on 
408 THE PEAR. ~ $ 
The pear tree is not a native of North America, but was 
troduced from the other continent. In Europe, Western Asia, 
and China, it grows wild, in company with the apple, in hedges 
and woody wastes. In its wild state, it is hardier and longer 
lived than the apple, making a taller and more pyramidal head, 
and becoming thicker in its trunk, There are trees on record 
abroad, of great size and age for fruit trees. M. Bosc mentions 
-several which are known to be near 400 years old. There isa 
very extraordinary tree in Holme Lacy, Herefordshire, England 
—a perry pear—from which were made more than onee, 15 
hogsheads of perry in a single year. . In 1805 it covered more 
than half an acre of land, the branches bending down and 
taking root, and, in turn, producing others in the same way. 
Louton, in his recent work on trees, says that it is still in fine 
health, though reduced in size. 2 
One of the most remarkable fear trees in this country, is 
growing in Illinois, about ten miles north of Vincennes. It is 
not believed to be more than forty years old, having been plant- 
ed by Mrs. Ockletree. The girth of its trunk one foot above 
the ground, is ten feet, and at nine feet from the ground, siz 
und a half feet ; and its branches extend over an area sixty-nine 
feet in diameter. In 1834 it yielded 184 bushels of pears, in 
1840 it yielded 140 bushels. It is enormously productive al- 
ways; the fruit is pretty large, ripening in early autumn, and is 
of tolerable flavour.* Another famous specimen, perhaps the 
oldest in the country, is the Stuyvesant Pear tree, originally 
| Planted by the old governor of the Dutch colony of New-York, 
more than two hundred years ago, and still standing, in fine 
vigour, on what was once his farm, but is now the upper 
part of the city, quite thickly covered with houses. The fruit 
is a pleasant summer pear, somewhat like a Summer Bon- 
chretien. ; 
Usss. The great value of the pear-is as a dessert fruit. 
Next to this, it is highly esteemed for baking, stewing, preserv- 
ing and marmalades. In France and Belgium the fruit is very 
generally dried in ovéns, or much in the same way as we do the 
apple, when it is quite an important article of food. 
Dessert pears should have a melting, soft texture, and a suga- 
ry, aromatic juice. Kitchen pears, for baking or st ang, should 
be large, with firm and crisp flesh, moderately juicy.” . 
The juice of the pear, fermented, is called Perry. This is 
made precisely in the same way as cider, and it-is richer, and 
more esteemed by many persons. In the midland counties of 
England, and in various parts of France and Germany, what are 
called perry pears—very ‘hardy productive sorts, having an aus- 
tere juice—are largely cultivated for this purpose. In several 
* Rev. H. W. Beecher, in Hovey’s Magazine. 
