200 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



lh ./¥,*>; 



THE "WHEILDON" PEAR. 



The annexed drawing is of a new variety of 

 Pear produced at Concord, Mass., (which seems 

 to be highly favored in the production of new va- 

 rieties- of fruit,) in the garden of Wm. W. 

 Wheildon, Esq., to which, by consent, his name 

 has been given, and which promises to be a valu- 

 ble addition to our native pears. Mr. Wheildon 

 has furnished us with the following history of the 

 tree and description of the fruit : 



The stock of the Wheildon Pear is a seed- 

 ling, and, when transplanted to the spot on which 

 it now stands, was of the size of an ordinary 

 walking cane. Having received some injury after 

 it was budded and not growing well, I cut it down 

 to the ground below the bud. Several shoots 

 soon started from the stock, and two of them, (lest 

 one should be accidentally broken off,) were al- 

 lowed to grow for two or three seasons, when one 

 was taken off close to the ground. The foliage 



and growth were so promising that I decided to 

 fruit the natural shoot which indicates its unculti- 

 vated habit by its thorns. It grew vigorously and 

 strong, resembling in growth and form a young 

 elm. The first year of bearing, I think, was 

 1860. The fruit was small, not larger than a hen's 

 egg, but sweet, tender, juicy, and of pleasant fla- 

 vor. 



The next year the fruit was larger, light green 

 in color, more pyriform and generally of improved 

 quality. The third year of bearing, 1802, still 

 further improvement in the size and quality of the 

 fruit was observable, and specimens were exhibit- 

 ed at the Horticultural Exhibition of that year, 

 but as this society seems to give no attention to 

 new varieties of fruit either by premium or notice, 

 it attracted no attention. Specimens were also 

 exhibited at the exhibition of the U. S. Pomolog- 

 ical Society, in Boston, the same season, and not 

 being sufficiently ripe, were renorted upon by the 

 committee as "promising well. ' It grows in clus- 



