The Pears of New York

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

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.

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