TrtE DETROIT RIVER PEAR TREES. 



THE DETROIT mVER PEAR TREES. 



BY L, F. ALLEN, BLACK ROCK, N. Y. 



In the summer of 1810, thirty-one years ago, then but a boy, T first saw these remark- 

 able trees, lofty, venerable and flourishing. Being at Detroit last September, I paid 

 many of them a visit in detail, for the purpose of a close examination. Those of your read- 

 ers who are familiar with the Detroit river, need not be told that previous to the late war 

 Avith England, and for several years after — perhaps until 1820 — its banks on both sides, 

 from Lake Erie to St. Clair, were occupied almost exclusively l)y the descendants of the 

 original French settlers, many of whom still remain. On their farms near the river were 

 and still are, humble looking farm-houses, principally of logs, with but poor and inconve- 

 nient out-buildings ; a small garden ; a straggling orchard of apple, pear, and perhaps a 

 few peach trees, currant bushes, &c., all under the most neglected culture, but even with 

 these drawbacks, yielding bountiful crops of fruit. They were, too, of natural varieties; 

 grafting, if even known, never being practiced among the French habitans of that insulat- 

 ed region. Detroit, Sandwich and ^laldcn, Avere the only toAvns upon the river, and they 

 small trading and military posts, which were the only markets for the meagre products 

 of the indolent people who fiirmed, fished and hunted in their neighborhoods. These set- 

 tlements were commenced about the year 1670 — one hundred and eightj^ years ago and 



but fifty years after the Pilgrim landings at Plymouth. To those familiar with the agri- 

 culture of the Canadian French, of whom these people were a part, the exhaustino- and 

 Avasteful farming practiced by them needs no description. None can be worse, as the fre- 

 quent old mounds of barn and chip manure now to be found around the former and pre- 

 sent sites of their dwellings, and the worn and desolate appearance of their exhausted 

 fields, too jjlainly testify. 



Taking a horse and buggy at Detroit, I rode for several miles up the river, nearl ,• to the 

 foot of Lake St. Clair. On the out-skirts of the ciij, these old pear trees are occasionally 

 seen, towering high above the house-tops, among the ancient apple and other trees; but 

 the greater part of them have been rooted out in the opening of streets, and building up of 

 the town. Two or three miles out, Avhere the old French farmers remain undisturbed — and 

 they chiefly so remain, both in their use and occupants — for cultivation they cannot be said 

 to have — these grand old trees begin to show in all their vigor and maturity. Ten, twen- 

 ty, and in some instances more, may be counted in a field adjoining a dilapidated old far- 

 mery near the river; some in rows like avenues, others scattered about in groups, and oc- 

 casionally struggling for supremacy among an ancient orchard of enormous aj^ple trees. 

 I stopped at several places, went into the grounds and carefully examined the trees. I girt- 

 ed several with a line, and found them to measure six to nine feet in circumference at three 

 feet from the ground. They towered up in many instances, fifty to sixty feet high, with 

 grand, spreading tops, and though some of them had occasionally dead limbs among their 

 branches, and others had lost parts of their tops by the most heedless and barbarous cut- 

 ting out, leaving large, stumpy, decayed hollow buts, and others broken and torn out by 

 Avinds or over-bearing, the main trunk and branches looked vigorous and healthy, shoAv- 

 ing wonderful vitality. The crops of fruit had mostly been picked, yet some trees remain- 

 ed loaded with fine looking pears, very fair and handsome; much resembling the Virga- 

 lieu in size and appearance — winter pears, as the people told me. Twenty to thirty bush- 

 a common crop for the largest trees. There were no signs of grafting in any of 

 I tasted some of the fruit; although sweet and juicy, they had the astringent, 



