THE HEATHCOT PEAR. 



HEATHCOT. New England Farmer, vol. vii. p. 82. 



GORE'S HEATHCOT, Prince's Pom. Manual, vol. i. 



THE Heathcot was one of the earliest Ameri- 

 can pears which was brought to notice. At the 

 period of its introduction only two or three va- 

 rieties were admitted by pomologists to be wor- 

 thy of general cultivation. The late Hon. John 

 Lowell, in 1828, stated, that, " although it was 

 thirty-three years since he had turned his atten- 

 tion to horticulture, he was not able to recollect 

 any valuable table pear, the evidence of whose 

 origin in this country was deemed unquestiona- 

 ble, except the Seckel, the Johonnot, the Lewis, 

 and the Heathcot." From this, it will be seen how few were the tine 

 native pears which we possessed twenty years ago. But Mr. Lowell's 

 remarks, though nearly correct when written, have no application now. 

 Had we space, we should like to make an enumeration of the choice 

 native pears, at present known, for comparison with the list of 1828. 

 Every intelligent cultivator will, however, supply the information him- 

 self ; and he must feel that we have done more, in this short space 

 of time, in adding to the list of fine varieties, than all the cultivators 

 of Europe, excepting Van Mons, during the present century. 



The Heathcot was raised in 1812, in the garden of the late Hon. 

 Christopher Gore, in Waltham, Mass., and was so named in honor of 

 the gardener who planted the seed. It first fruited in 1824, and con- 

 tinued to bear a uniform crop up to 1828, when it was brought to the 

 notice of cultivators by the late Capt. Jonathan Winship of Brighton. 

 In 1830, specimens were exhibited from the original tree, which weighed 

 upwards of eight ounces each. Since that time the variety has become 

 much disseminated, though it is by no means very generally cultivated. 



The tree is a healthy and moderately vigorous grower, of upright 

 habit, making a great number of short, slender branches, which, unless 

 judiciously thinned out, form a thick and bushy head. The lateral 

 branches diverge in a very regular manner. It is rather slow in coming 

 into bearing, but produces a uniform crop every year. It does not 

 grow freely on the quince. 



TREE. Moderately vigorous, upright, and tolerably regular in form, 

 the branches making a slight curve upwards ; annual wood rather slen- 

 der. Young trees in the nursery branch very near the ground. 



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