302 



THE GARDENERS MAGAZINE. 



April Va, I9iv 



POINTS ABOUT PERRY 



PEARS. 



One hardly ever picks up a horticultural 

 paper without reading something about 

 pears, but the pears that claim the atten- 

 tion of the average writer on fruit culture 

 are the dessert and culinary varieties tluit 

 are so familiar to gardeners all over the 

 cmuitry. There is another family of pears, 

 however, that is very little written about, 

 perhaps because it is unknown outside the 

 few counties in which it flourishes, and per- 

 haps also because it belongs to the orchard 

 on the farm rather than to the garden and 

 commercial fruit plantation. 1 rrt* r, ot* 

 course, to the perry pears, which possess 

 none of those qualities that are needed on 

 the dessert table, l)Ut which nevertheless 

 serve a useful purpovse in providing the 

 juice to make tlu^ ht-verage which most 

 West Country nww know and appreciate. 

 In \-ar:<)Us' parts tlu^sc islands fine 



ju'iir trees are to *te seen, liiit toi- size of 



limb ami gjrth of stem, there is iu)thing 

 equal to the perry pears, and as you travel 

 through the orcfianl lands of (doucester- 

 shire vou niav oljserve sper iniens that are 

 more like great forest trees tlian anything 

 else. Many of tlient look as if tliey were 

 about half as old as Tiuie itself, ami cen- 

 turies must lia\e rolletl away since they 

 were first })lanted. A few interested ]>er- 

 sons have endeavoiued to trace the history 

 of some of the old ]>erry })ears in the AVest, 

 and TiH»st notaitle amongst them was tlu^ 

 late Mr. Hadclitt'e C'ook, who <i:d more than 

 anyone in his time to j^opiduris*^ the West 

 Country beverages cider and perry, and as 

 a consequence, when he sat for a Parliamen- 

 tary division of Herefor<lshire, was often 

 referred to as the honourable member for 

 Cider. I have no data before me of Mr. 

 ]?adcliffe Cook s investigations, but he ob- 

 tained abimdant evidence to prove the 

 great age of many of the perry pear trees 

 that are still alive and fruitful, and they 

 flourished in "West Country orchards cen- 

 tiu'ies l)efore fruit culture was treated 

 seriously as a commercial industry. 



Hundreds of tlie old trees have, of course, 

 dropped out, every year a few more are 

 laid fiat by winter gales, and the last pur- 

 pose the old veterans serve is to provide 

 firewood for the farmer, but many still 

 remain, and one w^onders where the perry 

 will come from when they are gone. One 

 is led to this thought by the fact that most 

 of the perry that is made comes from old 

 trees, and in recent years there has been a 

 tendency to plant market varieties at the 

 expense of vintage fruit. This is a pity, 

 because there is room for both, and hap- 

 pily, during tlie past few seasons, more 

 attention has again been turned to the 

 planting of perry pears. It is only in the 

 farm orchards Avhere the perry pears 

 grow, and they were first planted to feed 

 the old stone cider mill in the harti. The 

 latter simple and cumbersome ai)paratus 



as I am aware, no one has introduced a 

 new perry pear for generations past, and 

 the name of a variety in most cases 

 indicates its origin. Doubtless they were 

 all natural seedlings, and one can fancy * 

 a farmer generations ago picking out a 

 promising looking seedling that sprang up 

 from a seed thrown out with the pulp from 

 the mill. He grew his seedling into a tree 

 which eventually bore fruit, and, as this 

 made good perry, he gave it a name of 

 his own, enlarged on its good qualities at 

 market and elsewhere, and presented 

 gr-afts to his neighbours, who in tui^^n 

 worked it, and established trees of their 

 own- With variation in detail, perhaps, 

 this is the history of most of the West 

 Country perry pears, and apparently they 

 suffice, as no one troubles to introduce 

 any more. 



Amongst the varieties, the names of 

 which are local household word.s, there is 

 a big towering tvoi\ which is grown in the 

 vale of the iSevern, and is known as the 

 Blakeney Red from the fact that it ori- 

 ginated sonacwhere in the vicinity of the 

 •old Severn-side village of Blakeney. 

 Some of the trees of this variety are really 

 grand spo<-iniens, and the fruit, though 

 not th(^ b(*st for p(M-ry making, is brightly 

 <-oloured, and has a pleasing appearance. 

 For this reason, it does not all go to the 

 mill, for in some seasons tons of Blakeney 

 Beds are sent to Covent Garden and other 

 great fruit markets, where they fetch a 

 pri<*e that is more lucrative to growers 

 than making perry. It is their appearance 

 that sells the fruit, and I have heard them 

 referred to as "one bites,'/ from the con- 

 tention that the buyer who is attracted by 



has for the most part given way to the 

 modern cider mill, which chews and grinds 

 up the fruit in its cruel teeth, but the 

 same old perry pears feed it, and the 

 farmer values each specimen by the 

 ber of gallons of juice he gets from it and 

 the edible quality of the same. There is 

 not so much perry made as cider because 

 pears are uot so plentiful as apples, and 

 on s-ome farms both fruits are mixed and 



•ound up together,- but the best of perry 

 i.s a beverage for the gods, and when 

 bottled and matured it is not far below 

 the standard' of <hampugne. 



It would ap|n\n- a- if" Nature had se- 

 le<'te<l the districU ht-si suited to perry 

 pt'ars, and thon^h trees in these pa^t-^ are 



numerous, the varieties are few. So far 



branch and twig is wreathed with pearly- 

 white blossom. These veteran perry pears 

 seem to have little in cmumon with table 

 varieties and modern fruit culture, but 

 they stand like great sentinels, keeping 

 watch over other trees iii the orchards, 

 remaining fruitful so long as a spark of 

 hfe.is left or the gale spares them, and 

 they serve as a kind of connecting-link 

 between the present generation of farmers 

 and their forebeai^s, who quaffed the perry 

 which the old trees produced in days gone 

 by, when manners and customs in other 

 respects were different to what they are 

 now. H. 



the pleasing look of the fruit takes one 

 bite and consigns the i-eniainder to the 

 gutter. 



Taynton Squash is another variety that 

 owes its name to a little village near to 

 Gloucester, though there do not appear to 

 be many trees now in the place of its ori- 

 gin. Among connoisseuxs there are 

 few who have not a good word to say for 

 Oldfield perry. Trees of the Oldfield 

 variety are to be foimd in many a Glou- 

 cestershire orchard, and it is not unusual 

 for the farmer to keep this fruit separate, 

 and the juice goes into a special cask, and 

 later into special bottles, and the fact 

 that this is for his own particular consump- 

 tion speaks volumes for its quality. In 

 another part Barland perry is the particu- 

 lar brand that is most favoured, and this 

 is made from the Barland pear, a. popular 

 variety that grows into a big spreading 

 tree. In his ''Fruit (Manual," Dr. Hogg 

 mentioned the Barland pear, and it is 

 there .stated that tlie original tree grew 

 in a field called Bare Lands, in the parish 

 of Bo>bury. also that the Barland pear was 

 grown in Herefordshire prior to the publi- 

 cation of Evelyn's *' Pomona in 1674. It is 

 quite possible *that some of the trees then 

 described are still standing. The Bull pear 

 is another variety for perry, and so also 

 is the Moorcroft^ ibut there are not very 

 iuany more that are generally met with in 

 West Country orchards. 



Last year was not what is called a gond 

 sea-son for perry pears, but when the <'rop 

 is good, an old orchard tree will produce 

 an enormous quantity of fruit. These 

 porry pears are possesvsed of a characteris- 

 tic native hardiness, and they suffer but 

 little through insect pests, and the scab 

 which plays such havoc amongst dessert 

 varieties is almost unknown amongst them, 

 Tf appearances go for anything, there 

 should be plenty of perry fruit this yeai', 

 as the trees are thickly studded witli blos- 

 som, an<l I know of nothing more l)eaiiti- 

 ful in Nature than a hig old Gloii. ester- 

 shire perry pear in April, when evt^y 



OVERCROWDING. 



Overcrowding is a fault with which al- 

 most all gardeners may be charged at some 

 time or other, hut it is the inexperienced 

 who most often— ^it might almost be said 

 ahvays— fall into the error. We need ima- 

 gination and knowUnlge^ to keep u^ from 

 erring in this respect^invigination^ which, 

 coupled with experience, will enable us to 

 picture to ourselves the plants or trees after 

 months or yeart^ of growth ; and, at the 

 same time, knowledge principally of the 

 f\UK-tions of the leaves— how they breathe, 

 how by means of the chlorophyll in their 

 tissues, they break up the carbonic acid of 

 the air into carbon and oxygen (carbon 

 forming, next to water, the principal con- 

 stituent of vegetable matter), and how, 

 finally, they produce the elaborated sap to 

 be distributed to all parts of the plant for 

 building up its tissucvs. 



Thus we see how important it is that sun- 

 shine, direct or diffused, should fall upon 

 as much leaf surface as possible, the ideal 

 condition being that in which the maximum 

 amount of sunlight falls upon every leaf of 

 the plant. But, even when we know ail 

 this, our desire to obtain all we can out 

 of the earth is often the cause of get- 

 ting less than we .should do otherwise. That 

 it m tHe insufficiency of sunlight as well as 

 of nvitriment which k a prime factor m the 

 poor development of crowded plants is 

 prov ed by tlie fact of large plants growing 

 ill comparatively small flower pots, and by 

 the difference in character among the 

 leaves on the same plant accordmg as they 

 are fully exposed to the light, or more or 

 less smothered by other leaves. If we bear 

 this in mind we ehall give plants more 

 space in shady, or partially shaded, posi- 

 tions, than in snnny ones. To the observant 

 gardener the wonderful summer ot 

 was an object-lesson in the thick lea^T>, 

 well-developed fruit and leaf buds, and tiu' 

 vigour and healthy promise of the crn^Ml^ 

 and root ^:tocks of herbaceous pl'"!^' 

 autumn came on, indications ot ^ 

 strengthening of the plants and trees wW i| 

 became even more mai'ked during 

 Winter. 



One of the K'ommonest form-s of over- 

 crowding is in the sowing of annuals. ^ i'» . 

 have little idea vA ihv size aiuuials < 

 tain if they have a lair r\vA\u-v. ^^^^ 

 they are grown too closely tog(>tlier axo >' 

 little more than one thin stem, 



little near the top, and thus capawt 

 keeping np no succession of ! 

 whereas, when given .sufficient roniu, » 

 (►f them make bu.slu'.s instead <) ^l' • 

 plants, and the succe^>inn 

 prolonged for severa! weeks. J lie c<ni ^-^^^ 



l)etween Shirlev i^ppies grown J'^'' 

 systems is especially strikuig. as ilH\^ j^^, 

 one of tlitv l,i-i,.i-,.st nf joys in the hr>t ■ 

 wh(M-eas. u Ih'U allowed siiHi'-iciit -j, 

 make tine plants ilirer oi' loui; ''^''^ 



l.lossonis. M^.oy in>['|'";^ 

 showiuu: si'arcelv less <M)titrast nugU 



height and two feel 



spendiiigly line 



