THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 5 



Divested of the spell with which the poet's flight of imagination 

 bewitches us, we find that the wonderful garden of Alcinous is, after all. 

 rather trifling, probably of small extent, and containing an orchard, a 

 vineyard, garden beds and two fountains of water, which brings us to the 

 conclusion that this renowned garden would cut but a sorry figure beside 

 modern gardens; but, on the other hand, we are made sure that certain 

 fruits, among them the pear, were commonly cultivated in Greece a thousand 

 years before Christ's time. There is no hint in Homer as to whether there 

 were as yet varieties of pears, or as to whether fruits were as yet pruned, 

 grafted, fertilized and otherwise cared for. For indications that these 

 arts of the orchard were under practice, we must pass on to the writings 

 of another great Greek, Theophrastus. 



Between Homer and Theophrastus nearly 600 years intervene, in all 

 of which time traces of the pear are few and uncertain. But from 

 Theophrastus, to whom botanists accord the title " Father of Botany," 

 we know that orcharding had been making progress, and that the pear, 

 among other fruits, must have been as well known and nearly as well cared 

 for in his time, 370-286 B. C., as in this twentieth century. All the 

 expedients we now know to assist nature to bring pears to perfection, 

 save spraying and cross-pollination, were known to Theophrastus, although 

 of course the evolution from the wild state as indicated by number and 

 diversity of kinds had not progressed so far. Out of one of the books 

 of Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, a very good treatise on the pear 

 might be compiled and one better worth following than many of his more 

 modern imitators. To quote Theophrastus at length is impossible, but 

 space must be given to a summary of what he says about pears. 



Theophrastus distinguishes between wild and cultivated pears and 

 says that the cultivated forms have received names. He speaks of the 

 propagation of pears from seeds, roots, and cuttings and makes plain that 

 plants grown from seed " lose the character of their kind and produce a 

 degenerate kind." Grafting is described. The nature of the ground is 

 said to regulate the distance for planting pears, and the lower slopes of 

 hills are recommended as the best sites for pear orchards. Root-pruning, 

 girdling the stems, and driving iron pegs in the trunk and other methods 

 of " punishing " trees are said to hasten the bearing time. Even the 

 necessity of cross-pollination is recognized though of course the reasons 

 for it are not known. Thus, Theophrastus says: " Trees which are apt 

 to shed their fruit before ripening it are almond, apple, pomegranate, pear, 



