44 



THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



of Cape Ann, and gave name to the island. (See Whittier's ' Home Ballads ' 

 and Young's ' Chronicles of the First Planters of Massachusetts,' p. 485.) 



" I endeavored, but without success, to obtain fruit from the pear 

 tree planted at least as early as 1650, by Governor Prence, or Prince, at 

 Eastham, on Cape Cod, and now owned by Capt. Ezekiel Doane. It is 

 known as the Fall pear. It is about the size of a hen's egg, tapering towards 

 both ends, green, nearly covered with thin russet, of inferior quality, but 

 not as coarse as the Endicott. In 1836 it was a nourishing, lofty tree, 

 producing an average of fifteen bushels of fruit. It consisted of two stems, 

 branching from the ground, the larger of which was blown down in the 

 great storm of April, 1851. The portion now remaining is thirty-five feet 

 high. It is a natural tree and has not failed of bearing for twenty years. 

 It stands in low ground. 



" The Pickering or Warden Pear. This tree was grafted on the igth of 

 April, 1775, the day the battle of Lexington was fought, and must have 

 been at that time a small tree. It is called by the owner the Uvedale 

 Warden or Pickering pear, which are synonyms of the Uvedale's St. Ger- 

 main or Pound, but it is entirely distinct from that variety, being much 

 smaller as well as otherwise different. It resembles, and very probably 

 is identical with, a variety which I have known as the English Warden, 

 but which I do not find described in any pomological work, and have not 

 seen for years. It is of medium size, turbinate, light yellow, with a dull 

 brownish cheek, in use in winter, for cooking only. Paul Dudley says, 

 in the paper above quoted, ' I have a Warden Pear Tree that measures 

 five Foot six Inches round.' 



" The Pickering tree contracts suddenly at about a foot from the 

 ground, where it must have been grafted. It shows no sign of being grafted 

 elsewhere. Below the point of grafting, it is full two feet in diameter and 

 is about twenty-five feet high. It stands in a low, moist place. The 

 top was much injured by the great gale of September, 1869, losing several 

 large limbs, but the tree is on the whole in good preservation. In the same 

 garden is a tree probably as old or older, believed to be a Messire Jean. 



" The estate, now much circumscribed from its original extent, on 

 which this tree stands, has been in the same family since 1642, having 

 been purchased in that year by John Pickering, who came from England 

 in 1637, and built the house, now standing and occupied by the owner, 

 in 1651. It is on Broad street, Salem. The tree was grafted by John 

 Pickering, of the fifth generation. 



' The Hon. Timothy Pickering, eminent for his incorruptible integrity 

 and immovable firmness, who successively held the offices of Adjutant- 

 general and Quartermaster-general in the Revolutionary army, and of 

 Postmaster-general, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State in the Cabinet 

 of President Washington, and continued to hold the last named office 



