88+ ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



nion and mace, and a small quantity of the best brandy. The pears, when 

 taken out of the syrup, are again placed in the oven, which should not be 

 made quite so hot as it was the first time. The operations of alternately 

 steeping and drying are repeated three times, and are finished by putting the 

 pears, for the fourth time, in the oven, and leaving them there till they are 

 quite dry ; when, if they have been properly treated, they will be of a clear 

 pale brown, with fine and half-transparent flesh. They are then arranged in 

 boxes garnished with white paper, and kept in a dry place, or offered for sale. 

 They will remain good for three years, but are considered best the first year. 

 (Nouv. Cours cfAgr., vol. xii. p. 146.) 



Perry is also made from pears, for which purpose the pear tree is ex- 

 tensively cultivated in different parts of Worcestershire and Herefordshire; 

 and it is also so employed in various parts of France and Germany. The 

 sorts used for making perry are such as have an austere juice ; such as the 

 squash, the Oldfield, the Barland, the hiifl-cap, the sack pear, the red pear, 

 and the Longland, which last, though considered inferior to the others, is the 

 pear most generally in use. (^Herefordshire Report, p. 78.) Perry is made in 

 the same manner as cider, see p. 894. The pear trees for producing the fruit 

 should be planted in rows, not less than 18 yards asunder, to allow the air 

 to have free access to the trees. The pears should be gathered before they 

 begin to fall ; and they should be ground as soon as possible. Perry will not 

 always be so clear, when racked off, as cider; but it may be fined in the usual 

 manner by isinglass, in the proportion of H oz. or 2 oz. to a cask of 110 gal- 

 lons. Every tree when full grown, and in good soil, will produce about 20 

 gallons of perry a year, and some in Herefordshire have yielded a hogshead 

 in one season. An acre of land is generally planted with 30 pear trees, and 

 the produce in most cases, and with similar advantages of soil and situ- 

 ation, is found to be one third more than that of an orchard planted with 

 apple trees. Pears, by the Romans, were considered as an antidote to 

 the effect of poisonous mushrooms ; and to this day perry is said to be the 

 best thing that can be taken after a surfeit of that vegetable. In England, an 

 agreeable wine is made from a mixture of pears with crab ap[)les ; and the same 

 thing is done in France, where it is called piquette, and is used by the country 

 people as a substitute for wine when the vintage has been unfavourable. 



Soil and Situntion. It is essential that the soil should be dry; and, where 

 the tree is intended to grow large, and be productive, it ought to be deep and 

 good. In respect to situation, where the pear tree is grown for its timber, 

 or its effect in landscape scenery, it may either be planted at regular distances, 

 as in an orchard, in lines in a hedgerow, or in scattered groups. There are 

 few trees better adapted for being grown in hedgerows than the fastigiate- 

 growing varieties of pear, because their roots descend perpendicularly, and 

 can, therefore, never interfere with the plough ; and the heads, whether fasti- 

 giate or spreading, it is known from experience, do very little injury to 

 pasture. If, therefore, fastigiate-growing trees, producing excellent sorts 

 of fruit, were planted in all hedges, a very great benefit would result to tiie 

 proprietors and to the public ; and that such will be the case we have little 

 doubt, when once it is more generally known that the trees producing the 

 exquisitely flavoured new kinds, in the Horticultural Society's Garden, and 

 now to be procured in most nurseries, are as hardy and as prolific as those 

 producing the " choke peares" of Gerard, or the commonest sorts brought to 

 market at the present day : sorts that the late eminent fruiterer, Mr. Grange, 

 used to observe, were such " as no gentleman would eat." Vie wish we 

 could strongly impress on the minds of our readers this most important fact ; 

 viz. that the very best kinds of pears might be produced with the very same 

 trouble and expense as are now employed to produce some of the most in- 

 ferior description ; and that the quality of the timber, and the effect of the 

 tree in landscape, may be as good in a tree producing a fine-flavoured, juicy, 

 melting fruit, as in one producing fruit that is dry, hard, and gritty, or flavour- 

 less and mealy. 



Propagation and Culture. The wild pear is continued by seed ; and the 



