86 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 
below —15° F., for while winter-killing of the wood does not always occur’ 
at this temperature it sometimes does, and even occasional injury to the 
tree is almost fatal to the profitable growing of fruit. Fruit-buds of the 
pear are a little more tender to cold than the wood, and a season’s crop is 
often ruined when the temperature drops to —10° F. Pears in the nursery 
are more tender to cold than trees in the orchard, and unless the wood is 
thoroughly mature or protected by a heavy covering of snow, nursery 
stock is likely to be injured by any temperature below zero. The injury 
of nursery stock is manifested in the well-known “ black heart ’’ of young 
‘pear-trees subjected to severe cold. 
Happily, there is some flexibility in the constitutions of varieties of 
pears, as with all fruits, and a degree of cold that will kill a variety under 
one set of conditions may not under another. While, therefore, it is not 
safe for commercial fruit-growers to gamble with the weather, those who 
grow pears for their own use may do so with the expectation of losing 
trees or crop now and then but of having them in most seasons. A little 
can be done to prevent winter injury by carefully selecting sites protected 
from prevailing winter winds, and by planting on warm soils on which 
the wood matures more thoroughly than on cold soils. Careful cultural 
methods, especially the use of cover-crops, may be helpful. Not much can 
be done in the way of coddling pear-trees from cold. They cannot be laid 
down as is sometimes done with peach-trees, nor can they be grown low 
enough, even as dwarfs, to count on much protection from deep snow. 
Happily, also, there are varieties of pears endowed with constitutions 
fitted for very different climates. Varieties of pears from central and 
northern Russia show remarkable capacity in resisting cold, heat, dryness, 
strong winds, and other peculiarities of the climate of the Great Plains, 
and some of them can be grown in the coldest agricultural regions of New 
York. A few hybrids, as Kieffer, Le Conte, Garber, Douglas, and others 
of their kind can be grown in the Gulf States where the common pear 
cannot withstand the hot summers. Cincinis, Le Conte, and Garber thrive 
as far south as central Florida and southern Texas. There is considerable 
variation in the hardiness of the common pear. Tyson, Flemish Beauty, 
and Beurré Superfin are much hardier than Bartlett, Seckel, or Clapp 
Favorite, and may be chosen to extend the culture of this fruit to any 
part of New York in which the Baldwin apple can be grown. It is most 
surprising to find occasionally these hardiest of the common pears growing 
in some of the coldest parts of the State, usually as demonstrations not 
