THE PEARS OF NEW YORK I4I 
BUFFUM 
1. Kenrick Am. Orch. 166. 1832. 2. Mag. Hort. 10:300, fig. 15. 1844. 3. Ibid. 16:297. 1850. 
4. Hovey Fr. Am, 2:19, Pl. 1851. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 53. 1852. 6. Horticulturist N. S. 6:300, Pl. 
1856. 7. Ibid. 25:104, fig. 1870. 8. Mas Le Verger 3: Pt. 1, 81, fig. 39. 1866-73. 
Buffam. 9. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 356, fig. 150. 1845. 
Without deserving a high place among pears, Buffum has several 
meritorious characters which should keep it in the list of standard varieties. 
The variety must depend chiefly on its tree-characters for approbation, 
and in these it excels nearly all of its orchard associates. The trees are 
remarkably vigorous, nearly free from blight, very productive, although 
they have a tendency to bear biennially; and by virtue of great size, sym- 
metrical, pyramidal form, dark green, glossy foliage, and sturdy, ruddy wood 
in winter, they are among the most ornamental of all fruit trees. In full 
leaf, a Buffum tree might easily be taken for a Lombardy poplar. The 
quality of the fruits is very variable. At times the flesh is rich, aromatic, 
melting, and very good; again, the pears may be insipid or even illy flavored, 
devoid of perfume, coarse in texture, and poor. The fruits are never large 
and often run small. To attain good quality, the pears must be picked 
early and ripened in a moderately cool fruit-room. The culture of Buffum 
is on the wane, chiefly for the reason that its fruits ripen with those of 
Seckel and fail in competition, as the Seckels are nearly as large and much 
better in quality. But because of its admirable tree-characters the variety 
should not be lost. : 
Some confusion exists as to the origin of Buffum. Some writers state 
that the original tree stood on the grounds of Prescott Hall, Newport, 
Rhode Island. Hovey, however, in his Fruits of America, 1851, says that the 
variety originated in the garden of David Buffum, Warren, Rhode Island, 
shortly after the advent of the nineteenth century. In the opinion of Down- 
ing the variety came from seed of White Doyenné. Soon after the founding 
of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1828, Robert Manning 
exhibited specimens of the Buffum pear, and through him the variety became 
known in the vicinity of Boston from which place it was disseminated 
throughout the country. Buffum was added to the fruit-list of the 
American Pomological Society in 1852. 
Tree vigorous, very upright, dense, hardy, almost immune to blight, very productive; 
branches shaggy, zigzag, reddish-brown, overspread with grayish scarf-skin, with numerous 
small lenticels; branchlets short, reddish-brown, tinged with green and streaked with 
grayish scarf-skin, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, small, raised lenticels. 
