38 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



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 vincongenial 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 cultiire 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, 



