44 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
4 
of Cape Ann, and gave name to the island. (See Whittier’s ‘ Home Ballads’ 
and Young’s ‘ Chronicles of the First Planters of Massachusetts,’ p. 485.) 
“T endeavored, but without success, to obtain fruit from the pear 
tree planted at least as early as 1650, by Governor Prence, or Prince, at 
Eastham, on Cape Cod, and now owned by Capt. Ezekiel Doane. It is 
known as the Fall pear. It is about the size of a hen’s egg, tapering towards 
both ends, green, nearly covered with thin russet, of inferior quality, but 
not as coarse as the Endicott. In 1836 it was a flourishing, lofty tree, 
producing an average of fifteen bushels of fruit. It consisted of two stems, 
branching from the ground, the larger of which was blown down in the 
great storm of April, 1851. The portion now remaining is thirty-five feet 
high. It is a natural tree and has not failed of bearing for twenty years. 
It stands in low ground. 
“The Pickering or Warden Pear. This tree was grafted on the 19th of 
April, 1775, the day the battle of Lexington was fought, and must have 
been at that time a small tree. It is called by the owner the Uvedale 
Warden or Pickering pear, which are synonyms of the Uvedale’s St. Ger- 
main or Pound, but it is entirely distinct from that variety, being much 
smaller as well as otherwise different. It resembles, and very probably 
is identical with, a variety which I have known as the English Warden, 
but which I do not find described in any pomological work, and have not 
seen for years. It is of medium size, turbinate, light yellow, with a dull 
brownish cheek, in use in winter, for cooking only. Paul Dudley says, 
in the paper above quoted, ‘I have a Warden Pear Tree that measures 
five Foot six Inches round.’ 
“The Pickering tree contracts suddenly at about a foot from the 
ground, where it must have been grafted. It shows no sign of being grafted 
elsewhere. Below the point of grafting, it is full two feet in diameter and 
is about twenty-five feet high. It stands in a low, moist place. The 
top was much injured by the great gale of September, 1869, losing several 
large limbs, but the tree is on the whole in good preservation. In the same 
garden is a tree probably as old or older, believed to be a Messive Jean. 
“The estate, now much circumscribed from its original extent, on 
which this tree stands, has been in the same family since 1642, having 
been purchased in that year by John Pickering, who came from England 
in 1637, and built the house, now standing and occupied by the owner, 
in 1651. It is on Broad street, Salem. The tree was grafted by John 
Pickering, of the fifth generation. 
“The Hon. Timothy Pickering, eminent for his incorruptible integrity 
and immovable firmness, who successively held the offices of Adjutant- 
general and Quartermaster-general in the Revolutionary army, and of 
Postmaster-general, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State in the Cabinet 
of President Washington, and continued to hold the last named office 
