110 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



the apple in New England is the even calendar year, this has 

 been changed in some localities by late frosts in the Spring 

 and in others by the canker worms. The bearing year may be 

 changed by picking the blossoms from the young trees for three 

 or four years on which they would naturally bear their fruit. 



Many of the advantages of location claimed for the apple 

 may with force be claimed for the pear. Nowhere is the pear 

 grown with more uniform success or of better quality than in 

 this State. The pear in its wild state is hardier and longer 

 lived than the apple. There are trees on record abroad of large 

 size and known to be near four hundred years old. The 

 Endicott pear tree in Peabody imported in 1630 is still standing 

 and continues to bear fruit ; there are several trees in Salem 

 more than two hundred years old. The Bartlett grown in 

 England in 1767 under the name of Williams' Bonchretien 

 was imported into this country by Thomas Brewer in 1806 ; 

 before the tree bore fruit it came into the posession of Enoch 

 Bartlett, a gentleman much interested in horticulture and one 

 of the founders of Massachusetts Horticultural Society ; and the 

 name having been lost he gave it his own name by which it 

 has since been known in this country. At the last meeting of 

 the Pomological Society in Boston three dozen specimens of 

 fruit grown on this tree were shown ; though there were some 

 larger specimens grown on younger trees there were none more 

 perfect on exhibition. 



The young trees sold from the nurseries are about equally 

 divided between standards and dwarfs and while the soil neces- 

 sary to secure the best results with the latter will prove suitable 

 for the former, the standard will do fairly well in soil where the 

 dwarf will utterly fail. The quince requires a rich, moist soil 

 and budding upon it the pear does not change the wants of its 

 roots. If set in a light soil with sand or gravel subsoil it will 

 not succeed, yet the dwarf is an important factor in growing 

 this fruit. The amateur with his limited space must depend 

 upon its early bearing to grow some of the desirable varieties 

 that would look dim in the distant future if obliged to wait for 

 them on the standard. 



