No. 3. 



Memoranda on Pears. 



91 



Memoranda ou Pears. 



BY THE LATK SAMUEL G. PERKXNS, BOSTON. 



I SEE by your horticultural journal, that 

 you invite discussion on the comparative 

 merits of different kinds of fruit, particularly 

 pears, as the best mode of settling or estab- 

 lishing a useful and correct nomenclature. 



The question has frequently been asked 

 me by gentlemen who are beginning to cul- 

 tivate fruits, "Which is the best pear!" and 

 as there is no such thing as answering this 

 question directly, I have answered that I 

 could not tell, as it depended on so many 

 circumstances of which I could not be sup- 

 posed to have any knowledge. 



In the first place, there are Summer, Au- 

 tumn, and Winter pears, and each season 

 calls for fruit of totally different properties. 

 Then there are as many different tastes al- 

 most, as there are men; some like a sweet, 

 luscious, and aromatic fruit, as the Seckcl; 

 others like better the spirited, delicate and 

 delicious flavor of the St. Ghislain. Then 

 you have many that prefer the Gansel's — or 

 Brocas — Bergamot, and other pears of that 

 rich delicious flavor, without being too sweet 

 or too spirited. The White Doyenne [or 

 St. Michael] has always been a decided fa- 

 vourite with many when in perfection, and 

 the Louise bonne de Jersey is esteemed in- 

 ferior to none of the autumn fruits. 



But the pear most esteemed in our mar- 

 ket is, I believe — when you speak of sum- 

 mer and autum fruits — the pear commonly 

 known as the Bartlett. This pear, a wild- 

 ing of 1770, in Berkshire, Great Britain, 

 was sent or brought from England to this 

 country by Mr. James Carter, in 1796 or 

 1797, for his partner, Mr. T. Brewer, who 

 planted it in his grounds at Roxbury, under 

 the name of the Williams' Bon Chretien, or 

 properly. Good Christian, by which name it 

 was then and is now known in England, 

 where it is rated as second quality at Chis- 

 wick, as appears by the catalogue of their 

 gardener, Mr. Thompson. Here it got the 

 name of Bartlett from the present owner of 

 the Brewer estate, who, not knowing its 

 proper name, allowed it to be called by his 

 own. In France it is known as the Wil- 

 liams pear {Poire Guillaume) where I think 

 it is rated still lower than in England. Now 

 many cultivators and fruit loving gentlemen 

 esteem this pear above all others, and as it 

 sells very high in the market, those who 

 raise fruit tp sell may well esteem it highly. 

 But some gentlemen who esteem fruit in 

 proportion as it suits their palate, are prone 

 to consider it of inferior quality; although 

 it is very large, and very handsome, and 

 very juicy. But they say it tastes like rot- 



ten fruit. Suppose it to be true, that it has 

 slightly the taste of an incipent state of de- 

 cay, is it to be condemned entirely on that 

 account] The Medlar, which is one of the 

 apple and pear tribe, was formerly raised in 

 England in considerable quantities, but was 

 never eaten until rotted under ground. Is 

 it not then assuming too much to put a fruit 

 down merely because it has a rotten flavor? 

 VVho shall decide upon this question, where 

 tastes vary as much in regard to the flavor 

 of the fruit as it does as to the human coun- 

 tenanced 



The best pear must depend on the use to 

 which you mean to apply it; if for your 

 own eating, that which suits your own pa- 

 late most exactly, is the best; if for profit, 

 that which will bring the most money in the 

 market, is to be preferred. 



In some places, fruit that is in an incip- 

 ient state of decay is to be preferred to that 

 which is sound, as may be seen by the fol- 

 lowing fact: 



In the autumn of 1843, I was at Honfleur 

 in France, in the neighbourhood of which 

 place, I saw several women mounted on 

 donkeys, going, as they told me, to market 

 with fruit. On being asked, what kind? 

 Pears, was the answer. What kind of 

 pears? The Messire Jean, was the reply. 

 As this pear was a great favourite with me, 

 when I was able to bite through its hard 

 sides, — for it is the extreme and the perfec- 

 tion of the breaking pears, as the Brown 

 Beurre is the extreme and the perfection of 

 the soft-flesh or buttery pears. I gave the 

 woman a small piece of money, and asked 

 the amount in pears. With this request she 

 complied, by giving me a number of these 

 fruit, which I found were all rotten. On 

 asking her in an angry tone, why she gave 

 me a parcel of worthless, rotten fruit, she 

 laughed in my face, and said, " Yon joke, I 

 believe," and told me I must be a green one, 

 indeed, not to know that this pear was al- 

 ways rotted before it was eaten. "The 

 pears," said she, " are in perfection, and if 

 you are so ignorant as not to know what is 

 good, it is no fault of mine, so good morn- 

 ing to you," and off she drove, leaving me 

 to swallow the imposition as I considered it, 

 or the joke as she did, or the pears them- 

 selves, as I thought best. 



But we have a great variety, out of which 

 a selection may be made, to gratify every 

 taste, some of which varieties we will now 

 enumerate. 



Those pears that are considered as sum- 

 mer pears, are Madeline, Harvard, Jargo- 

 nelle, Green Chisel, Muscat Robert, Blan- 

 quet a longue queue. Franc Real d'ete, se- 

 veral of the Bergamots, such as the Red 



