212 FOK MAEKET CULTIVATION — ON QUINCE. 



DucHESSE d'Angouleme. 

 Des Eijarronais. | Eezenas. 



FIEST OCTOBEE TO FIFTEENTn NOVEMBEE. 



This peerless fruit must be crowned as The Queen of Pears. 

 Like its patroness, the daughter of the unfortunate Louis XVL, it 

 was by narrow chances it escaped the axe. Near Angers. Mons. 



Le Baron one morning discovered his tenant engaged in 



digging around a fine thrifty pear tree^-a chance seedling in a 

 hedge — and on questioning, the Baron found it was for\he purpose 

 of exterminating it, root and branch. '• This tree, Mons. Le Baron, 

 for twenty years bears no fruit." "No matter," replied Mons., 

 '• it is a good thing, to have cut those roots there ; it v.'ill now bear 

 fruit; fill up the trench, and we shall see." This rough root- 

 pruning fulfilled the wise Baron's prophecy, and the succeeding 

 summer saw it loaded with that queen of fruits. But though 

 royal, the beautiful Pear was still uncrowned. 



One day, the daughter of Louis XVL, was to pass through 

 Lyons, and its inhabitants deputed a Committee, of which our 

 friend Mons. Le PlOY was one, to receive her appropriately. 

 Nine fair maidens presented the Duchesse vrith golden salvers, 

 on which lay heaped the more precious fruit, and begged her to 

 bestow upon it her name — and the pear now recognized as the 

 crowning glory of all fruits, was thenceforward known as the 

 Duchesse d'Angouleme. There are some who think the pear the 

 more royal of the two. 



It is by far the largest of table-fruits ; of rich, aromatic flavor ; 

 melting, though tending to a coarse fibre, near the core, when 

 badly grown and ripened. Very juicy, and keeping long after 

 being sufficiently ripe to eat. 



The tree is somewhat tender in very cold winters where the 

 lliermometer sinks to 20° or more below zero; but hardy and 

 strong wooded, and very thrifty, stocky growth on soils of moderate 

 fertility, and prefers a rich, sandy loam to produce its highest 

 excellence. The fruit is often coarse and tasteless on the pear- 

 stock : but both tree and fruit seem the most completely fitted for 



