52 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



times. Pears were grown in the states south of Pennsylvania, for many 

 references are found in the colonial records of the southern states, but 

 they bring out no new facts to illuminate the history of this fruit in 

 America. The Quakers and Swedes grew pears in the regions watered by 

 the Delaware, and the English in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina 

 all planted pears with the other hardy fruits only to find that they so quickly 

 succumbed to unfavorable climate and the blight as to be unprofitable. 

 The Bergamy and Warden, in particular, are mentioned as varieties of 

 this fruit grown in the colonial period of the southern colonies. 



Perhaps one, at least, of these lesser centers of pear-growing somewhat 

 to the south of the pear regions in which there are now commercial 

 plantations should receive notice. In 1794, William Coxe, 1 Burlington, 

 New Jersey, began planting experimental orchards. Coxe was acquainted 

 with the leading pomologists of Europe and his own country, and collected 

 the best varieties of tree-fruits to be found in the United States, England, 

 and France. In 1817, he published his View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, 

 and the Management of Orchards and Cider, etc., the first American book on 

 pomology. This pioneer pomologist described 65 varieties of pears, most 

 of which he had grown at one time or another on his own place, and names 

 21 other sorts that were grown in his and neighboring states. Coxe seems 

 to have been the first nurseryman to import new varieties from the Old 

 World. To Coxe, more than to any other one man, the regions adjacent 

 to the Delaware are indebted for the early development of fruit-growing 

 both for pleasure and profit, and the whole country is indebted to him 

 for the introduction of many fine fruits. 



A new phase in the history of the pear began soon after the 

 Revolutionary war. Until this time, and until well into the next century, 

 tree-fruits were nearly all seedlings. The pears of the country until as 

 late as 1830 were for most part seedlings, the fruits varying greatly in size, 

 shape, color, and flavor. According to the accounts of the times, the product 

 was so hard of flesh and so astringent in flavor as to be fit only for cooking 

 and perry. Indeed, the great object in growing apples, pears, and peaches 

 was the making of cider, perry, and peach-brandy. Good eating pears 

 were few indeed. But beginning in a small way with Coxe in New Jersey, 

 as noted, a little later with William Kenrick, Newton, Massachusetts, 

 and still later with Robert Manning, Salem, Massachusetts, the importation 



1 For an account of the life and work of Coxe, see The Peaches of New York, page 254. 



