U. P. Hedrick

“ In the eighteenth century Mayer in the Pomona franconica said the name Martin-Sire which was the most generally recognized of its many names originated from a former Lord of Ronville whose name was Martin. Fruit medium, pyriform, obtuse and very regular; skin fine, smooth and shining, bright green changing to a fine deep yellow, dotted and marked with fawn, carmined on the side next the sun; flesh whitish, semi-fine, breaking, fairly juicy, sweet, perfumed and often with an after-taste of musk; more fit for stewing than dessert ”

“ Fruit medium, pyriform, smooth, shaded side green, other red; flesh greenish-white, fine, melting, sweet, perfumed; it is one of the most beautiful fruits of the summer, brilliant in coloring, but it decays rapidly ”

“ The fruit is very variable in form and quality so that writers have been led to speak of three sorts of pears called Silvange—the yellow, the long, and the green. Fruit medium, globular-turbinate or obovate or of Bergamot shape; skin rough, bright green on the shaded side, darker where exposed to the sun, sprinkled with large, gray dots and stained with dark patches; flesh tinged with greenish-white near the center and yellowish-green near the skin, tender and melting, full of perfumed juice, saccharine, acidulous and possessed of an exquisite flavor ”

“ Cut through the shaded yellow-russet skin, flesh with a faint, rosy tint is displayed. Several red or rosy-fleshed pears are grown in Europe, but this is the only one described by American pomologists. The tree also, has a marked peculiarity; it thrives amazingly well on the white-thorn as well as on pear and quince stocks. But it is the quality of the fruits that commends the variety most highly. The flesh is buttery, juicy, sweet, and perfumed—pleasing in every character that gratifies the palate. ”

“ The catalogs and text-books supply Beurré Diel with several virtues which Nature denies it as the variety grows in New York. As grown in the eastern United States, the pears are dull and unattractive even at maturity when the pale lemon color is brightest. When the tree is happily situated as to soil and care, the quality of its product is excellent, its fruits being delicious and ranking among the very best, but when illy suited to soil, climate or care, the flesh is coarse, the flavor insipid and astringent, bringing the quality down to second or third rate. ”

“ Why Lucy Duke is neglected is hard to see. Tree and fruit are highly praised, Charles Downing thought the pear “not quite so fine as a first-class Seckel, but I must aver it is not far behind.” The pear has a rich, juicy, spicy, melting flesh that makes it one of the best. In form, the fruits resemble those of Bartlett, which is probably one of the parents; they are of but medium size, but are of a beautiful golden-russet color, which makes them as handsome as the handsomest. The skin is thick and the pears stand shipping well. ”

“ We now know that self-sterility has a most important economic aspect in the planting of pears. Some of the varieties most profitable when planted to secure cross-pollination, are so unfruitful as to be quite unprofitable when a tree stands alone or when the variety is set in a solid block with no other sort near. Under most conditions Bartlett and Kieffer, the mainstays of American pear-culture, both need pollen from another variety to insure a full set of fruit. ”

“ The fruits are nearly perfect if scab-free and properly matured. To make sure of perfect maturity, the pears must be picked as soon as they attain full size and be permitted to ripen under cover. So treated, a bright-cheeked Flemish Beauty is as handsome as any pear, and is almost unapproachable in quality; the flavor is nicely balanced between sweetness and sourness, very rich, and has a pleasing muskiness. Blight and scab condemn tree and fruit for commercial orchards, but a lover of good pears should combat these troubles for the sake of the choice fruits. ”

“ Even the light soils on which Kieffer, Garber, and Le Conte seem to do best must be well stored with plant-food. This means that good pear land is costly. Soils that grow good pears usually grow good farm crops. Pears planted in a poor soil do not live but linger. Who has not seen short-wooded, rough, malformed, dwarfed, starved trees which have come to their wretched condition because planted on land not fertile enough for this fruit? The land-skinner who grows grass in his orchard usually comes to grief quickly. ”

“ It is a splendid pear, but falls short of Seckel in not being quite as dependable in different soils and climates; the trees are not as vigorous, though just as productive in many places, they are not quite as resistant to blight, and the fruits are not as high in quality. On the other hand, the pears are larger and handsomer. Well grown, the fruits of Worden Seckel are voluptuously handsome in form and color. The pears are smooth, glossy, trim of contour, well turned, unusually uniform, with a beautifully blushed cheek on a handsome green and yellow background. ”

“ While the flesh is a little dry and not as rich in flavor as that of most other varieties of its season, it is so crisp and refreshingly piquant in contrast to the sweeter, buttery pears with which it ripens, its season being just after that of Bartlett, that the variety finds favor with all who like pears. ”

“ There is great diversity of opinion as to the value of Lawrence for a market pear, but no one denies it a place as one of the very best early winter pears for the home orchard. A generation ago it was held in high esteem as a market pear, but the more showy Kieffer, kept in cold storage, has elbowed the less conspicuous Lawrence off the fruit-stands and almost out of the markets. The tree is hardy, moderately vigorous and fruitful, an early, annual, and uniform bearer, and has the reputation of being one of the longest lived of all pear trees. ”

“ There must always be pioneers, men who stray from beaten paths, [19] 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. ”

“ The refreshing, piquant flavor, the tender, melting, very juicy flesh, and the bright lemon-yellow color with only a trace of red give sufficient charm and character to the fruits to make the variety desirable in every collection of good pears. The fruits come in season with those of Beurré Superfin, and surpass them in quality at least. The trees are vigorous and healthy and form open, shapely, wide-spreading heads that commend them for orchard management. They grow with rapidity and vigor, come in bearing early, and are unusually fruitful. ”

“ Tomorrow, blight may blast the fairest trees. Pear-growing, thus, becomes a good deal of a gamble, and the boundaries within which a fruit-grower’s ambitions must be confined as to acreage must be more closely drawn than with other fruits. In most pear regions, the risks are too great to venture all in the culture of this fruit.
It is an uphill task to grow pears on land not well fitted before planting. A young pear-tree is about the least self-assertive of any of the tree-fruits. ”

“ Attacked by blight, the blossoms wilt, and after the petals fall, fruit and spur show the characteristic blackening of the disease. Blossom-blight may escape the attention of the pear-grower, but twig-blight, a succeeding form of the disease, can escape no one who has the sense of sight. No other disease of the pear brings on such palpable destruction to the tree as twig-blight. No other disease causes such comfortless despair to the grower. ”

“ 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. ”

“ No part of the tree is exempt from destruction by the malign bacterium that causes blight of the pear. Root, trunk, branch, leaf, flower, and fruit are all attacked, turn black and wither under the disease. Few plant diseases produce more disastrous results. The pear competes with the apple in importance in Europe where blight is unknown. In America it is a poor fourth to the apple, peach, and plum, and takes fourth place instead of second because of the ravages of blight. About the most important discovery to be made in pomology is a race of blight-resistant pears. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The apple, cherry, plum, and peach are often found wild in one or another part of America, but the pear almost never. The pear does not naturally become inured to the American climate, and in the orchard is not well acclimated even in the varieties which have originated in the country. In particular, as a young tree and until well advanced toward maturity, the pear shows the bad effects of maladjustment to climate, but as an old tree it seems to be far less susceptible to the extremes of climate to which fruit trees are subjected in most parts of America. ”

“ Well grown in a congenial environment, on standard or quince stock, the pears are often as large as those of Duchesse d’Angoulême, with which they compare rather closely in shape. On well-grown specimens, also, the color is rich and beautiful. The flavor is sprightly and refreshing, which, with good flesh-characters, give the variety high rank for quality. There are no remarkable characters in the trees to recommend them, although they are quite up to the average in all characters either on pear or quince stocks. They are said to prefer a rich, deep soil. ”

“ The pear-grower is becoming more and more concerned with the kind of stock upon which his trees are grafted. One or more of several objects is sought in working a pear on roots other than its own. The stock may be chosen, and most often is, with the single purpose in view of perpetuating a variety; it may be selected to dwarf or magnify the size of the cion; very often the stock is better adapted to the soil than the cion would be on its own roots; the quality of the fruit is sometimes improved by the stock; lastly, some stocks are much more resistant to fire-blight than others. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The flesh is notable for juiciness, rich vinous flavor, and pleasant perfume. The trees are large, healthy even as regards blight, very productive, and are easily suited as to soils. The trees do not bear early, but are regular in bearing after this life event begins. In Europe, the variety is commonly and successfully grown as a dwarf, and the pear-growers of a generation ago in America recommend this variety as one of the good sorts to work on the quince. The variety is a valuable one for home orchards, especially in New York where it grows exceptionally well. ”

“ A short stocky plant is better than a tall spindling one. A tree with many branches is better than one with few branches. The roots should be much branched rather than sparsely branched. A tree with smooth, bright bark is better than one with rough, dull bark. Both trunk and branches should be plump and show no signs of shrivelling. A poor pear-tree in the nursery seldom makes a good tree in the orchard. There is great variation in varieties as the trees come from the nursery, a fact to be considered. In New York, two-year-old trees are best. ”