began, but no one as yet had hybridized pears. Lastly,
nearly all pears, before the Belgians began to improve them, were
crisp or breaking in flesh, the _crevers_ of the French, while the
soft-fleshed, melting pears, the _beurrés_ of the French, were as
yet hardly known. Now, mostly owing to the work of the Belgians, the
buttery pears predominate.
Of the means by which Hardenpont obtained his superior pears, there
is no precise knowledge. Whether his new sorts were lucky chances
out of a large number of promiscuous seedlings, or whether he was a
pioneer in hybridizing can never be known. Du Mortier, a distinguished
Belgian botanist, gives the credit of hybridization to the Abbé, basing
his opinion on the fact that the characters of most of Hardenpont's
varieties are plainly a commingling of two well-known parents which
could hardly be the case if they were happy chances were fate ever so
kindly disposed.
Hardenpont soon had many imitators in Belgium. Indeed, the Belgians
seem to have been quite carried off their feet by pear-breeding, and
during the first half of the nineteenth century a fad like the "tulip
craze" of Holland and the "mulberry craze" of America reigned in the
country. Among the breeders are found the names of priests, physicians,
scientists, apothecaries, attorneys, tradesmen, and gentlemen of
leisure. The introduction of new varieties made notable in horticulture
the towns of Mons, Tournaii, Enghien, Louvain, Malines, and Brussels.
The awarding of medals for new pears produced the horticultural
sensations of the times. Hundreds if not thousands of new varieties
were introduced, of which many, it is true, have proved worthless,
others of but secondary merit, while still others, as we shall find,
are even now among the best pears under cultivation. But the great
fact, be it remembered, is that these amateur pear-breeders wrought
in a few years a complete transformation in a fruit that had been
domesticated and had been fairly stable for over 2000 years.
A few names besides Hardenpont stand out prominently and must be
mentioned. Of these, Van Mons is best known. Jean Baptiste Van Mons,
1765-1842, was a pharmacist, physicist, and physician, one of the
savants of his time, who, late in the eighteenth century, under the
potent spell cast by Hardenpont's work, began to breed pears. Space
forbids an account of Van Mons' experiments. Suffice to say that he
introduced more than two scores of pears having lasting merit, and
that in the height of his career he had in his "Nursery of Fidelity"
at Louvain, eighty thousand seedlings. Van Mons outlives in fame the
Belgian pear-breeders of his time because he propounded a theory for
the origination of new varieties of plants, and this in its turn
is famed as the first complete system of plant improvement. Van
Mons contributed but little of direct value to plant-breeding, but
indirectly he gave a great impetus to breeding pears and to the culture
of the pear, more especially in America, and we must therefore glance
at his theory and trace more in detail its influence on American
pear-growing.
Van Mons' theory, in brief, as expounded in various papers, is: A
species does not vary in the place in which it is born; it reproduces
only plants which resemble itself. The causes of variation are changes
in soil, climate, or temperature. Whenever a species produces one or
many varieties, these varieties continue to vary always. The source
of all variation, which is transmissible by sowing, resides in the
seeds. The older a variety, the less the seedlings vary, and the more
they tend to return toward the primitive form, without being able ever
to reach that state; the younger or newer the variety, the more the
seedlings vary.
In putting his theory in practice Van Mons took the first seeds from
wild plants or those little improved, from which he grew seedlings,
and from these the seeds were taken from the first fruits to ripen for
new sowings. This practice he repeated generation after generation.
Thus, it is seen that Van Mons was an early apostle of selection. He
is said to have distributed over 400 varieties, about 40 of which are
still under cultivation. It is to be feared, however, that Van Mons'
theory was preconceived without experiment or even observation for a
foundation. He devoted a life of most admirable zeal to verifying and
developing this vision of his early years with some material reward
it is true, but with a better foundation his prodigious labors would
have yielded greater direct results in improving the pear. Still, the
indirect results, his influence on the pomologists of two continents,
even though they did not subscribe to his theories, was more valuable
than the work of one mind and one pair of hands could possibly have
been.
There must always be pioneers, men who stray from beaten paths, but
pioneers seldom exert wide and deep influence at once--leave the worn
path, so to speak, and at once construct a macadamized road--yet this
was what Van Mons did. Pomologists agree that until his time no man had
exerted so profound an influence on pomology. His love of discovery
and love of labor permeated fruit-growing in Europe and America.
Fortunately, it was the age of the amateur fruit-grower. Pleasure
and progress, driven by curiosity, counted for more than commercial
success, so that Van Mons' new varieties at once gave him wide fame.
He was made known to American pear-growers by Robert Manning who
distributed his new varieties in this country and described them in
the horticultural literature of the day and in his _Book of Fruits_
published in 1838. Later, Andrew Jackson Downing, the brilliant genius
of American horticulture, published Van Mons' theories and described
many of his new pears in his _Fruits and Fruit Trees_, which came from
the press in 1845. Thus, Van Mons became the recognized authority in
America on all matters relating to the pear. Indeed, it is hardly too
much to say that we owe him obligations as the founder of pear-culture
in this country.
But the work of the Belgians does not end with Van Mons. There were
other breeders of pears, who, though not to be classed with Van Mons
as a Titan, lacking the quality of mind to set forth a new philosophy,
helped to enliven the impulse given by their leader to the improvement
of the pear by originating new varieties. Chief of these are Major
Espéren, of Malines, who introduced twenty of the pears mentioned in
the _Pears of New York_; Bivort, who has twenty-three to his credit;
Gregoire, forty-two; Simon Bouvier, eleven; De Jonghe, six; and De
Nelis, five. While, if the lists of varieties in the last two chapters
of this text be scanned for Belgians who introduced but one, two, or
three new pears, the list runs up into the hundreds. Labor finds its
summit in the work of these Belgian pear-breeders, who obtained petty
rewards by sifting millions of seedlings through the coarse meshes
of the sieve of selection. We can pardon these enthusiastic breeders
with grace for over-zealousness in naming varieties obtained with such
prodigious efforts.
THE PEAR IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
The pear can be improved only where the pear-tree flourishes, and then
only when assisted by the foresight and desire of men. This happy
combination seems not to exist in Europe outside of Italy, France,
Belgium, and England. The pear flourishes along the Danube, in parts
of Austria and southern Germany, and along the upper Rhine, but
the people of these regions seem to have been followers rather than
leaders in developing this fruit, having produced almost no meritorious
varieties. America is indebted to the vast region of central and
western Europe for but one major variety, the Forelle, and this sort is
of little importance.
Pomology, the world over, however, is indebted to Germany for much
valuable pomological literature. Cordus, Mayer, Christ, Diel, Dittrich,
Truchsess, Hinkert, Dochnahl, Oberdieck, Engelbrecht, Lauche, and
Gaucher, all Germans, and Kraft, an Austrian, have been industrious
compilers, and have given pomology some of its best texts on systematic
pomology.
Cordus, earliest German pomological writer, wrote an illuminating
chapter in the history of the pear, which must be reproduced. Valerius
Cordus, 1515-1544, a botanical genius, made botanical expeditions
to nearly every part of Germany, in the course of which he made
special study of the apple and the pear. He described fifty pears and
thirty-one apples. These descriptions are noteworthy as the earliest
for these fruits in Germany. Cordus is called by one great botanist,
"the inventor of the art of describing plants;" by another, he is said
to have been "first to teach men to cease from dependence on the poor
descriptions of the ancients and to describe plants anew from nature;"
a third botanical authority says of him, "the first of all men to excel
in plant description;" while a fourth writes of the four books of his
_Historia Plantarum_ "truly extraordinary because of the accuracy
with which the plants are described." Thus, botanists accord him
special distinction, but pomologists seem not to know this resplendent
systemist of the sixteenth century, who, as we shall see, is especially
deserving of pomological recognition.
Cordus is entitled to honor in the history of pomology as first to
print descriptions of fruits for the purpose of identifying varieties.
No doubt as soon as the earth ceased to furnish spontaneously the
primitive luxury of ready-to-eat food in the shape of fruit, making
culture necessary, varieties were acquired and became commodities as
they are today. Varieties were certain to originate under cultivation,
and their value was certain to be recognized by our first ancestors, to
whom the convenience, necessity, and expediency of having a diversity
of kinds of any fruit as well as of a means of keeping them true to
kind, must have been apparent at the beginning of fruit culture. That
such was the case, the most ancient sacred and profane writings assure
us. Varieties of the fig, olive, grape, and other fruits are mentioned
by all early writers on plants. That varieties of fruits would not come
true to seed was early known, and propagation by cuttings, layers,
and grafting was invented to preserve choice sorts. Many of the early
writers name varieties, tell from whence they came, and some set forth
a remarkable character or two, but none give detailed descriptions.
Cordus was first to engage in this sort of enterprise.
This chapter from Cordus is important, too, because it makes plain that
the pears grown in Germany four hundred years ago possessed all the
characters to be found in modern pears. Culture has increased size,
modified shapes, augmented flavors, brightened colors, and softened
textures, but no characters that can be considered new or distinct,
unit characters of the plant-breeder, have been introduced in the
four centuries that have gone by. The characters possessed by these
German pears are the same, so far as can be made out, as those of the
varieties grown by the Greeks and Latins nearly 2000 years earlier.
From this, the inference must be drawn that the characters of the pear
have not originated under cultivation but exist in wild types. New
and distinct characters can come only by hybridization with another
species. Pears within a species are changed only by a recombination of
the characters possessed by the species.
The descriptions of varieties from Cordus[4] that follow are commended
to pomologists as models of brevity and accuracy. These word-pictures
reproduce the pears as vividly as an artist could paint them. One sees
at once that Cordus was no compiler. Such descriptions as Cordus writes
can be made only in the orchard with the pear in hand.
"The domesticated pear-tree is like the wild tree in trunk, bark,
timber, leaves and blossoms, but has straighter and more shapely
boughs and leaves a little larger. Of the fruits themselves, which we
call pears, there are innumerable kinds, of which we will describe
some that are found in Germany, adding also their German names, which
vary, however, in the different provinces.
"_Probstbirn_, that is, Provost pear, so-called from their broad base,
near the stalk end in a blunt point, have a length of three inches,
breadth a little less. Their color is pale green, speckled with green
spots or dots; they are astringent to the taste, and by the abundance
of their juice extinguish thirst. They ripen at the beginning of
autumn, and quickly decay because of the abundance of watery and
rather cold juice. They are found in abundance at Eisleben near the
Harz forest in Saxony.
"_Speckbirn_, that is, Lard pear, swell in the middle with a thick
belly, from which they suddenly taper off into a point; they have a
length of more than three inches, a width somewhat less than three
inches; they are of pale color, and like the Provost, speckled with
green dots, rather mild and sweet to the taste, dissolving in the
mouth like lard, whence they have received their name, and with the
abundance of their juice they quench thirst; when they are peeled they
give a sweet odor. They ripen at the beginning of autumn and very
easily decay.
"_Kaulbirn_, that is, Ball pear, have almost the roundness of a globe,
except that near the stalk they rise to a blunt and inconspicuous
circle. Their length is scarcely two inches; they rarely exceed this,
but in width slightly exceed their length. In color they are pale
green, in taste and smell they rival the Lard with which also they
come to ripeness; these too easily decay. They are found at Eisleben.
"_Hanffbirn_, that is, Hemp pear, are like the Ball but a little
larger; they have a green color, marked with spots or dots; in taste
they correspond to the Ball, but do not dissolve so readily in the
mouth; they ripen at the same time, and are easily affected by decay.
These too are found at Eisleben.
"_Glockenbirn_, that is, Bell pear, from a broad base narrow down to a
sort of narrow neck and then end in a blunt head; they have quite the
shape of a bell, whence they have received their name. They are wholly
of a yellow color spotted with dots, in length a little less than
three inches, but in width they do not reach two inches. They have no
unpleasant odor, especially when peeled; in taste they correspond to
the Hemp, and reach maturity at the same time, and easily decay. They
grow in abundance at Eisleben.
"_Königsbirn_, King's pear, or _Regalbirn_, Rule pear, that is, Royal
pear, are large and big-bellied; they have a length sometimes of four
inches, a width a little less; they are of bluish-gray color, but in
that part where they have had the sun they become slightly red. They
are astringent to the taste and with a copious juice, and that sweet
and something like wine, they allay thirst. They ripen when the sun
has entered Libra, and do not so easily decay.
"_Klunssbirn_, that is, Lump pear, are of two varieties; both kinds,
however, correspond proportionately in shape to the Royal, but are
inferior to them in size. There is a difference in color, for one
kind has a bluish-gray color, the other reddish-gray. They have a
juice similar in flavor to the Royal but more acid. They ripen with
the Royal. In Saxony there is great abundance of them, especially at
Hildesheim.
"_Bonnebirn_, that is, Bonn pear, so-called from the city of Bonn
on the Rhine, from which they have been transplanted into other
districts. They have an almost spherical shape, except that near the
stalk they end in a blunt point. They are three inches in length, a
little less in width. Their color is on one side green or pale, on
the other, where they have been touched by the sun, reddish. They
are moderately acid to the taste, and abound with copious juice,
rather watery, very refreshing in effect. They ripen when the sun is
hastening toward Scorpio. They are abundant at Marburg in Hesse.
"_Schmalzbirn_ that is, Butter pear, so called because they melt in
the mouth like fat or some liquid mixture; their fruit is generally
swollen at the lower end and gradually tapers to a narrow neck toward
the stem. Like gourds they are three inches in length or often more,
but in breadth two and a half inches. They have a pale yellow color, a
pleasing fragrance, but are very acid in taste, with the admixture of
a peculiar, winey flavor; when insufficiently ripe and not thoroughly
chewed or too greedily devoured they sometimes stick in the throat and
choke the breathing; on the other hand, when ripe and well masticated
they melt in the mouth like fat. They ripen before the sun passes into
Libra. They are found in Hesse, especially in Frankenberg, where there
is great abundance of them.
"_Junckfrauenbirn gross_, that is, Maiden pear, large, are like the
Lump pear in color and shape, but in size somewhat smaller. In taste
they are powerfully astringent, so that they irritate the throat and
contract the lips into a pucker like a maiden's kiss. They have a
watery juice mixed as it were with sour wine. They ripen at the end of
summer. At Brunswick in Saxony they are very abundant.
"_Junckfrauenbirn klein_, that is, Maiden pear, small, from a swelling
belly they end in a narrow neck; they have a length a little less than
three inches, but in breadth somewhat exceed an inch and a half; they
are of beautiful color, as if one should mix dark blue-green with
reddish-purple; they are besides speckled with dots, acid in taste,
and in like manner are easily dissolved in the mouth. They ripen at
the beginning of autumn. They are much cultivated at Eisleben.
"_Hamelsswenstebirn_, that is, Ram's paunch pear, have received their
name from the fact that in their swelling shape they resemble the
bellies of wethers; they swell as it were with a thick paunch; reach
three inches in length and often even more, but less in width. In
color they are bluish-gray, but slightly reddish on that side which
they have turned to the sun. They have a very acid flavor, with a
certain pleasantness and a winey juice. They ripen at the end of
summer. They are found in Hesse and neighboring districts, and there
are preferred to other pears.
"_Loewenbirn_, that is, Lion pear, so called from their excellence;
these are called Hessiatica in Thuringen and neighboring districts;
their fruit is remarkable, holding the supremacy among all autumn
fruits for duration and excellence of taste and juice. They are
swollen in the lower part and generally unequal; they have a length
of three inches and often greater; in width they not rarely exceed
two inches. They are of greenish gray color, slightly reddened. They
have an astringent taste of marked pleasantness. They abound in
copious juice, winey, sweet-smelling, and very refreshing, so that
they speedily quench thirst; indeed the pears themselves by their
strong aromatic odor wonderfully revive the sick. They ripen when the
sun has entered Libra; finally when stored away they last for a long
time. They abound in Hesse, especially at Marburg and likewise at
Frankenberg, a town near Marburg. They are called Barber's pear, from
a certain barber who first introduced them there.
"_Hangelbirn_, that is, Hanging pear, are equal to the Butter in
shape, color, and size; they hang from a long stalk, whence they have
received their name; in flavor they differ from the Butter, for their
juice is not so winey nor so acid; they have a simpler flavor, not
composed of so many qualities. However, they ripen at the same time.
These too are cultivated in Hesse.
"_Margarethenbirn_, that is, Margaret's pear, are so called because
they become ripe about St. Margaret's Day, when the sun is entering
into Leo. They end in an oblong neck; in length they reach three
inches, in width hardly two inches. They have a reddish-blue color.
Their pulp is tender and juicy, of very sweet taste, easily melting in
the mouth; they have a very pleasant smell. They abound at Brunswick
in Saxony.
"_Winterbirn_, that is, Winter pear, from a round shape become
slightly conical; they are less than three inches in length, little
more than two inches in breadth. They have a green color, a very hard
substance, so that they scarcely give way to the teeth. In taste they
are very acid and refreshing, quenching the thirst with a watery, sour
juice. They ripen late in autumn after all other fruits, after they
have been touched with frosts and cold. They are found at Frankenberg
in Hesse.
"_Knochenbirn_, that is, Bone pear, have received their name from
their hardness; from a swelling belly they end gradually in a short
and narrow neck. They rarely exceed two inches in length and an inch
and a half in breadth. They have a light reddish color; they are of
such hard substance that they cannot be chewed raw but only when
cooked. They have a very acid taste. They ripen at the beginning of
autumn. They are cultivated at Frankenberg in Hesse.
"_Augustbirn_, that is, August pear, would be almost round except that
they end in a short point. Their length is a little more than two
inches, their width a little less. They have a yellow color, at times
turning to pale red. In taste they are acid, with a peculiar sweetness
of juice. They ripen early in August, whence they have received
their name. They are short-lived and do not last long. They abound
everywhere in Hesse.
"_Honigbirn gross_, that is, Honey pear, large, end in an oblong cone:
they are two inches and a half in length, but in breadth hardly reach
two inches. They have a bluish-gray color verging on yellow, and a
surface not so smooth; in taste they are acid and abound in sweet
juice; they ripen at the beginning of autumn, lasting for a while.
They are found at Wittenberg in upper Saxony.
"_Honigbirn klein_, that is, Honey pear, small, are of conical shape,
in length do not exceed an inch and a half, in width are a little
less; they have a light reddish color, a flavor very sweet and
pleasant, whence they have received their name. They melt readily in
the mouth of those who taste them. They ripen soon after the August
pear. They abound in Hesse.
"_Muscatellerbirn_, that is, Musk pear, are very small and conical, in
length a little more than an inch, in width a little less. Their color
is green tinged with red, their taste most sweet and aromatic, as if
it were flavored with a little musk, whence their name. They easily
melt in the mouth; they have also a pleasing odor. They ripen in June.
They are carefully cultivated in Meissen.
"_Schaffbirn_, that is, Sheep pear, are like the larger Honey in size,
shape and color, but a little more oblong and narrow. They have a very
sweet flavor, moderately astringent, and easily dissolve in the mouth
on account of the tender softness of their pulp and juice. They ripen
when the sun is hastening toward Libra. They are found in Frankenberg
in Hesse.
"_Waxbirn_, that is, Wax pear, are big-bellied at the lower end, at
the upper end taper off into a cone; in length sometimes exceed three
inches by a little, but in width rarely exceed two inches. They have
a yellow or wax-like color, whence their name has been given them,
but on that side where they have received the sun they invite those
who look upon them to eat them by their pleasing, speckled redness.
They have a sweet flavor, slightly astringent; their pulp is soft and
easily melts in the mouth. They ripen when the sun has entered Virgo;
they are short-lived and do not last long. They are found at Marburg
in Hesse.
"_Rostbirn_, that is, Rust pear, are big-bellied in the middle and
narrow down at both ends; in length three inches and a half, in
width two inches and a half. They have a yellow color, speckled with
bluish-gray spots; they have a very mild, sweet flavor, and easily
melt in the mouth; because of their extreme softness they last a very
short time. They ripen at the beginning of autumn. They are cultivated
at Eisleben and neighboring towns.
"_Aschbirn_, that is, Ash pear, have their name because they are
soft like ashes and easily dissolve in the mouth. They resemble the
Rust pear in shape, color, quality of pulp, and flavor; but are a
little smaller, and more conical at one end toward the stalk, though
sometimes they become big-bellied in the middle like the Rust. They
ripen with the Rust. They are cultivated at Eisleben.
"_Drinkebirn_, that is, Drink pear, are so called because like a drink
they drive away anybody's thirst. They are swollen in the middle and
end in a blunt point; in length a little over two inches, in width
scarcely two inches. Their color is wholly yellow, but they redden
on that side which is exposed to the sun; they have a sweet flavor,
tender pulp, abounding with copious and drinkable juice. They ripen
with the Rust and quickly decay just as they do. They are cultivated
in the country near Eisleben.
"_Eyerbirn_, that is, Egg pear, have received their name from
their shape, which becomes conical at both ends like a short egg;
otherwise they do not differ much from the Drink pear in proportion
and shape. They are, however, a little smaller, have a yellow color
speckled with dots. In flavor they rival the Rust and like them are
moderately astringent; they have a very sweet fragrance, ripen with
the Drink pear, and quickly decay. They too are found at Eisleben and
neighboring towns.
"_Pfaltzgräuischbirn_ (Palatinate grayish-pear), that is, Palatina,
which are called Mass pear in Hesse, are the most excellent of the
short-lived ones, and in like manner generally end in a cone; in
length they reach two inches and a half, in width rarely exceed two
inches. Their color is mid-way between saffron and reddish purple.
They have a tender, juicy pulp, an exceptionally sweet flavor,
aromatic as it were. They have a most pleasing fragrance both when
they are whole and when they are cut, surpassed in excellence by no
other variety of pear. They ripen at the end of August, when the sun
has entered Virgo. They are found in the Rhine Valley, in France,
Hesse, and many other regions.
"_Spindelbirn_ or _Rautenbirn_ (Rhombus pear), that is, Spindle pear,
are like the Rust in shape, color, and size, but a little narrower;
in substance and flavor they differ from them, since they consist of
harder pulp and so last longer; they have a flavor astringent and at
the same time sweet. They ripen with the Rust, and are cultivated in
the country about Eisleben.
"_Zuckerbirn_, that is, Sugar pear, are a little more than two inches
in length, rarely as much in width; of greenish color; they have a
tender pulp, melting easily in the mouth like sugar, sweet and of
pleasant flavor. They ripen with the Egg pear and do not last long.
They are cultivated in the country about Eisleben.
"_Packelemischbirn_, that is, Paclemiana, are like the Sugar in size
and shape; their color is green and bluish-gray; their surface is
rather rough, their pulp hard, juicy, and acid. They ripen with the
Sugar, and if they receive no injury they do not easily decay, but may
last for some time, as most others do which have hard pulp and acid
taste. They are cultivated in the country about Eisleben.
"_Kirchmessbirn_, that is, Church Mass pear, are round and
big-bellied, and end toward the stalk in a long, narrow, and much
attenuated point. In length they are three and a half inches, in
breadth over two inches, though even smaller ones are produced. They
are yellow in color, tender and juicy in pulp, and like the Palatina
and Drink in flavor. They ripen in autumn and last almost until the
sun enters Sagittarius. They are found at Wittemberg.
"_Knaustbirn_ or _Gelbe Honigbirn_ (Yellow Honey pear), that is,
Bread Crust pear, have a broad base and are swollen and almost round,
toward the stalk ending in a short, blunt, and rounded point; both in
length and in breadth they sometimes exceed two inches and a half,
but rarely; they are of yellow color, speckled generally around the
bottom; they resemble the larger Honey in color and acidity; their
pulp is rather hard but juicy, stony around the seed-receptacles. They
have a flavor between that of the larger Honey and the Lion and that
very pleasing. They ripen in autumn and sometimes last almost to the
winter solstice. They are cultivated at Wittemberg and neighboring
places.
"_Klosterbirn_, that is, Cloister pear, swell out with uneven belly
and toward the stalk become conical; they reach three inches in length
and not much less in breadth. They have a yellow color, speckled with
green dots; their pulp is rather hard and somewhat stony; their taste
mildly astringent and of slightly glutinous sweetness. They ripen with
the Bread Crust pear and last as long. They are found in the country
about Wittemberg.
"_Glassbirn_, that is, Glass pear, are round and slightly conical;
in length they generally reach two and one-third inches, in breadth
a little over two inches; their color is light green verging on
yellow; their flesh is tender, juicy, astringent to the taste, sweet
and winey; they ripen with the Rust a little before the beginning of
autumn. There is an abundant crop of them at Eisleben and neighboring
towns. They last until the sun enters Sagittarius.
"_Kirchbirn_, that is, Church pear, have an oblong oval shape but
end in a cone rather than an oval. They reach two inches in length,
in width somewhat exceed an inch and a half. Their color is on one
side yellowish-green, on the other, where they have received the sun,
reddish. Their pulp is hard, rather juicy, slightly sour to the taste,
and very astringent. They ripen at the end of summer and last for a
long time. Of these too there is an abundant crop at Eisleben.
"_Quittenbirn_, that is, Quince pear, like the Cloister pear, swell
out with uneven belly, and toward the stalk end in a short point,
like the conical Cotonea, but protuberant ones are also found, whence
the name was given them. In breadth as well as length they exceed
two inches and a third. They have a green color, a hard, juicy pulp,
rather winey and astringent to the taste. They ripen at the beginning
of autumn and last till the winter. They are found at Eisleben.
"_Parissbirn_, that is, Parisiana, are round at the lower end and
taper to a point at the upper end. Their length is two and a half
inches, their width not over two inches, or rarely more. Their color
on one side is yellow, but on the other, where they have felt the sun,
purple. Their pulp is juicy, their taste pleasantly astringent. They
ripen with those before mentioned, lasting into the winter. There is
an abundant crop of them in the country about Eisleben.
"_Weybersterbenbirn_, that is, Women's Death pear, would be round,
except that toward the stalk they end in a short, blunt point. They
generally exceed two inches in breadth as well as in length. They have
a yellow color, saffron towards the base, speckled with purple dots.
Their pulp is hard and rather stony, with juice slightly sour to the
taste and very astringent, like the Church pear, with which also they
ripen. They last into the winter. They are cultivated in the country
about Eisleben.
"_Kölbirn_, that is, Cabbage pear, are large, almost round, tapering
to a cone, three inches in length and one-half to one-third of an
inch less in breadth. They have a pale green color, one side slightly
reddish and speckled with dots. Their pulp is rather hard, juicy,
somewhat sour and very astringent to the taste, like the Women's Death
pear, with which also they ripen, and they last as long. They are
cultivated at Eisleben.
"_Hölpenerbirn_, that is, Hollow pear, are large, big-bellied, uneven,
and conical; in length they sometimes exceed two and a half inches,
in width almost equal their length. Their color is green; they have a
juicy pulp, winey in taste, slightly acid, and more astringent than
the Brassicana. They ripen at the beginning of autumn, and last long
into the winter. There is a large crop of them in the country about
Eisleben.
"_Safftbirn_, that is, Sap pear, are like the Hollow pear but a little
smaller and less uneven, of a greenish-yellow color; their pulp is
solid and when cut sheds a copious juice, when chewed passes almost
wholly into juice and very little dry substance remains; when the
juice is swallowed, it is cool to the taste, somewhat acid, winey, and
astringent. They ripen at the beginning of autumn and last for a long
time. They are found at Wittemberg.
"_Eierlingebirn_, that is, Little-egg pear, have received their name
from their oval shape; in shape and size they are midway between the
Drink and the Egg pear; their color is yellow, speckled with reddish
dots on a dark background. They have hard, juicy pulp, acid to the
taste, winey, and astringent. They ripen at the beginning of autumn
and last for a long time. They grow at Wittemberg.
"_Kruselbirn_, that is, Curling pear, in shape resemble a top which
boys throw upon the ground wound up with a string to make it spin. In
length they reach three inches, in width two and a half. Their color
is pale green, speckled with many green dots or spots; their pulp
is solid, juicy, very astringent to the taste, somewhat acid and
pleasant. They last until the sun has passed Aquarius or Pisces. They
abound in Meissen.
"_Bratbirn gross_, also called _Fregelbirn_, that is, pears for
roasting, are about the largest of all, for sometimes they weigh a
mina (about 15.2 ounces) and a half; they are of globular shape,
sometimes conical, and frequently irregular; of a color midway between
pale green and red, redder on one side. They have a pulp with pleasant
juice, astringent, partaking somewhat of acid. They grow in Meissen,
especially at Leisnig and Koldit.
"_Grauchenbirn_, that is, Gray pear, have received their name from
their color, since they are ash-colored and at the same time greenish.
They are small and of globular shape, measuring an inch in breadth as
well as in length; in appearance are in no way different from some
of the wild pears; in taste are soft, mild, sweet, with a pleasantly
astringent quality; they last till after the winter solstice. They
grow in the country about Meissen and Leipzig.
"_Gelbrotebirn_, that is, Yellow-red pear, have an oblong pyramidal
shape, generally reaching a length of three inches, and a width of
two inches. Their color on one side is yellow, on the other saffron
and purple; their pulp is soft, astringent to the taste, pleasant,
slightly acid, and watery. They ripen at the beginning of autumn, and
last till the winter solstice. They grow at Hildesheim in Saxony.
"_Grünlingebirn_, that is, Green pear, are quite large, since
sometimes they exceed three inches in length, two inches in breadth;
they have an oblong pyramidal shape, a green color, a juicy pulp,
sharply astringent to the taste. They ripen at the beginning of
autumn, and last till after the solstice. There is a large crop of
them at Hildesheim.
"_Wasserbirn_, that is, Water pear, rival Green pear in size, they
have a shape big-bellied in the middle and taper to a point at both
ends, sharper and more oblong toward the stem, but shorter and blunter
near the base. Their color on one side is pale, speckled with dots, on
the other reddish, pale on the edges. They have juicy pulp, watery and
rather pleasant to the taste. They become ripe with the Green pear but
do not last so long. They grow at Hildesheim.
"_Kegelbirn_, that is, Cone pear, have the shape of a pine cone, and
from a rather broad base end in a point; their length is three inches,
their width two; their color on one side green, on the other reddish.
Their pulp is juicy, harsh to the taste. Their maturity falls at the
beginning of autumn, from which time they may last till the winter
solstice. They are produced at Hildesheim."
THE PEAR IN ENGLAND
Much as America owes England for fruit, farm, and garden crops, she
is but little indebted to her for pears. Varieties of pears have come
to the New World almost wholly from Belgium and France, not more
than three or four major sorts of English origin being among those
now commonly grown in America. But even though the line of march in
the development of varieties scarcely touches England, all English
speaking pear-growers have received instruction as to culture and have
had knowledge of continental varieties transmitted to them through
English publications. In the history of fruits in England, therefore,
many gleams of light illuminate the path along which the pear has been
brought from the ancients to America.
No doubt the pear was brought to Britain before the Roman conquest.
Tacitus, in the first century, says the climate of Britain is suitable
to the culture of all fruits and vegetables except the grape and the
olive. Pliny writes that the Britains had the cherry before the middle
of the first century, and almost certainly the pear and other fruits
were introduced with it. There was, also, a Saxon name for the pear,
_pirige_, so philologists say, before the fall of the Roman Empire. The
years 43 and 407 mark the beginning and the end of the Romans and of
civilization in Britain for many centuries, and whether or not the pear
was permanently established during this time there are now no means
of ascertaining. The climate and soil of England are congenial to the
pear, however, and no doubt wild or little cultivated trees persisted
until the Norman conquest, the spread of Christianity, and the building
of many monasteries with orchards and gardens as essential adjuncts.
Even in England under the Normans who came in 1066, not much progress
was made in fruit-growing. Tillers of the soil were hard pressed for
the necessities of life and could only with difficulty harvest a
bare sustenance from the land. Besides, monks and nobles preyed on
the starving peasants so that at no time could the farmer be sure of
reaping what he planted. Only these monks and nobles enjoyed luxuries.
But even men who boasted of titles and owned large holdings of land
had little room within fortified walls and on moated islands, which
constant wars made necessary, for fruits; nor had they time from
projects of war and the pleasures of the chase to devote to the art of
agriculture. Fortunately, priors and abbots were well disposed toward
the good things of life, therefore made much of fruits and vegetables,
and with abundance of leisure the monks became the only proficients of
the times in gardening and orcharding. Moreover, they were in constant
correspondence with the continent and could ascertain what culture was
needed to grow perfect fruits. Pear culture had its beginnings in
England, then, in the monasteries established under the Normans.
Pressed for an exact date as to when the pear began to be cultivated
in England, the historians would be troubled to name one. There is a
plan of the monastery of Canterbury made in 1165 which shows an orchard
and a vineyard. History, moreover, relates that armed men collected in
an orchard to take hand in the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170. Men in
those days set small store by written accounts, and history must be
helped out by imagination, and we may imagine that there were pears in
this orchard.
Pears by this time had become common, for there are records of
varieties to a considerable number and in large quantities which could
have been had only from rather extensive orchards. Mrs. Evelyn Cecil[5]
publishes documents from the Record office of England which contain
items of pears bought for Henry III and Edward I at different times in
the thirteenth century, the first date being "probably for the year
1223." The pears appear to be of French origin, and the varieties are
Caloels, Pesse Pesceles, Ruler, and Martyns. In a later memorandum,
1292-93, still other varieties are named as the Regul, Calwel, Dieyer,
Sorell, Chryfall, and Gold Knoper. The pears were sold by the hundred
and were used for desert, though "pears in syrup" and pears for cider
are mentioned. The perusal of these documents, printed in considerable
detail in Mrs. Cecil's admirable book, enables us to fix the beginning
of commercial pear culture in England at as early a date as 1200.
Passing by several other references from records and financial accounts
of monasteries in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as too vague to
be of importance, although they make certain that the pear was rather
widely cultivated in England in these two centuries, we come at last
to a noteworthy landmark in pear history in England, the introduction
of the Warden pear, which may be put at the conveniently vague date of
the end of the fourteenth century, 1388 being the first year they are
mentioned.
"Warden" was a name used for centuries to designate a group of pear
varieties having crisp, firm flesh and which were used for culinary
purposes. Their history runs back to the Cistercian Abbey of Warden
in Bedfordshire and to a date earlier than 1388. Warden pears were
favorites for centuries for pies and pastries which every early
cook-book contained recipes for making. In the early English literature
they are considered a distinct fruit as "apples, pears, quinces,
wardens," and even the herbals and early fruit books count them as
distinct. Shakespeare's clown in _A Winter's Tale_ says: "I must have
saffron to colour the Warden pies." The name came to signify any
long-keeping, cooking pear and even yet is so used in parts of England.
The most noteworthy landmark is found in the discussions of pears by
the English herbalists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Turner, the first of these herbalists, in his _Herbal_ of 1551,
mentions the pear but without important details, though we may infer
from what he says that the pear is now a common fruit. Thomas Tusser,
in his _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie_, published in 1573,
gives a list of fruits to be set or removed in January in which he
includes "pears of all sorts," and then as a separate item includes
"Warden, white and red," showing that "Wardens" were held as distinct
from the pear and that they were prominent in the orchards of the time.
The century ends with John Gerarde's _Herball or Generall Historie
of Plantes_, 1597, in which we are brought to the realization that
the pear is no longer a probationary fruit or even to be considered
a novelty or luxury but a standard food product. Gerarde might well
be quoted in full, but since Parkinson, a few years later, contains a
"fuller discourse," as one of Gerarde's editors says, we take but a few
sentences from Gerarde.
Varieties by this time had become numerous. Gerarde, while he names
but eight, says he knew someone who grew "at the point of three score
sundrie sorts of Peares, and those exceeding good; not doubting but
that if his minde had beene to seeke after multitudes he might have
gotten together the like number of those worse kindes ... to describe
each pear apart, were to send an owle to Athens, or to number those
things without number." Eight sorts are considered worth figuring,
those accorded the honor being: "the Jenneting, Saint James, Royall,
Beugomot, Quince, Bishop, Katherine, and the Winter Peare." Of these
the Katherine is given further prominence by being listed as "known to
all." If one is to judge from number of varieties, the pear at this
time is a more general favorite than the apple, a considerably greater
number of sorts being indicated.
Parkinson's account in his _Paradisus_ of 1629, indeed does prove to be
a "fuller discourse" for he names and describes 65 sorts; but these are
not all for he says: "The variety of peares is as much or more then of
apples, and I thinke it is as hard in this, as before in apples, for
any to be so exquisite, as that hee could number up all the sorts that
are to be had: for wee have in our country so manie, as I shall give
you the names of by and by, and are hitherto come to our knowledge:
but I verily beleeve that there be many, both in our country, and in
others, that we have not yet knowne or heard of; for every yeare almost
wee attaine to the knowledge of some, we knew not of before. Take
therefore, according to the manner before held, the description of one,
with the severall names of the rest, untill a more exact discourse be
had of them, every one apart." Some of the names in Parkinson's list
are group names covering several varieties. Thus, he says, "the Winter
Bon Chretien is of many sorts;" and again, "the Winter Bergomot is of
two or three sorts;" and, "the Winter peare is of many sorts."
Parkinson's descriptions are brief but written with rare clearness, and
the old herbalist seems to have possessed a nicety of observation that
commends him to all who have eyes for the distinguishing characters of
fruits. With Parkinson our history of the pear in England must come to
a close, since later accounts are available to all, and therefore as an
important inventory, and because every word is pertinent, his account
of varieties is republished.
"The Summer bon Chretien is somewhat a long peare, with a greene and
yellow russetish coate, and will have sometimes red sides; it is ripe
at Michaelmas: Some use to dry them as they doe Prunes, and keepe them
all the yeare after. I have not seene or heard any more Summer kindes
hereof then this one, and needeth no wall to nourse it as the other.
"The Winter bon Chretien is of many sorts, some greater, others
lesser, and all good; but the greatest and best is that kinde that
groweth at Syon: All the kinds of this Winter fruit must be planted
against a wall, or else they will both seldome beare, and bring fewer
also to ripenesse, comparable to the wall fruit: The kindes also are
according to their lasting; for some will endure good much longer than
others.
"The Summer Bergomot is an excellent well rellished peare, flattish,
& short, not long like others, of a meane bignesse, and of a darke
yellowish greene colour on the outside.
"The Winter Bergomot is of two or three sorts, being all of them small
fruit, somewhat greener on the outside then the Summer kindes; all
of them very delicate and good in their due time: For some will not
be fit to bee eaten when others are well-nigh spent, every of them
outlasting another by a moneth or more.
"The Diego peare is but a small peare, but an excellent well rellished
fruit, tasting as if Muske had been put among it; many of them growe
together, as it were in clusters.
"The Duetete or double headed peare, so called of the forme, is a
very good peare, not very great, of a russettish browne colour on the
outside.
"The Primating peare is a good moist peare, and early ripe.
"The Geneting peare is a very good early ripe peare.
"The greene Chesill is a delicate mellow peare, even melting as it
were in the mouth of the eater, although greenish on the outside.
"The Catherine peare is knowne to all I thinke to be a yellow red
sided peare, of a full waterish sweete taste, and ripe with the
foremost.
"The King Catherine is greater than the other, and of the same
goodnesse, or rather better.
"The Russet Catherine is a very good middle sized peare.
"The Windsor peare is an excellent good peare, well knowne to most
persons, and of a reasonable greatnesse: it will beare fruit some
times twice in a yeare (and as it is said) three times in some places.
"The Norwich peare is of two sorts, Summer and Winter, both of them
good fruit, each in their season.
"The Worster peare is blackish, a farre better peare to bake (when as
it will be like a Warden, and as good) than to eate rawe; yet so it is
not to be misliked.
"The Muske peare is like unto a Catherine peare for bignesse, colour,
and forme; but farre more excellent in taste, as the very name
importeth.
"The Rosewater peare is a goodly faire peare, and of a delicate taste.
"The Sugar peare is an early peare, very sweete, but waterish.
"The Summer Popperin } both of them are very good dry firme peares,
} somewhat spotted, and brownish on the
"The Winter Popperin } outside.
"The greene Popperin is a winter fruit, of equall goodnesse with the
former.
"The Soveraigne peare, that which I have seene and tasted, and so
termed unto me, was a small brownish yellow peare, but of a most
dainty taste; but some doe take a kind of Bon Chretien, called the
Elizabeth peare, to be the Soveraigne peare; how truely let others
judge.
"The Kings peare is a very good and well tasted peare.
"The peare Royall is a great peare, and of a good rellish.
"The Warwicke peare is a reasonable faire and good peare.
"The Greenfield peare is a very good peare, of a middle size.
"The Lewes peare is a brownish greene peare, ripe about the end of
September, a resonable well rellished fruit, and very moist.
"The Bishop peare is a middle sized peare, of a reasonable good taste,
not very waterish; but this property is oftentimes seene in it, that
before the fruit is gathered, (but more usually those that fall of
themselves, and the rest within a while after they are gathered) will
be rotten at the core, when there will not be a spot or blemish to
bee seene on the outside, or in all the peare, untill you come neare
the core.
"The Wilford peare is a good and a faire peare.
"The Bell peare a very good greene peare.
"The Portingall peare is a great peare, but more goodly in shew than
good indeed.
"The Gratiola peare is a kinde of Bon Chretien, called the Cowcumber
peare, or Spinola's peare.
"The Rowling peare is a good peare, but hard, and not good before it
bee a little rowled or bruised, to make it eate the more mellow.
"The Pimpe peare is as great as the Windsor peare, but rounder, and of
a very good rellish.
"The Turnep peare is a hard winter peare, not so good to eate rawe, as
it is to bake.
"The Arundell peare is most plentifull in Suffolke, and there
commended to be a verie good peare.
"The Berry peare is a Summer peare, reasonable faire and great, and of
so good and wholesome a taste, that few or none take harme by eating
never so many of them.
"The Sand peare is a reasonable good peare, but small.
"The Morley peare is a very good peare, like in forme and colour unto
the Windsor, but somewhat grayer.
"The peare pricke is very like unto the Greenfield peare, being both
faire, great, and good.
"The good Rewell is a reasonable great peare, as good to bake as to
eate rawe, and both wayes it is a good fruit.
"The Hawkes Bill peare is of a middle size, somewhat like unto the
Rowling peare.
"The Petworth peare is a winter peare, and is great, somewhat long,
faire, and good.
"The Slipper peare is a reasonable good peare.
"The Robert peare is a very good peare, plentiful in Suffolke and
Norfolke.
"The Pound peare is a reasonable good peare, both to eate rawe, and to
bake.
"The Ten Pound peare, or the hundred pound peare, the truest and best,
is the best Bon Chretien of Syon, so called, because the grafts cost
the Master so much the fetching by the messengers expences, when he
brought nothing else.
"The Gilloflower peare is a winter peare, faire in shew, but hard, and
not fit to bee eaten rawe, but very good to bake.
"The peare Couteau is neither good one way nor other.
"The Binsce peare is a reasonable good winter peare, of a russetish
colour, and a small fruit: but will abide good a long while.
"The Pucell is a greene peare, of an indifferent good taste.
"The blacke Sorrell is a reasonable great long peare, of a darke red
colour on the outside.
"The red Sorrell is of a redder colour, else like the other.
"The Surrine is no very good peare.
"The Summer Hasting is a little greene peare, of an indifferent good
rellish.
"Peare Gergonell is an early peare, somewhat long, and of a very
pleasant taste.
"The white Genneting is a reasonable good peare, yet not equall to the
other.
"The Sweater is somewhat like the Windsor for colour and bignesse, but
nothing neare of so good a taste.
"The bloud red peare is of a darke red colour on the outside, but
piercing very little into the inner pulpe.
"The Hony peare is a long greene Summer peare.
"The Winter peare is of many sorts, but this is onely so called, to
bee distinguished from all other Winter peares, which have severall
names given them, and is a very good peare.
"The Warden or Luke Wards peare of two sorts, both white and red, both
great and small.
"The Spanish Warden is greater than either of both the former, and
better also.
"The peare of Jerusalem, or the stript peare, whose barke while it is
young, is as plainly seene to be stript with greene, red, and yellow,
as the fruit it selfe is also, and is of a very good taste: being
baked also, it is as red as the best Warden, whereof Master William
Ward of Essex hath assured mee, who is the chiefe keeper of the Kings
Granary at Whitehall.
"Hereof likewise there is a wilde kinde no bigger than ones thumbe,
and striped in the like manner, but much more.
"The Choke peares, and other wilde peares, both great and small, as
they are not to furnish our Orchard, but the Woods, Forrests, Fields,
and Hedges, so wee leave them to their naturall places, and to them
that keep them, and make good use of them."
Three hundred years have played havoc with the pears Parkinson knew.
None are known in America, and unless the Pound of Parkinson is the
Pound of today, not a half dozen are found in current lists in England.
Parkinson's Catherine, Winter Bon Chretien, Windsor, Bergamot, possibly
the Pound, and his Gergonell, the Jargonelle of today, are about all
the names that would be recognized by modern pear-growers. The pear
shows far fewer familiar names at the end of three centuries than
Parkinson lists of apples, plums, cherries, or even the peach in
Europe. Dropping old varieties can only be interpreted as improvement
in the pear. The pear, it seems certain, has been more profoundly
changed for the better through the touch of man's hand than the other
fruits named since Parkinson wrote. For this, pomology has the Belgians
to thank.
Pear culture seems to have reached its height, if it be judged by
its literature and by the number of varieties cultivated, early in
the nineteenth century. The Belgians' passion for pears was no doubt
the chief stimulus, for the Belgian breeders spread their offerings
with generous hand throughout England. In 1826, the catalog of the
Horticultural Society of London listed 622 pears. Pomology in England
was then, and is now as compared with America, an art of the leisure
classes. This has been an advantage and a disadvantage to the pear
in England. The advantage is that when fruit is grown for pleasure
many varieties are grown to add novelty to luxury so that the fruit
is thereby more rapidly improved and its culture brought to greater
perfection. The disadvantage is that those who grow fruit for market
find a poorer market for their wares since those who should be their
best customers supply their own wants. For the reason, therefore, that
the English take delight in growing their own fruit, pear-growing is
not the great commercial enterprise that it is in America.
Pear-growing in England differs from that of America in another
respect. The pear-tree in England is built as much as planted. In many
plantations each tree has a precise architectural form. The plants
are trained into fans, cordons, espaliers and u-forms on walls; or as
pyramids, globes, or vases in the open; sometimes in fantastic shapes
to suit the fancy of the grower; and now and then as a hedge or border.
The undisciplined standards of America are hardly known, though what
the English call a standard seems to be increasing. This difference in
training is due in part to the necessity of meeting different climatic
conditions, and in part to greater devotion on the Englishman's part
to the art of gardening--the use of the shears, the knife, and the
billhook give the gardener greater scope. The pear-tree in England is
often decorative as well as useful.
THE PEAR IN AMERICA
The pear is a popular fruit in America, but its culture as a commercial
product is limited to a few favored localities. From the earliest
records of fruit-growing in America the pear has been grown less than
the apple and peach and scarcely more than the cherry and plum.
In Europe, it is a question if the pear is not more commonly grown
than the apple, and is much more common than the plum and the peach,
the last-named fruit being grown out of doors for most part only in
southern Europe. Pears are more varied in size, shape, texture, and
flavor of flesh than others of the hardy tree-fruits, and in length
of season exceed all others excepting the apple. Varieties of pears,
possibly, have the charm of individuality more marked than varieties
of its orchard associates. The trees, where environment permits their
culture, are not difficult to grow, and attain greater size, produce
larger crops, and live longer than any other hardy fruit. Why, then,
is the pear not more popular in America? Conditions of climate,
pests, season of ripening, taste, and trade prevent the expansion of
pear-culture on this side of the Atlantic.
The climate in most parts of America is uncongenial to the pear. Pears
from the European stock, to which most varieties grown in America
belong, thrive only in relatively equable climates, and do not endure
well the sudden and extreme variations in climate to which most parts
of this continent are subject. Extremes of heat or cold, wetness or
dryness, are fatal to the pear. In North America, therefore, commercial
pear-culture is confined to favored localities on the Atlantic
seaboard, about the Great Lakes, and on the Pacific slope. Even in
these favored regions, pears sent to market come largely from the
plantations of specialists. On the Atlantic seaboard, European pears
are products of commerce only in southern New England and New York,
westward through Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie, and in the southern
lake regions of Michigan. Away from these bodies of water to the
Pacific, varieties of European pears refuse to grow except with the
utmost care in culture and selection of sites. On the Pacific slope,
in the hardy-fruit regions, the pear reaches its highest development
in the New World. Oriental pears, or varieties having Oriental blood,
as Kieffer and Le Conte, are grown in every part of America where the
culture of hardy fruits is attempted.
Liability to loss by pests is a great detriment to the popularity
of the pear in America. The insect pests of pears are numerous.
Codling-moths attack the fruit wherever the pear is grown in America,
and can be kept down only by expensive arsenical sprays. The psylla,
while irregular in its outbreaks, is most damaging and hard to control
when it appears. These are the chief insect enemies, but a dozen
others take more or less toll from tree or fruit. Foliage and fruit
are attacked by several parasitic fungi, of which pear-scab is most
troublesome, requiring treatment wherever the pear is grown, and under
favorable conditions for the fungus preventives often fail to give
the fruits a fair cheek. But of all diseases pear-blight is the most
serious, its effects and virulency being such as to give it the popular
name "fire-blight." It is caused by a bacterium which cannot be checked
by sprays, and must be combatted with expensive and unsatisfactory
sanitary measures, such as cutting out branches and trees, so drastic
as to make impossible commercial cultivation of pears in regions where
climate favors the disease.
Pears compete with apples more than with any other fruit, but are at a
disadvantage with this near relative in having a much shorter period
during which the fruits can be used. Varieties of the two fruits begin
to ripen at nearly the same season, but there are few sorts of pears in
season later than December, and these are of poorer quality than the
fall varieties; while apples are abundant and of prime quality four or
five months later, and may be kept until early apples usher in a new
season. During most of its season, also, the pear must compete with
the perishable summer and autumn plums and peaches, so luscious and
delectable that the firmer and less highly flavored pome-fruits suffer
in comparison.
Still another reason why the pear is not a popular dessert fruit in
America is that, of all fruits, the varieties of this one are the most
variable in quality of the product. Sorts that should produce pears of
highest quality bear fruits poor or indifferent in texture and flavor
in unfavorable seasons, on unsuitable soils, or under neglect. Good
pears can be grown only when environmental factors are favorable and
under the most generous treatment. Extensive cultivation of the Kieffer
and its kin for canning has hindered the cultivation of pears for the
fruit-stand and to grace the table as a dessert fruit. So common has
the Kieffer become that many of the present generation are hardly aware
that the pear may be a delicious fruit to eat out of hand.
Lastly, the pear falls short of the apple as a commercial product
because it is not nearly so satisfactory to handle as a commercial
crop. Pears are more difficult to pack, and do not stand transportation
as well as apples. They cannot be kept in cold storage nearly as
long, and decay more quickly when brought into warmer temperatures.
The demand for evaporated pears is slight in comparison with that for
evaporated apples, and although perry, the expressed juice of pears, is
quite as refreshing as cider, this by-product of the fruit is little
known in America. As a prepared product, the pear surpasses the apple
only as a canned fruit. Failing in comparison with the apple, as a
commercial product, pears are largely left to fruit connoisseurs,
and with these a generation ago the pear was the fruit of fruits,
many splendid collections of it having been made in regions where
pears could be grown. With the expansion of commercial fruit-growing,
collections of pears, and with them many choice varieties, have gone
out of cultivation--more is the pity--and pear-growing has expanded
least of all the fruit industries in the United States.
With this brief discussion of the present status of pear-culture in
this country, we can proceed to trace the history of the pear with
more exactness by reason of knowing its limitations under American
conditions.
The peach is the only hardy fruit that belongs to the heroic age of
Spanish discovery in the New World. Pears, apples, plums, and cherries
came to the new continent with the French and English. The early
records of fruit-growing in America show that the pear came among
the first luxuries of the land in the French and English settlements
from Canada to Florida. Pioneers in any country begin at once to
cultivate the soil for the means of sustenance. Naturally, cereals and
easily-grown nutritious vegetables receive attention first as giving
more immediate harvests and more sustaining fare to supplement game
and fish. Agriculture and gardening usually precede orcharding, and
this was the case in early settlements in America, but not long. The
first generation born in colonial America knew and used all of the
hardy fruits from Europe; as many records attest, and of which there is
confirmatory proof with the pear in many ancient pear-trees of great
size near the old settlements, some of which were planted by the first
settlers from Europe. Of pears, many notable trees planted by the
hands of the first English and French who crossed the seas to settle
the new country were conspicuous monuments in various parts of America
in the memory of men still living, if, indeed, some of the old trees
themselves are not still standing.
Of these ancient pear-trees, New England furnishes the most notable
monuments to mark the introduction of this fruit in the New World.
Fortunately, their histories have been preserved in several
horticultural annals, and of these accounts the fullest and best is by
Robert Manning, Jr., in the Proceedings of the American Pomological
Society for 1875, pages 100 to 103. Manning's notes throw so much light
on the early history of the pear in New England, as well as upon the
varieties then grown, that they are published in full.
"The _Endicott_ Pear. The tradition in the Endicott family is that
this tree was planted in 1630. It is said that the trees constituting
the original orchard came over from England in June, in the Arabella
with Governor Winthrop, or in one of the other ships of the fleet
arriving at Salem in June. The farm on which the tree now stands, not
having been granted to Endicott until 1632, it is not probable that
the trees were planted there before that time, but they might have
been at first set in the Governor's town garden at Salem, where the
Rev. Francis Higginson, on his arrival in the summer of 1629, found
a vine-yard already planted. The tradition further states that the
Governor said that the tree was of the same date with a sun-dial which
formerly stood near it. This dial, after having passed through the
hands of the Rev. William Bentley, D.D., is now in the Essex Institute
in Salem, and bears the date 1630, with the Governor's initials.
The farm, which early bore the name of 'Orchard,' was occupied and
cultivated by the Governor and his descendants for 184 years, from
1632 to 1816, and was held solely by the original grant until 1828,
a period of 196 years. Under these circumstances the history of the
tree is more likely to have been handed down correctly than if the
estate had changed hands. It is certain that Governor Endicott was
early engaged in propagating trees, for in a letter to John Winthrop
in 1644, he speaks of having at least 500 trees burnt by his children
setting fire near them, and, in a letter to John Winthrop, Jr., a year
later, of being engaged to pay for 1500 trees.
"As early as 1763 the tree was very old and decayed. It was very
much injured in the gale of 1804. In the gale of 1815 it was so much
shattered that its recovery was considered doubtful. It was injured
again in a gale about 1843. For the last fifty years it has been
protected by a fence around it. In 1837 it was eighty feet high by
measurement and fifty-five feet in the circumference of its branches,
and does not probably vary much from these dimensions now. Two suckers
have sprung up on opposite sides of the tree, which bear the same
fruit as the original, proving it to be ungrafted. It stands near the
site of the first mansion of the Governor, on a slope where it is
somewhat sheltered from the north and north-west winds. The soil is a
light loam, with a substratum of clay. Grafts taken from the old tree
grow very vigorously. From a pomological point of view, the fruit is
of no value. It is hardly of medium size, roundish, green, with more
or less rough russet, very coarse, and soon decays.
"It may be of interest to state that the farm on which the old tree
stands is again in the Endicott name, having lately been purchased by
a descendant of the Governor. The tree stands in the town of Danvers
originally a part of Salem.
"For further facts concerning this tree, see the _Transactions of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society_ for 1837, and also an article
by Charles M. Endicott, a descendant of the Governor, in Hovey's
_Magazine of Horticulture_, vol. xix, p. 254, June, 1853, from which
the above account has been mainly derived. Each of these articles is
illustrated with a cut of the pear.
"The _Orange_ Pear. This tree is owned by Capt. Charles H. Allen,
and stands in his yard on Hardy street, Salem. The Rev. Dr. Bentley,
who died about 1820, investigated the history of this tree and found
it to be then 180 years old, which would make it now 235 years old.
The trunk is hollow, nine feet five inches in circumference in the
smallest part near the ground; just below the limbs it is several
inches more. The tree is more than forty feet high, and the limbs are
supported by shores. It was grafted in the limbs, as a branch fifteen
or twenty years old, shooting out several feet higher than a man's
head, produces 'Button' pears, and a large limb, part of which was
'Button' which grew out still higher up, was blown off several years
ago. In the very favorable pear season of 1862 it bore thirteen and a
half bushels of pears. It bears in alternate years, having produced
eight and a half bushels in 1873. The brittleness of the limbs of
old pear trees is well known, yet Capt. Allen, with a care worthy of
imitation, gathers every pear, excepting about a dozen specimens, by
hand.
"This variety was, until the introduction of the modern kinds, highly
esteemed. It is above medium size, averaging fifty-six pears to the
peck, globular obtuse pyriform, covered with thin russet, juicy
when gathered early and ripened in the house; of pleasant flavor
but rather deficient in this respect. It is ripe about the middle
of September. It was considered by my father a native, and was
called by him the _American Orange_, and after examination of the
descriptions and plates, I cannot think it the same as the _Orange
Rouge_ or _Orange d'Automne_ of Duhamel, Decaisne, and Leroy. The
Hon. Paul Dudley, Esq., of Roxbury, in some 'Observations on some of
the Plants in New England with remarkable Instances of the Power of
Vegetation,' communicated to the Royal Society of London (I quote from
the 'Philosophical Transactions,' abridged, London, 1734, Vol. VI,
Part II, p. 341), says: 'An _Orange_ Pear Tree grows the largest, and
yields the fairest fruit. I know one of them near forty Foot high,
that measures six Foot and six Inches in Girt, a Yard from the Ground,
and has borne thirty Bushels at a Time, and this Year I measured an
_Orange_ pear, that grew in my own Orchard, of eleven Inches round the
Bulge.'
"If this is, as believed, of native origin, it is the oldest American
fruit in cultivation, unless we except the _Apple_ pear, which is
probably of about the same date. This is small, oblate, of pale yellow
color, ripening in August. It is quite distinct from the _Poire Pomme
d'Hiver_, of Leroy, and I think also from the _Poire Pomme d'Été_, of
the same author. I had supposed the variety to be extinct, but last
year discovered in a garden in Salem the remnant of an old tree with
a trunk four feet in diameter, and still producing fruit.
"The _Orange_ pear tree which produced the specimens exhibited, was
inherited by the present owner from his father, to whom it came from
his wife. It had descended to her almost from the first settlement of
Salem, but partly in the female line, so that the name of the owner
sometimes changed. The house on the estate was built in 1812, having
replaced one which was pulled down after standing 150 years. Within
the period of a generation there were standing in Salem several trees
of the _Orange_ pear, some of which were reputed to be more than two
centuries old, and all of which were undoubtedly very ancient, but
they are all now gone except Capt. Allen's, the last one having been
blown down in the winter of 1874-75. I have heard a tradition that
this last mentioned tree was one of several imported from England and
planted in gardens at intervals on the northerly side of the principal
street in Salem. This tradition may or may not be true with regard to
these trees, but it would not apply to the Allen tree, for the height
at which it was grafted forbids the idea that it was imported from
England in a grafted state.
"The _Anthony Thacher_ Pear. This tree stands near the meadows about a
fourth of a mile north of the Universalist church in Yarmouth, where
Anthony Thacher's house formerly stood. It is a large, rotten-hearted
old tree. It has lost nearly all its old branches, but has thrown out
many new ones. The late Judge George Thacher, who, if now living,
would be 120 years old, inquired into its history, and made the matter
certain that it was planted by Anthony Thacher about 1640. It is
believed to be a grafted tree, as it contracts two or three inches at
about a foot and a half from the ground. It is taken good care of and
will probably last many years. It is now owned by the heirs of James
C. Hallet. There are other trees of the same kind in the vicinity, but
their age cannot be proved.
"The fruit is of medium size, ovate pyriform, green, changing to
yellow at maturity, of tolerable quality, ripening early in September.
For the specimens exhibited, as well as the facts above noted, I am
indebted to the kindness of Amos Otis, Esq., of Yarmouth Port, who had
made the local history of Cape Cod his study for the last fifty years,
and who died much lamented on the 19th of October last.
"Anthony Thacher came from England in 1635, and after residing in
Marshfield, removed to Yarmouth in 1639, being one of the three
original grantees of land in that town. The late Dr. James Thacher,
of Plymouth, author of the 'American Orchardist' (published in 1821),
was a descendant of Anthony in the sixth generation. Anthony Thacher
accompanied his cousin, Rev. John Avery, in that disastrous voyage
of which Whittier has perpetuated the memory in his ballad, 'The
Swan Song of Parson Avery.' Anthony Thacher got ashore on Thacher's
Island, the headland of Cape Ann, and gave name to the island.
(See Whittier's 'Home Ballads' and Young's 'Chronicles of the First
Planters of Massachusetts,' p. 485.)
"I endeavored, but without success, to obtain fruit from the pear tree
planted at least as early as 1650, by Governor Prence, or Prince,
at Eastham, on Cape Cod, and now owned by Capt. Ezekiel Doane. It
is known as the _Fall_ pear. It is about the size of a hen's egg,
tapering towards both ends, green, nearly covered with thin russet,
of inferior quality, but not as coarse as the _Endicott_. In 1836 it
was a flourishing, lofty tree, producing an average of fifteen bushels
of fruit. It consisted of two stems, branching from the ground, the
larger of which was blown down in the great storm of April, 1851.
The portion now remaining is thirty-five feet high. It is a natural
tree and has not failed of bearing for twenty years. It stands in low
ground.
"The _Pickering_ or _Warden_ Pear. This tree was grafted on the 19th
of April, 1775, the day the battle of Lexington was fought, and
must have been at that time a small tree. It is called by the owner
the _Uvedale Warden_ or _Pickering_ pear, which are synonyms of the
_Uvedale's St. Germain_ or _Pound_, but it is entirely distinct from
that variety, being much smaller as well as otherwise different. It
resembles, and very probably is identical with, a variety which I have
known as the _English Warden_, but which I do not find described in
any pomological work, and have not seen for years. It is of medium
size, turbinate, light yellow, with a dull brownish cheek, in use in
winter, for cooking only. Paul Dudley says, in the paper above quoted,
'I have a _Warden_ Pear Tree that measures five Foot six Inches round.'
"The Pickering tree contracts suddenly at about a foot from the
ground, where it must have been grafted. It shows no sign of being
grafted elsewhere. Below the point of grafting, it is full two feet
in diameter and is about twenty-five feet high. It stands in a low,
moist place. The top was much injured by the great gale of September,
1869, losing several large limbs, but the tree is on the whole in good
preservation. In the same garden is a tree probably as old or older,
believed to be a _Messire Jean_.
"The estate, now much circumscribed from its original extent, on which
this tree stands, has been in the same family since 1642, having been
purchased in that year by John Pickering, who came from England in
1637, and built the house, now standing and occupied by the owner,
in 1651. It is on Broad street, Salem. The tree was grafted by John
Pickering, of the fifth generation.
"The Hon. Timothy Pickering, eminent for his incorruptible integrity
and immovable firmness, who successively held the offices of
Adjutant-general and Quartermaster-general in the Revolutionary
army, and of Postmaster-general, Secretary of War, and Secretary
of State in the Cabinet of President Washington, and continued to
hold the last named office under President Adams, was a brother of
John. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was Colonel of the
Essex regiment, and on the day when this tree was grafted by John
Pickering, who was an invalid, his more vigorous brother mustered
his regiment and marched to intercept the retreating British troops.
Timothy Pickering was also interested in agriculture, having been
Secretary of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture,
the oldest agricultural society in the United States, and after his
return to Massachusetts, was the first President of the Essex County
Agricultural Society. The estate on which the old pear tree stands was
devised by John Pickering, who died unmarried, to his nephew John, son
of Timothy, the most eminent American philologist of his time. On his
death, it descended to his son John, the present owner, to whom I am
indebted for the facts here stated, as well as for the specimens of
fruit exhibited at Chicago last September."
Out of an embarrassing number of references in regard to the early
introduction of the pear in New England one may choose the following:
Francis Higginson, writing in 1629, notes that pears are under
cultivation in New England.[6] In the same year, a memorandum of
the Massachusetts Company shows that seeds of pears, with those of
other fruits were sent to the colony.[7] Trees from these seeds grew
amazingly fast in the virgin soils of the colony, for John Josselyn,
who made voyages to New England in 1638 and 1639, writing in his
_New England Rarities Discovered_, notes that "fruit trees prosper
abundantly" enumerating, among others, those of the pear.[8] Josselyn
further says "the Kernels sown or Succors planted produce as fair and
good fruit, without grafting, as the trees from which they were taken,"
and that "the Countrey is replenished with fair and large Orchards."
As early as 1641 a nursery had been started in Massachusetts and no
doubt was selling pear-trees. These probably came from seeds, for trees
were not imported until in the next century. Varieties were few then as
for many years later. In 1726, Paul Dudley, one of the Chief Justices
of Massachusetts, in a paper in the _Philosophical Transactions_,
says, "Our apples are without doubt as good as those of England, and
much fairer to look to, and so are the pears, but we have not got all
the sorts." In another paragraph, Justice Dudley gives the following
account of several varieties of pears in these first orchards in New
England.
He says:[9] "An _Orange_ Pear Tree grows the largest and yields the
fairest Fruit. I know one of them near forty Foot high, that measures
six Foot and six Inches in Girt, a Yard from the Ground, and has borne
thirty Bushels at a Time: and this year I measured an _Orange_ Pear,
that grew in my own Orchard, of eleven Inches round the Bulge. I have a
Warden Pear Tree, that measures five Foot six Inches round. One of my
Neighbors has a _Bergamot_ Pear Tree that was brought from _England_ in
a Box, about the Year 1643, that now measures six Foot about, and has
borne twenty-two Bushels of fine Pears in one Year. About twenty years
since, the Owner took a Cyon, and grafted it upon a common Hedge Pear;
but the Fruit does not prove altogether so good, and the Rind or Skin,
is thicker than that of the Original."
Thus, early in the history of Massachusetts, the pear was largely
planted and became a prominent fruit. These early plantations grew
so well that no doubt they inspired the horticulturists of the first
half of the nineteenth century, of which the names of Dearborn, Hovey,
Kenrick, the two Mannings, and Wilder are notable in the history of
the pear in this country, to undertake the popularization of this
fruit by extensive culture, by breeding new varieties, and by the
introduction of the best pears from Europe. Their work, as we shall see
later, gave pear-growing its first great impetus in America. Until the
middle of the last century, the pear industry in America centered in
Massachusetts; and most of the new varieties which originated in this
country and nearly all of the introductions from abroad came from that
state.
The pear was not neglected in the other New England states as the
horticultural records of all attest, but its history in the several
states is so similar in time and events that the account of its early
culture in Massachusetts suffices for the whole region. It must,
however, be noted that the pear was introduced in Maine at a very early
date, probably by the French. In an orchard on the east bank of the
Sheepscot, below Wiscasset Bay, a venerable pear-tree stood until early
in the nineteenth century of such girt and height that it was supposed
to be more than 200 years old. Of the planting of this orchard there
are no records nor traditions. The most reasonable supposition was that
the trees had been planted there by the French in one of the several
attempts of France to colonize the coast of Maine.[10]
This introduction of the French in the history of the pear in the New
World, brings us to a discussion of the part they took in bringing this
fruit to America. The debt to France for early horticulture in America
rests largely on tradition, but in the case of the pear, there are
such substantial proofs of it in ancient pear-trees of enormous size
found on the sites of old French settlements, that though there are
no written records, and even the people and their habitations have
disappeared, it is certain that the seeds from which these venerable
trees sprang were planted by early French explorers or missionaries.
The first plantings of pears made by the French were in Canada. History
and tradition, substantiated by ancient trees, make certain that this
fruit was planted by the first French settlers in Nova Scotia, Cape
Breton, Prince Edward Island, in favored situations bordering on the
St. Lawrence, and on the islands in this river, notably the Island of
Montreal. Later plantations of fruit were set in the Niagara region and
along the Detroit river. No new varieties seem to have come from these
early plantings in Canada, but they demonstrated that pear-growing was
possible.
The history of the pear in America cannot be written without making
note of the magnificent specimens of this fruit standing until recent
years--a few may still be found--about the old French settlements in
Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. These are offspring of seeds brought
from France. A century ago the French _habitants_ in Detroit had a
tradition as to the manner in which these pears were introduced. The
legend ran that an emigrant from France brought three pear seeds in his
vest pocket, which, planted on the banks of the Detroit river, became
the parents through suckers and seeds of the gigantic old pear-trees
that have long been such striking landmarks of the towns and farms on
the Detroit river. No doubt these trees are the remains of orchards
in which there were apples, and possibly some plums and cherries, of
which the shorter-lived trees long since disappeared, while the pears,
flourishing in a green old age, are the sole remaining relics of the
old French settlements of this region. The writer herewith puts on
record another account of these truly remarkable pears as he saw them
in 1899.
All of these ancient French pears are of the same type, but the fruits
vary slightly, indicating that the trees were grown from seeds,
although some may have come from sprouts since many of the trees
throw out sprouts abundantly. The pears are of medium size, usually
turbinate, and lemon-yellow is the predominating color. The ripening
season runs from late summer to early winter. The flesh is melting,
juicy, usually mildly sweet, spicy, not high in quality for dessert
but excellent for all culinary purposes. But the most remarkable
characters of these French pears are the great size of the trees and
their vigor, healthfulness, productiveness, and longevity. The trees
have the majestic port of a century-old elm or oak. They attain a
height of eighty feet; a girt of eight or ten feet is not uncommon,
while one monarch measured by the writer fell a few inches short of
eleven feet in circumference three feet from the ground. The leaves are
small but abundant, and are of the luxuriant green color that betokens
great vigor. The trees have attained immunity to blight, but the fruits
are inviting prey to codling-moth when that insect is rife. In these
rich river-bottom lands the trees almost annually load themselves with
fruit, a crop of from forty to fifty bushels on one tree not being
uncommon. No one knows the age of most of these ancient lichen-covered
giants, although one which stood until a few years ago was known to
have been planted within the pickets of the palisaded fortress of
Detroit in 1705.
A generation or two ago, these French pears were very common about
the French settlements of Michigan and Canada in this region but they
have been disappearing fast, until it is doubtful if any of those
set by French _habitants_ can be found now. The pears possessed no
commercial value, and were replaced by named varieties better known
by fruit-growers and nurserymen. It is doubtful if the trees of the
newcomers will ever attain the age, size, vigor, and productiveness of
these oldtimers of the French, characters which make them noteworthy in
the history of the pear in America.
Pear-trees of enormous size survive on other sites of old French
settlements in the United States to show what notable horticulturists
the early missionaries of this people were, who, we are many times told
in the early records, usually surrounded their missions and homes with
trees of the apple, peach, pear, and cherry. Pear-trees very like those
found about the French settlements in Canada and Michigan still grow
in the rich intervale lands of the Wabash and Mississippi in Indiana,
Illinois, and Missouri. Vincennes, Indiana, was settled by the French
in 1702; Kaskaskia and Cahokia, Illinois, about 1685; St. Louis,
Missouri, in 1764. These may be set down as approximate dates in which
horticulture began in these inland regions. When the English conquered
these settlements they found giant pear-trees which persisted well into
the last century, the second generation of which were scattered far
and wide in the river settlements of this region. Tradition says that
a Monsieur Girardin, a native of France, planted a pear orchard from
seeds he brought with him at Cahokia about 1780, from which came the
Prairie du Pont pear, a small, roundish, lemon-colored fruit similar
to the French pears of Detroit, borne on an immense blight-proof
tree. No doubt the variety could still be found in this part of the
Mississippi valley. One wishes that the American-born descendants and
the conquerers of these early settlers from Normandy were as energetic
in forwarding horticulture as the first settlers. After the invasion
of the English and later the Americans, there is little evidence of
progress in horticulture in this region, until the early years of the
nineteenth century.
Another famous pear-tree of the Middle West is worthy of notice as an
evidence of early interest in horticulture. This tree, known as the
Ockletree pear, from the name of its owner, has acquired fame as the
largest pear-tree of which there is record. The tree was a seedling
brought from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1804, and was planted in an
orchard at Vincennes, Indiana. It bore a number of record-breaking
crops, the largest of which was 140 bushels of pears borne in 1837.
In 1855, the trunk measured ten and one-half feet in circumference at
the smallest place below the limbs; the top was estimated to have a
spread of 75 feet. The tree gained its great port and productiveness
from spread of branch rather than height, which was estimated to be
only 65 feet. The variety was unknown, but the fruit was said to be
somewhat inferior in quality. This monarch of its species was struck by
a tornado in 1867 which stripped off its branches and caused the death
of the tree a few years later.
Another living monument marked the beginnings of pear-culture in
America until 1866, when the trunk, little more than a shell, was
broken down by a dray, having furnished shade and shelter in a New
York garden for 220 years. This garden was laid out by the redoubtable
Peter Stuyvesant who took the reins of government in New Amsterdam
in 1647, at which time this pear-tree was planted. The pear was a
Summer Bon Chrétien, said to have been imported from Holland in a tub.
Stuyvesant's garden, kept in a high state of cultivation by forty or
fifty negro slaves, was called the "Bouwery," now the Bowery, and the
pear-tree in it stood at what is now the corner of Third Avenue and
Thirteenth Street. No doubt other pears were imported from Holland at
the same time, and from these and seeds and sprouts, this fruit was
started in the Dutch settlements up and down the Hudson, where the pear
even to this day is a favorite fruit, finding here a more congenial
soil and climate than in any other part of America.
Soon after Governor Stuyvesant planted his bowery of fruits, flowers,
and vegetables, the French laid out orchards in the vicinity of New
York City. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, many
Huguenots fled to America. In 1689, some of these French _emigrés_
settled at New Rochelle, New York, and on Long Island. The trees grown
by the Huguenots were usually grafted, the parent plants having been
brought from France. No doubt, it was from these importations that
White Doyenné, Brown Beurré, St. Germain, Virgouleuse, and many other
old French sorts that seem to have been in America from time immemorial
came.
However, the pear, in common with other fruits, was more largely grown
from seeds in these pioneer days than from buds or grafts. Fruits
were known and grown as species and not as varieties almost wholly in
America until the nineteenth century. The sale of budded or grafted
trees began in New York, so far as records show, with the establishment
of a nursery at Flushing, Long Island, in 1730, by Robert Prince.
This nursery afterwards became the famous Linnaean Botanic Garden.
At what date Prince began to offer grafted pears for sale cannot now
be ascertained, but advertisements appearing in 1767, 1771, and 1790
offer named varieties at these dates. The following is a list of pears
offered by the Princes in 1771:[11]
Bergamot Russelet
Catharine Early sugar
Vergalieu Baurre vert
July Winter baurre
Monsier Jean Baurre de roy
Trom valette Green chissel
French primative Swan's egg
Winter bon cretan Colmar
Easter bergamot Cressan
Amber Spanish bon cretan
Chaumontelle Large bell
Citron de camis La Chassaire
Summer bergamot Hampden's bergamot
Autumn bergamot Doctor Uvedale's St. Germain
Amozelle Large winter, weighs near two pounds
Lent St. Germain Pear wardens
Brocaus bergamot Empress
Winter bergamot Large summer baking
Jargonelle The black pear of Worcester or Parkinson's
warden
Roussilon The skinless
Cuissemadam Green catharine
Coincident with the establishment of nurseries selling named varieties
of pears another event of prime importance to pear-growers occurred.
Pear-blight became epidemic in the orchards along the Hudson, and while
it must have been noticed before, its ravages at this time brought
it prominently to the attention of pear-growers. The disease seems
to have been first mentioned by William Denning who described it in
the _Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture_
for 1794 (pt. 2, p. 219) in an article on the decay of apple-trees.
Denning says that he first saw the malady in orchards on the highlands
of the Hudson in 1780 attacking apples, pears, and quinces. He gives a
good description of the disease, but says it is caused by a borer in
the trunk which he found after much labor. From Denning's discovery
until Burrill a hundred years later, in 1882, discovered a cause of
the disease and suggested a preventive, every treatise on the pear
speculates on the cause and cure of pear-blight, a disease which has
been and is the terror and despair of growers of this fruit.
Philadelphia was another center of pear-growing in the early
settlements of the country. The Quakers, settling in Pennsylvania in
1682, planted all of the hardy fruits; which were soon, as we are
several times told, a great asset to the colony. No results worthy of
note seem to have come from these early plantings until nearly a half
century later when John Bartram[12] founded, in 1728, what became a
famous botanic garden. The Bartram Botanic Garden became almost at
once the clearing house for native and foreign fruits and plants, and
to it came several varieties of pears for distribution throughout the
colonies. Here, the first variety of the pear to originate in America
of which we have definite record, came into existence. This was the
Petre pear raised by Bartram, from seeds sent him from England by Lady
Petre. The seed was planted in 1735 near the stone house which Bartram
built with his own hands. The tree still stands, somewhat stricken with
its two centuries, but withal a noble specimen seemingly capable of
breasting the blows of age for many years to come.
The pear industry of the eastern United States is confined to the
regions in which the history of this fruit has been traced, and most
if not all of the varieties that originated in this country until
the middle of the nineteenth century came from the importations to
these French, Dutch, and English settlements. There is little profit,
therefore, in attempting to trace further the history of pear-culture
on the Atlantic seaboard in colonial times. Pears were grown in the
states south of Pennsylvania, for many references are found in the
colonial records of the southern states, but they bring out no new
facts to illuminate the history of this fruit in America. The Quakers
and Swedes grew pears in the regions watered by the Delaware, and the
English in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina all planted pears
with the other hardy fruits only to find that they so quickly succumbed
to unfavorable climate and the blight as to be unprofitable. The
Bergamy and Warden, in particular, are mentioned as varieties of this
fruit grown in the colonial period of the southern colonies.
Perhaps one, at least, of these lesser centers of pear-growing somewhat
to the south of the pear regions in which there are now commercial
plantations should receive notice. In 1794, William Coxe,[13]
Burlington, New Jersey, began planting experimental orchards. Coxe was
acquainted with the leading pomologists of Europe and his own country,
and collected the best varieties of tree-fruits to be found in the
United States, England, and France. In 1817, he published his _View
of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards
and Cider, etc._, the first American book on pomology. This pioneer
pomologist described 65 varieties of pears, most of which he had grown
at one time or another on his own place, and names 21 other sorts that
were grown in his and neighboring states. Coxe seems to have been the
first nurseryman to import new varieties from the Old World. To Coxe,
more than to any other one man, the regions adjacent to the Delaware
are indebted for the early development of fruit-growing both for
pleasure and profit, and the whole country is indebted to him for the
introduction of many fine fruits.
A new phase in the history of the pear began soon after the
Revolutionary war. Until this time, and until well into the next
century, tree-fruits were nearly all seedlings. The pears of the
country until as late as 1830 were for most part seedlings, the
fruits varying greatly in size, shape, color, and flavor. According
to the accounts of the times, the product was so hard of flesh and so
astringent in flavor as to be fit only for cooking and perry. Indeed,
the great object in growing apples, pears, and peaches was the making
of cider, perry, and peach-brandy. Good eating pears were few indeed.
But beginning in a small way with Coxe in New Jersey, as noted, a
little later with William Kenrick, Newton, Massachusetts, and still
later with Robert Manning, Salem, Massachusetts, the importation of
European varieties of fruits became an important part of the nursery
business. The importation of pears became an obsession with Manning,
his nursery alone importing several hundred varieties. Manning's work
must have a more extended notice.
In 1823, Robert Manning established a pomological garden at Salem,
Massachusetts, to collect and test as many varieties of fruits as he
could obtain, native and foreign, with the intention of propagating and
distributing those which proved most worthy. In furthering this great
project he entered into correspondence with the leading pomologists
of Europe, and from them secured trees and cions, which, with native
sorts, brought his collection up to 2000 varieties of fruits at the
time of his death in 1842. More than half of the varieties planted by
Manning were pears. This, it will be remembered, was the period in
which Belgian, French, and English pomologists were making pears a
specialty, and led by Van Mons, the Belgian scientist, had succeeded
in putting almost a new pear flora in the hands of fruit-growers.
Manning grew in America nearly all of Van Mons' introductions, received
direct from the originator, and many acquisitions from other European
pomologists as well, notably many varieties from Robert Thompson of
the London Horticultural Society. Manning was one of the most careful
observers amongst American pomologists, and to him pear-growers are
indebted for the first full and accurate descriptions of the fruits
grown in his time in this country. These were published in 1838 in
his _Book of Fruits_. American pomologies before and many since were
compilations. Manning made his descriptions first-hand and described
no fruit "not actually identified beyond a reasonable doubt of its
genuineness."
After Manning, one might well scan the work of several eminent American
pomologists who made pears a specialty. Robert Manning, Jr., continued
the work of his father with this fruit and the two Downings, Wilder,
Barry, and Thomson found the pear the most interesting of the fruits
which they grew. To all of these men, pomologists are indebted for the
introduction of many new and choice pears; for the identification of
varieties; for the correction of the nomenclature of this fruit; for
testing hundreds of seedlings and native and foreign varieties; and for
the distribution of pears throughout the whole country.
A history of the pear in America requires some mention of its
introduction in the Pacific states since that region is now the
greatest center of the pear industry in the country, and the home of
several notable varieties. Franciscan monks established missions in
California at about the time the colonies on the eastern coast were
fighting for their independence. To these they brought the cultivated
plants of Europe and among them the pear. Vancouver, in 1792, found all
of the hardy fruits growing at Santa Clara and the mission of San Buena
Ventura, California. Robinson, a little later, describes extensive
orchards connected with the mission of San Gabriel in which there were
pears in abundance. In 1846, Edwin Bryant found at the mission of San
Jose six hundred pear-trees bearing fruit in great abundance and full
perfection. The missions were secularized in 1834, and the orchards
fell into decay. But the pear and the vine withstood neglect, drouth,
and the browsing of cattle to furnish food to the Argonauts of '49. But
little came of these early plantings that affects the present industry
of growing pears in California either as to methods of culture or the
introduction of new varieties.
As an example of the remarkable recuperative power of the pear,
however, the orchard which Bryant described in 1846 at the San Gabriel
Mission is noteworthy. An enterprising pioneer, W. M. Stockton, grafted
over the old orchard in 1854 to improved varieties, and by pruning,
cultivation, and irrigation succeeded in rejuvenating it so that the
orchard became a profitable commercial plantation--the first commercial
pear orchard in California. There are other instances given in the
early accounts of fruit-growing in California in which the youth of old
pear-trees was renewed by generous treatment, showing that the pear
in a congenial soil and climate is most self-assertive in maintaining
life. It could hardly be otherwise than that the health and vigor of
these old trees stimulated the planting of fruits by the gold-seekers
who rushed to this region in 1849.
Meanwhile, orcharding had been established as an avocation. In the rich
Willamette Valley in Oregon, where the growing of wheat and cattle
was the vocation, the plantations of hardy fruits made by Henderson
Lewelling, near Portland, Oregon, in 1847, included pears and marked
the beginning of pear-culture in Oregon. Lewelling's venture, so
pregnant with results in pomology for the Pacific Northwest, has
been described in _The Cherries of New York_, and needs no detailed
description here. It is mentioned only to call attention to it as
another landmark in the history of the pear.
The padres began the cultivation of the pear at the missions. The
pioneers of '47 in Oregon and '49 in California started a new era in
the cultivation of this and other tree-fruits by introducing named and
improved varieties and extending their cultivation along the coast from
British Columbia to Lower California. So far, the plantings were fruit
gardens, not orchards. The era of commercial fruit-growing began in
the year 1869 in which the first fresh fruits were sent east by rail,
the shipment amounting to thirty-three tons, mostly pears and apples.
This event marks the beginning of a great industry in growing pears on
the Pacific slope for the fresh fruit market, and was followed shortly
by the introduction of canning and evaporation to use up the surplus
product. The special demands of these three more or less distinct
industries called for new varieties, and American pomology has been
enriched by a score or more varieties of pears from this great pear
region.
An event which has had a profound influence on pear-growing in the
whole country was the introduction of Oriental pears and their hybrids.
The mongrel offspring of the Oriental with the European pear were
unfortunate in regions where pure-bred European sorts can be grown, but
in vast tracts of the United States, as almost the whole of the South
and the Middle West, only hybrids of the two species find a congenial
environment, and here varieties with Oriental blood became a great
asset. The introduction of these pears, also, has greatly stimulated
the canning of this fruit in regions where fruit-preserving is an
industry. It was hoped that these hybrids could be used successfully as
stocks upon which European varieties could be worked, but the stocks
have not proved satisfactory, and their use is decreasing.
The Oriental, Chinese, or Sand pear came into America from Asia by
the way of Europe. The importation into Europe was made by the Royal
Horticultural Society of London in 1820. There seems to be no record
of when these pears reached America, but they were growing in the
Prince Nursery as early as 1840 under the names Chinese pear and
Sha Lea. Here, or in one of several nurseries to which it was sent
by Prince, the Oriental seems to have hybridized with the European
pear, the product being the Le Conte, which came to notice in 1846
and is the first of these hybrids on record. The Kieffer fruited
first in 1873 and proved to be much better than Le Conte except in
certain parts of the South. The Garber, another valuable hybrid, came
to notice about 1880. There are now, perhaps, two score of these
hybrids, with new ones coming from time to time. These hybrid pears,
while not blight-proof, are more immune to blight than the European
varieties, and pear-breeders are hybridizing the two species with the
hope of obtaining a variety with the fruit of the European type on
a tree of the Oriental type. Several promising seedlings bred with
this combination in view have been announced, and the number of these
hybrids is certain to be increased as time goes on.
The advent of Russian pears in the United States must also be mentioned
as a notable event in the history of this fruit. Russian pears are
hardy strains of _Pyrus communis_ grown from time immemorial in Russia.
The fruits of these Russian varieties are low in quality, but the
trees are much hardier than those of strains coming from more southern
parts of Europe. Some seventy or eighty of these hardy pears have
been imported from Russia, the first shipment coming in 1879 from
St. Petersburg. For a few years importations followed rapidly, and
fruit-growers in cold regions had high hopes of being able to grow
pears in competition with growers in more favored regions. The fruits
turned out to be so poor in quality and the trees so subject to blight,
however, that the cultivation of all but a few varieties has ceased.
Of the whole number, Bessemianka, possibly, is the only one worthy of
comparison with the pears of southern Europe, and this sort is rated
as poor where the southern pears are grown. Professor J. L. Budd,[14]
Ames, Iowa, and Charles Gibb, Montreal, Canada, were the two men most
instrumental in bringing these pears to America.
The chief import of these brief records of the origin and history of
cultivated pears in several countries is to show the evolution of
this fruit. It is hoped that the chapter will furnish inspiration for
further amelioration of the pear, and that it contains facts that will
be helpful in the future development of this fruit. The men, times,
and places have historical and narrative interest to pomologists; but
these are quite secondary to the knowledge of what the raw material
was from which our pear flora has been fashioned, and the methods of
domestication that were employed. This chapter is only a sketch--the
briefest possible outline of how the leading types of pears came to be,
and how and when they came to America.
CHAPTER II
SPECIES OF PEARS AND THEIR CHARACTERS
The pear belongs to the great order Rosaceae, the Rose Family. There
are about ninety genera in this family, the most important of all
botanical groups to growers of hardy fruits, of which ten or twelve
bear pome-fruits. Of the genera whose fruits are pomes, only two
contain important hardy fruits, namely, Pyrus, to which belong apples,
crab-apples, and pears; and Cydonia, the quince. Three other genera
are of lesser importance, but must be named to show their relationship
to the pear. These are Mespilus, the medlar, grown in Europe but
little known in America; Chænomeles, the Japanese quince, well known
as an ornamental, the fruits of which are used for conserves; and
Amelanchier, the Juneberry, a common fruit in American forests. One
other genus in this family has possibilities for domestication but
is not yet cultivated for its fruits in America. This is Cratægus,
comprising the hawthorns and thorn-apples, the fruits of which are
edible and several species of which are cultivated in various parts of
the world as food plants.
Nearly every botanist who has attempted to classify plants has grouped
the pome-fruits according to a plan of his own. There are, therefore,
several classifications of genera and species of the pomes, in
consequence of which the nomenclature is badly confused. A century ago
the tendency was for botanists to put in the genus Pyrus the apple,
pear, crab-apple, quince, medlar, sorbus, and chokeberry. The modern
tendency is to segregate these fruits in distinct genera in accordance
with common names. As a rule the differences which suggest a distinct
common name suffice for a botanical division.
The pear and apple, however, are usually kept together in Pyrus, and
botanists generally agree that separation in species is sufficient, or,
at most, that the separation should not be greater than in two sections
of the genus. Happily, the difficulties of classification in botany
trouble little or not at all in pomology, as each of the pome-fruits
constitutes a distinct pomological group. The distinguishing characters
of Pyrus are:
Woody plants, trees or shrubs, with smooth or scaly bark. Leaves
simple, or sometimes lobed, alternate, usually serrate, deciduous,
with deciduous stipules which are free from the petiole. Flowers
perfect, regular, borne in compound terminal cymes; torus urn-shaped,
adnate to the ovary and inclosing it with thick, succulent flesh
at maturity; calyx-lobes 5, acuminate and reflexed, persistent in
some and deciduous in other species; petals 5, white, pink or red,
inserted on the thickened border of the disk; stamens 15 to 20, in
three rows; styles 2 to 5, free or united below; carpels 2 to 5,
inferior, crowned by the styles, usually 2-seeded. Fruit an ovoid or
pyriform pome; seeds two in each cell, brown or brownish, lustrous,
mucilaginous on the outer surface.
The genus comprises fifty to sixty species in the north temperate zone
of the three continents. The largest number is found in south-central
and eastern Asia. In North America, Pyrus is represented by five
species, while eight or nine species inhabit Europe. In several of the
species there are many natural varieties. The two sections of Pyrus,
given the rank of genera by some authors, are distinguished as follows:
1. Apples (Malus). Flowers pink, rose-color, red or sometimes white,
borne in fascicles or subumbellate clusters on short spurs or lateral
branchlets; ovary 3- to 5-celled; styles more or less united at the
base. Fruit more or less globular with a distinct depression at both
ends, the flesh without grit cells, rounded at the base. The species
in this section number 30 to 40, of which not more than a half dozen
are domesticated.
2. Pears (Pyrus). Flowers white, few, borne in corymbs on short spurs
or lateral branchlets; ovary 5-celled; styles usually free. Fruit
usually pyriform, sometimes subglobose, usually conical at the base,
the flesh usually bearing grit cells when ripened on the tree. The
species number 15 to 20 of which but two are truly domesticated, but
several others give promise of value for stocks and possibly for their
fruits.
THE STRUCTURAL BOTANY OF THE PEAR
A major purpose in _The Pears of New York_ is to describe varieties
of pears so that their faults and merits can be seen, and that
varieties may be identified. It is apparent at once that one cannot
describe accurately nor understand the descriptions of others unless
acquainted with the organs of tree and fruit--one must know the form
and structure of the whole plant. A study of the organs of plants is
structural botany. Plant descriptions are portraitures of the plant's
organs, and structural botany thus becomes the foundation of systematic
pomology, with a study of which, as concerns the pear, we are to be
chiefly concerned in the following pages. We must, therefore, pay some
attention to the structural botany of the pear. A pear is one of the
pome-fruits. What is a pome?
A pome is variously defined by students of structural botany. The
most conspicuous part of the apple, pear, or quince, the best-known
pome-fruits, is the outer, fleshy, edible part. This succulent part is
said by some botanists to be the thickened calyx; others say that it is
the enlarged receptacle. Some botanists believe that a pome consists
of two to five drupe-like fruits, each drupe called a carpel, each of
which contains one or more seeds. These drupes, if they are rightly
so-named, are held together by a fleshy receptacle. The best definition
seems to be that a pome is a fleshy fruit of which the compound ovary
is borne within and connected to the receptacle.
CHARACTERS OF PEAR-TREES
Pome-fruits are all woody plants, shrubby or tree-like, of which the
pear is always a tree. The value of the variety and the recognition of
it usually depend on characters of the fruits, but the trees are nearly
as distinct as the fruits, are always helpful in identification, and in
the absence of fruit must be relied upon to identify a variety. Also,
and even more important, the pear-grower must know whether the plant is
manageable in the orchard, for which purpose he must have a description
of the chief characters of the tree.
_Size and habit of tree._--Size of tree is a very reliable character
to determine varieties of pears. The Winter Nelis pear is dwarf as
compared with other pears. Size varies greatly with environment, it
must be remembered in using this character. The terms _large_, _small_,
and _medium_ are commonly used to designate size. Vigor, which may be
defined as internal energy, must not be confused with size. Small trees
may be as vigorous as large ones.
The term _habit of growth_, as used by pomologists, has reference
to the form of the top. In describing the tops of pear-trees a
number of self-explanatory terms are used, such as _pyramidal_,
_upright-spreading_, _drooping_, _tall_, _low_, _dense_, _open-topped_,
and _round-topped_. Many if not most varieties of pears may be told
by the form of the top. One can tell Bartlett or Clapp Favorite at a
glance by their upright branches; as one can, also, Beurré d'Anjou and
Beurré Superfin by their wide-spreading branches; or Winter Nelis pear
by its drooping branches. Depending upon the form of the top, a variety
is easy or difficult to manage in an orchard.
_Constitutional characters._--Hardiness, productiveness, susceptibility
to pests, adaptability to diverse soils and climates are vaguely
supposed to be dependent on the constitution of the tree. Pomologists
very generally refer to these characters as constitutional. They speak
of the constitution as the aggregate of the vital powers of a variety.
Horticulturally, hardiness is ability to withstand cold. Obviously,
hardiness is of utmost importance in characterizing the value of a
variety to the pear-grower, and degree of hardiness is of some use in
identifying pears. Bartlett and Beurré Bose are relatively tender to
cold, Tyson is hardy, and Flemish Beauty is very hardy. Less important,
but still of some importance, is the ability to withstand heat, a
character possessed in varying degrees by varieties of pears.
Productiveness, age of bearing, regularity of bearing, certainty of
bearing, and longevity are constitutional characters that must be noted
in full descriptions. All help to determine the value of a variety,
and all aid more or less in classification. For most part, these are
inherent characters and are influenced but little by environment.
The degree of susceptibility of a variety to fungous diseases and
insect pests is a valuable cultural character, but has little use
in identifying or classifying pears. There are great variations in
varieties of pears to the dreaded pear-blight: Bartlett, Beurré Bose,
Beurré d'Anjou, and Clapp Favorite are among the varieties most
susceptible; Kieffer, Seckel, and Winter Nelis are among those least
susceptible to blight. Kieffer and related hybrids are somewhat immune
to San Jose scale, but are very susceptible to psylla. Flemish Beauty
and White Doyenné are so badly attacked by the scab-fungus that it is
almost impossible to grow them in eastern America.
Some of these constitutional characters are much modified by care and
environment, as all are more or less. Care and local environment often
make it possible to grow varieties in special localities, although
some varieties are inherently adapted to a greater number of diverse
conditions than others. Bartlett, Seckel, and Kieffer have in common as
one of their most valuable characters adaptability to a great diversity
of soils and climates.
_Trunk and branch._--The trunk does not count for much in descriptions
of varieties. The height of the trunk usually depends on the whims of
the pruner. Whether _stout_ or _slender_ is sometimes noteworthy. The
bark may be _smooth_ or _shaggy_. Color of bark is often a valuable
diagnostic character, especially in young trees. Many if not most
varieties of pears can be identified in nursery rows by an expert
nurseryman from the color of the bark. Seckel, Sheldon, and Beurré
d'Anjou have remarkably distinctive color as young trees.
The branches of pear-trees are often reliable guides in identifying
varieties in orchard or nursery, especially when trees are leafless
and fruitless. The twisting, drooping branches of Winter Nelis serve
to identify that variety at any time. The zigzag branches of Beurré
d'Anjou and Bloodgood are typical. The branches of Beurré Superfin
are rough and shaggy. Those of Dorset and Fox are slender. The
branches of several well-known pears are spiny. A glance through the
technical descriptions in Chapter IV shows that branches and branchlets
are variously colored. The branchlets may be _stout_ or _slender_,
_long-jointed_ or _short-jointed_, _pubescent_ or _glabrous_,
_straight_ or _zigzag_. The angle at which branchlets are set is often
characteristic. The epidermis may be smooth or covered with scarf-skin.
Lastly, the size, shape, color, number, and position of the corky cells
or lenticels on young wood is most important in identifying trees after
leaves have fallen.
_Leaf-buds and leaves._--Size, length, and shape of leaf-buds are
helpful in identifying varieties when the trees are dormant. There is
considerable difference in the length of buds of different varieties,
and they may vary in thickness; some are _plump_, others are _slender_.
The shape can usually be described as _acute_, _pointed_, _obtuse_,
or _conical_. If the bud lies close to the twig, it is said to be
_appressed_; if it stands from the twig at a considerable angle, it is
_free_. In some varieties the leaf-scar is conspicuous; in others, it
is inconspicuous.
While leaves vary much in accordance with the condition of the plant
which bears them, yet they offer a number of valuable distinguishing
characters. It is important in making use of leaves to take only
those borne on free-growing twigs, as those growing on luxuriant
water-sprouts on the one hand, or on slow-growing spurs on the other
are seldom typical.
The size of the leaf is a most valuable determinant of varieties of
pears. Length and breadth should be given in figures. The shape should
be depicted in carefully chosen words. The body of the leaf is usually
_ovate_ or _oval_, but these shapes must nearly always be modified by
_broad_ or _narrow_, _long_ or _short_. The apex requires a descriptive
word or two; as, _taper-pointed_, _acute_, or _obtuse_. Thickness and
texture are sometimes noteworthy. The texture is usually described
as _stiff_, _leathery_, or _pliant_. Sometimes the leaves are flat;
sometimes folded upward, and rarely they are folded downward. The color
of both the upper and lower surfaces is often important; and the amount
of pubescence, if present, must always be noted on the two surfaces.
The autumnal tint is a marked characteristic in some varieties. The
margins offer valuable evidence for identification in the character
of the serrations which are usually distinct in a variety. Sometimes
glands and hairs are found on the margins, in which case they are
usually noteworthy. The time of appearance and the fall of leaves are
life events that distinguish some varieties. Leaves are many in some
sorts; few in others. The length, thickness, color of the petiole and
whether it is _smooth_, _pubescent_ or _channeled_ are usually worth
noting. The presence and the size and color of stipules are often
important enough to record. The petioles of pear leaves are larger and
slenderer than those of the apple, and the foliage of a pear-tree has
something of the tremulous habit of the aspen and other poplars. The
leaves have a gloss that distinguishes them at once from those of the
apple-tree. As a rule, the foliage of the pear drops earlier in the
autumn than that of the apple.
When the leaves of pears open in the spring they are folded along the
midrib, and are covered with snow-white wool, but at full maturity no
trace of this woolly covering remains. The amount and texture of this
covering on the leaves of different varieties vary greatly, although it
is doubtful if this character is of much use for taxonomic purposes.
_Flower-buds and flowers._--It is not possible to distinguish
flower-buds from leaf-buds by their external appearance as certainly
as might be wished for the purposes of ascertaining what the crop will
be and that pruning and budding may be done more intelligently. As a
rule, however, the flower-buds are larger, plumper, and have a blunter
point. The flower-buds are much like leaf-buds in color--usually a dark
brown. They may be readily told by their contents when examined under
a microscope. Time of opening is a mark of distinction with varieties
that bloom very early or very late, but the flowers of most varieties
of pears open at approximately the same time.
The flowers of pears give small opportunity to identify varieties
but are useful. The petals in most of the flowers of varieties of
_P. communis_ meet or lap at the widest point, which is a short
distance from the point of attachment. Occasionally a variety has
the petals widely separated. Easter Beurré, Vermont Beauty, and Dana
Hovey are examples of varieties with widely-separated petals. Round
and broadly-oval petals meet or lap, long narrow petals are usually
separated. The size, shape, and color of the petals offer the best
means of identification from flowers. The length, thickness, and amount
and kind of pubescence on the styles may distinguish varieties. The
styles of the Howell pear are abnormally short. The number of flowers
in a cluster, and whether the cluster is dense or loose are important.
The character of the fruit-spurs is nearly always noteworthy. The
calyx-tubes, calyx-lobes, and pedicels differ materially. These
structures in the flower, while offering decisive evidence in
identification, are seldom used by pomologists because character of
plant and fruit may be studied during a much longer time and are of
greater cultural importance. In the blooming season, length, diameter,
and the pubescence of stamens may be noted, but much more important
taxonomically is the position of the stamens on the calyx-tube in the
mature fruit. These organs, or remnants of them, persist in the ripened
fruits, as will be noted in the discussion of characters of the fruit.
Lastly, some varieties may be told during the blooming season by the
distribution of the blossoms on the tree. The flowers of many varieties
are borne on the periphery of the tree, and give the plant an aspect by
which one may recognize the variety at once.
If a variety is not noteworthy in the characters for which the fruit
is grown--those which appeal to the senses of taste and sight--it
has small chance of being cultivated long or widely. Hence, especial
attention is paid to descriptions of the fruit. Some pomologists
describe varieties only from the fruit, saying little or nothing about
the plant.
FRUIT-CHARACTERS OF POMES
_Season and use._--Perhaps season is the first, and certainly it is one
of the most important characters to be noted in the ripened fruit. By
season is meant the period in which a variety is in proper condition
for use. Unless otherwise stated, season has reference to the period
during which fruit is in condition in ordinary storage, as it is
understood that cold-storage greatly prolongs the natural season. The
terms _summer_, _fall_, and _winter_, sometimes modified by _early_
or _late_, give the season with sufficient accuracy. Keeping quality
and shipping quality, both dependent on several factors, are usually
mentioned in connection with season.
Rather closely connected with season is use. The uses for which a
variety is particularly suited should always be indicated. Thus, a
market variety is one suitable for the general market; a local market
sort is one which does not stand handling well enough for the general
market but is acceptable in local trade. A variety for dessert or
table is suitable for eating in the uncooked state; cooking or kitchen
varieties are desirable for culinary purposes.
_Size and shape of fruit._--Of external characters of pears, size
is important if several typical specimens can be examined, but is
often misleading because under the stress of environment abnormal
specimens may be produced. Gradations in size are expressed by the
terms _large_, _medium_, and _small_, modified by _very_, _above_, and
_below_. Used in connection with size, _uniform_ signifies that the
fruit of a variety runs fairly even in the same size.
Shape is the most important character in describing the fruit. It may
be used with immature as well as mature specimens. In determining
the shape of the fruit, the pear should be held opposite to the eye
perpendicular to the diameter from stem to calyx; or the fruit may be
cut longitudinally at its widest diameter. The shape of the body of
the pear is usually described first, followed by a description of the
narrow part bearing the stem, if this neck is prominent enough to be
noteworthy. A pear is _pyriform_ when the curve formed by the body and
neck is concave; _turbinate_, or top-shaped, when the body is nearly
round with a short neck. The neck may be _long_ or _short_, _distinct_
or _obscure_, _obtuse_ or _acute_. Sheldon is typically turbinate;
Beurré d'Anjou, Beurré Bose, and Bartlett are all pyriform.
A graphic record should accompany a description of the fruit to show
size and shape. A simple outline drawing serves the purpose.
_The stem._--Varying as little as any other character of the pear, the
stem is much used in identification. It may be _long_ and _slender_,
as in the Beurré Bose; _short_ and _thick_, as in Doyenné du Comice;
_fleshy_, as in Louise Bonne de Jersey; _clubbed_, when enlarged at
the end; and _lipped_ when the flesh forms a protuberance under which
the stem is inserted. The stems of pears are often set _obliquely_ as
in Beurré Clairgeau; or are _crooked_ or _curved_ as in Howell. In a
few varieties the stems are _channeled_. The stems of some pears have
distinguishing colors, those of others are pubescent. In some pears, as
Souvenir d'Espéren, there are bud-like projections on the stem.
The length of the stem in pears is a reliable diagnostic character
only when it is known from what part of the flower-cluster the fruit
was developed. For, as a rule, the nearer the flower to the tip of the
raceme in the pear, the shorter the stem on the fruit.
_Cavity and basin._--The cavity, the depression in which the stem
is set, offers several marks which greatly enhance the value of a
description of any of the pears. The cavity may be _acute_ or _obtuse_;
_shallow_, _medium_, or _deep_; _narrow_, _medium_, or _broad_;
_smooth_ or _russeted_; _furrowed_, _ribbed_, _angular_, or _uniform_;
or it may be _lipped_ as described under stem. The color of the skin
within the cavity is sometimes different from that without, and there
may be radiating lines, rays, or streaks.
The basin, the depression in which the calyx is set, is as important
as the cavity in classifying pears and is described by the same terms.
The furrows in the basin are sometimes indistinct and are then called
_wavy_. The skin around the calyx-lobes may be _wrinkled_, _plaited_,
_folded_, or _corrugated_. Rarely, there are fleshy protuberances about
the calyx-lobes called _mammiform appendages_.
_Calyx-lobes._--The withered calyx-lobes persist in some pears and
not in others. They persist in European pears, but are deciduous in
the edible-fruited Asiatic species. The calyx-lobes may be _open_,
_partly open_, or _closed_ in varieties of the fruits in which they
are persistent. In some varieties the segments are separated at the
base; in others, united. The lobes may lie flat on the fruit or may
stand erect. When upright, if the tips incline inward the lobes are
said to be _connivent_; if inclined outward, they are _reflexed_, or
_divergent_. The lobes may be _broad_ or _narrow_, with tips _acute_ or
_accuminate_.
_Characters of the skin._--The skin of all pears offers several most
valuable features for classification. Of these characters, color is
the most important. Perhaps no character of fruits varies more in
accordance with environment than the color, yet the color itself
and the way in which it is distributed on the fruit, serve to make
this character a fairly safe distinguishing mark for most varieties
of pears. The ground-color of pears is the green or yellow-green of
chlorophyll, usually with an over-color of tints and shades of yellow
or red. The over-color may be laid on in _stripes_, _splashes_, or
_streaks_; as a _blush_; may mottle the surface; or may be a single
color, in which case the fruit is said to be _self-colored_. In nearly
all varieties of colored pears, it is not an uncommon anomaly to find
trees under some conditions bearing green fruits. Usually, in pears,
the color is laid on solidly; very few varieties have striped or
splashed fruits.
The skin may be _thick_ or _thin_, _tough_ or _tender_. In a few
varieties it is relatively free from the flesh, but with most clings
tightly. The surface of the skin is often waxy or oily. This character
must not be confused with _waxen_ which refers to the glossy appearance
of the skin.
Some pears have an unbroken russet surface as Beurré Bose and Sheldon.
Or, the surface may be rough because of minute russet dots or netted
veins. With many sorts, the cavity alone is russeted. Sometimes the
russet of the cavity is spread out in radiating lines.
Nearly all pears have few or many dots on the skin, notes on which
may enhance the value of a description. These may be _obscure_ or
_conspicuous, large_ or _small_, _raised_ or _sunken_. If visible under
the epidermis, they are said to be _submerged_. When star-like, they
are called _stellate_. If surrounded by a halo of lighter color, they
are said to be _areolar_. In some varieties, the dots are elongated.
Very often the dots are russeted. The roughened outer skin, called
_scarf-skin_, gives a distinguishing appearance to a few pears.
_Cutting pears to show the internal structure._--When varieties cannot
be distinguished from external marks, there are several very reliable
characters that can be made use of in the internal anatomy of the
fruits. To study these it is necessary to make a longitudinal and a
transverse section of the pear. To make an accurate examination of
the internal structure, the sectioning must be done with a keen, thin
knife, with a steady hand, and a good eye.
In making the longitudinal section the knife should pass through the
center of the calyx, showing the remnants of styles and stamens;
through the middle of the core cell, showing the outline of the core
cavity; and through the middle of the stem. A true record cannot be
obtained, unless the organs named are divided fairly accurately in
halves. In making the transverse section, the knife should pass through
the widest diameter of the fruit, cutting the core in half. If the core
is not in the center of the fruit, trial cuts to locate it must be made
that it may be halved exactly.
_The stamens, calyx-tube, and styles._--After halving the fruit
longitudinally, the first organs to be studied are the stamens, the
position of which furnishes reliable taxonomic data in apples and is
occasionally worth noting in pears. Passing from the stamens to the
calyx-tube, it will be found that the shape of this structure is of
some use in separating varieties, although it is exceedingly variable
in accordance with the size of the pear, and is materially altered by
abnormalities in the fruit. The base of the styles in some varieties
develop into fleshy tissue which alters the shape of the calyx-tube.
The calyx-tube may be _cone-shaped_, _funnel-shaped_, or _urn-shaped_.
When funnel-shaped, the broad upper part is called the _limb_; the
narrow lower part, the _cylinder_. In some varieties the remnants of
the styles are often more or less fleshy and form a point, called the
_pistil point_, which projects into the calyx-tube.
_The core._--The position of the core in the fruit is often a valuable
means of distinguishing varieties. If close to the stem, the core is
said to be _sessile_; if at the center of the pome, it is _median_;
when distant from the stem, _distant_.
The cell containing seed, called a carpel, is morphologically a
modified leaf, which, by folding together and by union of its edges
forms a closed receptacle. In some varieties, the carpels are _open_;
in others _closed_. If the tip of the carpel is indented, it is said to
be _emarginate_; if long and pointed, _mucronate_. In shape, carpels
may be _round_, _cordate_, _obcordate_, _elliptical_, _oblong_,
_elongated_, _ovate_, or _obovate_. In the cores of most pomes there
is a central cavity called the _core cavity_, sometimes spoken of as
the _axial sac_ which may be either _narrow_, _wide_, or _lacking_.
This is a character of much importance and reliability in pears. When
the carpels extend quite to the axis of the fruit, they are said to
be _axile_ and there is no core cavity; when distant from the axis,
they are _abaxile_ and a core cavity is formed. Sometimes the carpel
is lined on the inner surface with a white substance, when it is
said to be _tufted_. In some pears, there are many fine hairs in the
core-cavity in which case the cavity is said to be _tufted_.
The limits of the core are marked by a line in most
pome-fruits--usually very distinct in apples and quinces--which in most
varieties of pears is indistinct. The area enclosed by this line may be
large or small and may be variously shaped. When the core-line joins
the calyx-tube along the sides, it is said to be _clasping_; when the
two ends of the line meet at the base of the calyx-tube, the expression
_core-lines meeting_ is used. The core-line in pears is nearly always,
if not always, clasping and very often it is a more or less thickened
area of grit-cells.
_Seeds._--Seeds are characteristic in all varieties of pears and might
well be used more generally than is the case in classification. The
number is exceedingly variable in different varieties. The usual number
is two in each cell, but often there are three or more and occasionally
they are missing. Seeds vary greatly in different varieties in size,
shape, and color, and differences in these characters are as constant
as are those of any other organ of the fruit. Number, size, shape, and
color of seeds should be noted with care in every technical description
of a pear. The point of the seed, also, is worth noting; it may be
_acute, acuminate_, or _obtuse_. Like the carpels, the seeds are often
_tufted_. There are several so-called seedless pears, but all of these
occasionally contain some seeds. Very often seedlessness is brought
about by lack of proper pollination. An occasional fruit without seeds
is found in nearly all varieties, but these fruits are usually more or
less abnormal in size or shape.
_Flesh._--Most pears may be identified from the flesh-characters
without a glance at any other part of fruit or plant. Flavor, odor, and
texture of flesh are distinct in almost every variety, and appeal more
strongly to the senses of taste and smell than characters measured by
the eye do to the sight. Unfortunately, flavors, odors, and textures
are difficult to describe.
All characters of the flesh vary greatly in accordance with conditions
of growth, soil and climate having a profound influence on texture,
flavor, and quality. It is important, also, in describing the flesh
to have the fruit at the proper stage of maturity, and as immaturity
verges into maturity and maturity into decay almost imperceptibly, each
condition affecting the flesh, it is not surprising that differences of
opinion may be many in judging the flesh-characters of a fruit.
In cutting a pear the color of the flesh is first noted. It may be
nearly white, as in Flemish Beauty; tinged with yellow, as in Tyson;
greenish-white as in Bartlett; or tinged with red, as in Joséphine de
Malines. Pears with red flesh are occasionally found, but no standard
varieties have flesh of this color. Sanguinole, grown more or less
in Europe, has flesh of a wine-red color. Very often the texture of
pear-flesh is marred by grittiness to which some varieties are much
more subject than others. In most cases, however, the grit-cells are
abnormal, and a discussion of their presence and cause belongs under
the head of diseases in another chapter.
One determines the nature of the texture by cutting the fruit, through
pressure by the fingers, and by eating. The texture may be _coarse_ or
_fine_; _tender_ or _tough_; _crisp_, _breaking_, _melting_, or _almost
buttery_; _dry_ or _juicy_.
_Flavor and quality._--Pears are readily divided into two classes as
to flavor; they are either _sweet_ or _sour_. The qualifying terms
_mildly_ and _very_ are often used with sweet and sour. _Subacid_,
_tart_, and _sprightly_ are sometimes most expressive. _Austere_ refers
to a flavor more or less sour with some astringency. The flavor may
often be put down as _astringent_. All varieties have a more or less
distinct aroma. _Rich_ and _refreshing_ are words often found in the
rather extensive vocabulary necessary to describe the flavor of this
fruit.
Quality is that combination of texture, flavor, and aroma which makes
a fruit pleasant to the palate. Quality is rated by common consent of
pomologists by five grades: _Poor_, _fair_, _good_, _very good_, and
_best_. It should be noted that _good_ in this rating signifies a fruit
of but medium quality.
[Illustration: PEAR]
The characters of pears are graphically shown on the opposite page in
a descriptive form filled out for Bartlett in a description of this
variety for _The Pears of New York_. This is, however, but a skeleton,
and most of the characters must be more fully described than a form
like this permits. Few pomologists in these days have the temerity
to offer a description compiled in whole or in part. Descriptions are
worth while only when made from living specimens before the eyes of the
describer.
SPECIES OF PEARS
The foregoing pages discussing the characters of pears were preparation
for a proper understanding of descriptions of pears. A discussion of
the species which constitute or may constitute forms for cultivation
either for their fruit or as stocks upon which to grow edible pears
logically follows.
Edible pears fall into two well-marked groups: Those coming from Europe
and northwestern Asia, occidental pears; and those coming from eastern
and northeastern Asia, oriental pears.
OCCIDENTAL PEARS
In this group belong the thousands of varieties under common
cultivation in Europe, the United States, and in temperate regions
settled by Europeans. These pears are distinct from oriental pears in
place of origin, and by fairly well-marked botanical characters. Thus,
the leaves of these occidental pears are crenate-serrate and entire
and never setose-serrate; and the calyx is persistent on the fruits.
For most part, the fruits of the two divisions are quite distinct,
especially in shape, but no constant line of cleavage can be found in
the pears. There are several species of these occidental pears grown
for their fruits or as ornamentals. Only one, however, is of great
importance. This is _P. communis_, to a discussion of which we now come.
1. =PYRUS COMMUNIS= Linnaeus.
=1.= Linnaeus _Sp. Pl._ 479. 1753.
=2.= Loudon _Arb. et Frut. Brit._ =2=:880. 1838.
=3.= Schneider _Laubholzk_. =1=:661. 1906.
Tree vigorous, attaining a height of 50 ft. and a diameter of 2 ft.,
usually with an upright, oblong, or pyramidal, compact top; bark on
trunk of mature trees rough, with large persistent scales; branches
usually stout, thorny, variously colored, overlaid with scarf-skin;
branchlets glossy, smooth, glabrous, with more or less conspicuous
lenticels. Leaf-buds prominent, plump, obtuse or pointed, mostly
free; leaf-scars conspicuous. Leaves 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 2-1/2 in.
wide, oval or oblong-ovate, thin, hard or leathery, veiny; upper
surface dark green, glabrous; lower surface light green, glabrous;
both surfaces downy as the leaves open; apex acuminate; margins
crenate-serrate or entire, never setose-serrate; teeth often tipped
with small glands; petiole 1 to 2 in. long, slender. Flower-buds
larger and plumper than leaf-buds; borne on fruiting spurs in dense
or loose clusters of 4 to 10; flowers showy, 1 in. across, white or
sometimes with tinge of pink; calyx persistent or rarely deciduous;
styles distinct to the base, sometimes downy; stamens 15 to 20;
pedicels 1 in. long, slender, sometimes pubescent.
Fruits exceedingly variable under cultivation; varying from 1 in.
in length and diameter to 3 in. in diameter and 5 to 6 in. in
length; variously shaped, as pyriform, turbinate, round-conic, or
round-oblate; green, yellow, red, or russet, or combinations of these
colors; flesh white, yellowish, sometimes pink or wine-red, rarely
salmon-colored; flesh firm, melting, or buttery and when ripening
on the tree with few or many grit-cells. Seeds 1 to 3 in a cell,
sometimes abortive or wanting, large, brown, or brownish, often tufted
at the tips.
_Pyrus communis_, the common pear, as stated in the preceding chapter,
is a native of southern Europe and southwestern Asia as far east as
Kashmir. The species is a frequent escape from cultivation, multiplying
from seed distributed by animals and by human agencies, and is now
to be found naturalized in forests and byways of the temperate zones
wherever pears are cultivated in orchards. The pear is not as hardy
as the apple, and is, therefore, less generally grown. It refuses to
grow in the warmest and coldest parts of the temperate zones, but is
a favorite orchard, dooryard, and roadside plant in all mid-temperate
regions.
The species comes from regions or localities where the climate is mild
and equable, neither very hot nor very cold, and grows in moist, cool,
and rather heavy soils. These predilections cling to cultivated pears
wherever grown, and pure-bred varieties do not thrive under other
conditions. Wild or cultivated, the pear is a deep-rooted plant, a fact
that must be taken into consideration in selecting orchard sites. On
shallow soils pears thrive better on the shallow-rooted quince.
Few cultivated fruits have changed more under domestication than
the common pear. The trees under cultivation are larger and much
more vigorous, and the fruits in the best orchard varieties--the
consummation of the breeder's art--would by no one be considered the
same species if the two were found in the wild. The pears from truly
wild trees in the Old World are small, nearly round, hard, gritty,
sour, and astringent. Fruits from the run-wild trees from the chance
t
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