4O Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



the wild state the pear is noted also for dislike of the 

 hills, and preference for the plains and valleys and the 

 shadow of woods. 



In England the celebrity of the pear probably began 

 with the uprise of the monasteries, and in all likelihood 

 in the county still famed for its perry. There is no 

 historic mention of the pear-orchards of Worcestershire 

 of earlier date than the time of Henry V. ; but as at 

 Agincourt the men of Worcestershire, according to Dray- 

 ton, had for the device upon their banner " a pear-tree 

 laden with its fruit," the culture must needs have been 

 long established. The number of varieties now in culti- 

 vation cannot be far from a thousand. Leroy alone 

 enumerates nine hundred and fifteen. Very many of 

 these have been raised in Belgium, the country where 

 fruit-trees, pears especially, were first raised from seed 

 on scientific principles, not hap-hazard, an art first prac- 

 tised about the time of William III. France and the 

 Channel Islands produce the best and the most astonish- 

 ing the world has knowledge of. It is from Jersey that 

 the marvellous pears arrive which in Covent Garden are 

 priced at fifteen guineas the dozen these last obtained 

 in some degree by artificial means. Many kinds of fruit 

 acquire larger dimensions than ordinary if the plant is so 

 trained that the fruiting-branches are in close proximity 

 to the earth. When, moreover, the power of the plant is 

 concentrated upon a comparatively small number by 

 removing the bulk of the possible produce, those allowed 

 to remain for ripening almost certainly reach a much 



