146 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



DANA HOVEY 



I. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 48. 1891. 



Dana's No. 16. 2. Mag. Hort. ig: 5^1. 1853. 3.7^^.20:136. 1854. 



Dana's Hovey. 4. Mag. Hort. 25:202, fig. 10. 1859. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 68. 1862. 6. Card. 

 Chron. 1191, fig. 1866. 7. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 730. 1869. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 556. 1884. 

 9. Garden 49:226. 1896. 



Danas Hovey. 10. Garrf. C/;ron. 3rd Ser. 47:67, fig. 39. 1910. 



Dana Hovey is a delicious little dessert pear, so juicy, sweet, and rich 

 that it is a veritable sweetmeat. The fruits are so similar to those of 

 Seckel that the variety is sometimes called " Winter Seckel." Dana Hovey 

 is one of the best pears to succeed Seckel. The fruits come in season about 

 the middle of November and keep six weeks in ordinary storage. The 

 flavor is that of Winter Nelis with a smack of Seckel. If the fruits are picked 

 early and kept in a dry, cool place they ripen early in December with a rich, 

 golden color strewn with russet. It is in the same class with Seckel as to 

 size of fruit, although the pears average larger and are more uniform in 

 size from different trees and in different seasons. The pears are also more 

 brightly colored than those of Seckel. Superiority in size and color makes 

 the fruits of this variety much more attractive than those of the better- 

 known Seckel. The trees are hardy, vigorous, and thrive on various soils 

 but are only moderately productive and are somewhat susceptible to blight, 

 falling far short of those of Seckel in these characters, for which reason 

 the last-named variety is the better for commercial plantations. Dana 

 Hovey is one of few winter pears with fruits of high quality, and thus is 

 very desirable for home plantations and ought to have value in commercial 

 plantations. 



Francis Dana, Roxbury, Massachusetts, was an indefatigable raiser 

 of new fruits, there being no fewer than sixteen varieties of pears with the 

 prefix "Dana's," of which the one under notice is the best of all. It was 

 introduced to the public about 1854 under the name of Dana's Hovey in 

 honor of C. M. Hovey, the well-known nurserjnnan of Boston and author of 

 The Fruits oj America. Dana Hovey is so similar to Seckel that the latter 

 is supposed to be one of its parents. The variety was added to the American 

 Pomological Society's fruit-list in 1862. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, rapid-growing, productive; trunk stocky; 

 branches reddish-brown mingled with green which is almost completely overspread with 

 gray scarf-skin, marked by few small lenticels ; branchlets thick, short, light brown mingled 

 with green, marked with ash-gray at the tips, smooth, glabrous, with small, scattering, 

 slightly raised lenticels. 



