no 



MEMORANDA ON PEARS. 



raised in England in considerable quanti- 

 ties, but was never eaten until rutted under 

 ground. Is it not then assuming too much 

 to put a fruit down merely because it has 

 a rotten flavor ? AVho shall decide upon 

 this question, where tastes vary as much in 

 regard to the flavor of the fruit as it does 

 as to the human countenance ? 



The best pear must depend on the use to 

 which you mean to apply it ; if for your 

 own eating, that which suits your own pa- 

 late most exactly, is the best ; if for profit, 

 that which will bring the most money in the 

 market, is to be preferred. 



In some places, fruit that is in an incipient 

 state of decay is preferred to that which is 

 sound, as may be seen by the following fact : 



In the autumn of 1843, I was at Honfleur 

 in France, in the neighborhood of which 

 place, I saw several women mounted on 

 donkeys, going, as they told me, to market 

 with fruit. On being asked, what kind ? 

 Pears, was the answer. What kind of 

 pears ? The Messire Jean, was the reply. 

 As this pear was a great favorite with me, 

 when I was able to bite through its hard 

 sides, (for it is the extreme and the perfec- 

 tion of the breaking pears, as the Brown 

 Beurre is the extreme and the perfection 

 of the soft-flesh or buttery pears.) I gave 

 the woman a small piece of money, and 

 asked the amount in pears. With this re- 

 quest she complied, by giving me a number 

 of these fruit, which I found were all rot- 

 ten. On asking her in an angry tone, why 

 she gave me a parcel of worthless, rotten 

 fruit, she laughed in my face, and said, 

 " You joke, I believe," and told me I must 

 be a green one, indeed, not to know that 

 this pear was always rotted before it was 

 eaten. " The pears," said she, " are in per- 

 fection, and if you are so ignorant as not to 

 know what is good, it is no fault of mine, 

 so good morning to you," and off she drove. 



leaving me to swallow the imposition as I 

 considered it, or the joke as she did, or the 

 pears themselves, as I thought best. 



But we have a great variety out of which 

 a selection may be made, to gratify every 

 taste, some of which varieties we will now 

 enumerate. 



Those pears that are considered as sum- 

 mer pears, are Madeleine, Harvard, Jargo- 

 nelle, Green Chisel, Muscat Robert, Blan- 

 quet a longue queue, Franc Real d'ete, se- 

 veral of the Bergamots, such as the Red 

 and the Summer ; also the Catharines, or 

 Rousselets, or what are commonly called 

 the Summer Caten or Catern, and the 

 Rousseline. Many of these are esteemed 

 and valuable fruits, when raised for the use 

 of the cultivator and his family. If I were 

 called upon to select six of the finest sum- 

 mer pears for a private garden in the coun- 

 try, I should name the Madeleine, the Har- 

 vard, the Jargonelle, Summer Franc Real, 

 and Red Bergamot. 



Among the autumn Pears, there are, be- 

 sides those above mentioned, the Dix, a 

 wilding of Boston, inferior to none other, 

 if all its valuable properties be considered. 

 In appearance, form, flesh and size, toge- 

 ther with its fine texture and delicate fla- 

 vor, it resembles the St. Germain, and is, 

 as an autumn pear, what the St. Germain, 

 when in perfection, is as a winter pear, the 

 most valuable species with which we are 

 acquainted. 



The Brown Beurre is another pear, per- 

 fecting in October, of superior merit, but 

 it does not last long enough to give it the 

 value of the Dix. 



The Beurre, Diel [on quince stocks] is 

 another pear of distinguished merit, if it 

 be properly treated, and kept till it be en- 

 tirely ripe, and will be more and more es- 

 teemed as it is more known. 



The Marie Louise and Josephine, are 



