62 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Of pears, there were two types, the "Grucha" and the "Ber- 

 gamotte," which seemed equally hardy, sometimes making large 

 trees fifty feet in height and two feet in diameter. They were 

 very often planted by the wayside as shade trees ; the pear being 

 a very long lived tree, sometimes reaching the age of one or 

 even two hundred years. There were also many wild pear 

 trees, which appeared to be indigenous. 



The Grucha type of pear is pyriform, having a neck similar 

 to our ordinary pears, while the Bergamotte is nearly round 

 and is thought to be of Mongolian or Chinese origin. It is not 

 to be expected that these pears, with a habitat in this cold cli- 

 mate, are so large or so fine in quality as our common pears, 

 which came from western Europe. But they will do very well 

 where others cannot be grown. 



Professor Budd finds the most of the trees hardy in Iowa 

 and Minnesota. 



Dr. Hoskins, of Newport, Vermont, who lives on the high- 

 lands bordering Canada, in a climate where common apple trees 

 freeze to death and only the varieties known as "iron-clads" 

 can exist, wrote me four years ago that these Russian pear 

 trees were bearing with him at the age of seven years from the 

 root-graft ; that they bear early, and that they are apparently 

 as hardy in his severe climate as the maples and birches of the 

 forest. Mrs. Hoskins whites me recently that their original 

 Russians, now eleven years old, are fine stately trees, early 

 bearers, and heavy yielders ; good edible fruit on most of them, 

 and all fine for canning. They should be gathered before quite 

 ripe — as soon as the seeds are well colored, and before if they 

 fall much. She states that they have some thirty trees on the 

 home place, and over loo on the farm. 



Two years ago I visited a half dozen of these trees on the 

 grounds of Mr. E. W. Merritt, of Houlton, Aroostook county. 

 These trees had been set five years, I think. They looked 

 thrifty and were bearing well. 



I have also in my own place a few of several varieties of the 

 Russians and others ; some two, three, and four years set. The 

 latter are already blossoming and bearing fruit. The Besse- 

 mianka, Lutovka, and Gakovska are among the hardiest. Other 

 kinds that I have are Sapieganka, Limber Twig, Early Ber- 



