36 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
JaN' 
Random Notes on Pears.* 
A few observations made during a short visit to some 
of the eastern gardens, may prove interesting to the 
fruit-growing readers of this journal. 
Blight. —A remarkable fact, and throwing some light 
(negatively,) on the pear blight, is the entire absence 
from this disease among the trees in the neighborhood 
of Boston. It seemed indeed strange to hear such men 
as the president and ex-president of the world-renowned 
Horticultural Society there, inquiring for the appearance 
and symptoms of the blight as of a disaster personally 
unknown to them, but so universally known and dread¬ 
ed in Western New-York and in Ohio. Boston and 
Rochester are not dissimilar in temperature of climate, 
hence we cannot trace it satisfactorily or wholly to the 
weather. Nor is rapid growth a necessary cause, for 
more freely growing trees than the thousands on the 
grounds of M. P. Wilder, S. Walker, or C. M. IIoyey, 
are nowhere to be found. A part of Col. Wilder’s 
grounds consist of reclaimed bog, with an ample addi¬ 
tion of improving and fertilizing materials ; and the 
finest pear grounds belonging to President Walker he 
stated had been very heavily dressed with yard manure, 
with additions of ashes and guano,and the whole repeated¬ 
ly plowed, and repeatedly subsoiled, till mellow and rich 
in a high degree to a depth of about two feet. The 
growth of the trees fully corroborated his account. 
Limited observations at Philadelphia indicated a some¬ 
what similar condition of the trees at that place. 
Pyramidal Pears. —The finest collection, perhaps, 
in this country, are the 1500 pyramids of Hovey & Co., 
at Cambridge, some of them 10 feet high. The pear 
crop proving this year mostiy a failure, but few of them 
were loaded with fruit ; but the beauty of their training, 
as presented in the long avenues of these trees, could 
scarcely be surpassed by Cappe’s celebrated trees of 
Paris. These were mostly, like Cappe’s, on pear roots. 
Equally handsome specimens were observed on some 
parts of Col. Wilder’s grounds. 
New Pears. —Of the newer varieties which have been 
considerably proved, none appear to be more generally 
admired than the Doyenne Boussock, for size, growth, 
productiveness, and quality. We have never heard a 
word against its high character. The Beurre Langelier 
is regarded by Hovey as the best early winter pear, and 
is highly esteemei by Manning, Walker, and others; 
while on the other hand, Manning thinks the Lawrence 
is decidedly the best, so far as a partial trial will indi¬ 
cate. Col. Wilder finds the Doyenne gris d’Hiver 
Nouveau of good quality, and ripening later than Easter 
Beurre; the Howell large and fine; the Triomphe de 
Jodigne, “ good ;” Nouveau Poiteau, handsome and fine; 
and Soldat Laboreur a beautiful grower, and a fine pear. 
Van Mon s’ Leon U Cl ere, as elsewhere, cracks badly 
with him, and the Dix very badly. Some of the worst 
looking specimens of cracked pears observed anywhere, 
ivere on a tree of the Dix. Has this new and hardy 
American tree, already reached old age? Or will it die 
of old age at Dorchester, at the same time it is flourish- 
* This article was written for the Nov. No. of the Cultivator, but 
has been accidentally deferred to the present. 
ing in youth and vigor near Rochester? A puzzling fact 
in relation to cracking, occurred on the grounds of the 
writer,—a young Doyenne pear on new ground, while 
bearing its first crop, became dotted with black specks 
precisely like those of leaf blight, on both leaves and 
fruit at the same time, and the fruit cracked and was 
worthless. This was some years ago, and has not been 
repeated. Not far distant, on very similar soil, stood 
another old Doyenne tree, bearing yearly six to twelve 
bushels of uniformly fair fruit. This fact is very adverse 
to the theory of exhaustion of soil by trees of long 
standing. 
Robert Manning has found only two of Knight’s 
pears of much value, the Eyewood and Moccas. The 
Monarch , after a vast amount of pains to get it correct, 
proves after all, of no great value. Manning 7 s Eliza¬ 
beth, he regards as one of the finest early pears. The 
Duchesse d’ Orleans promises to become very valuable. 
Of Gov. Edwards’ new sorts, the Calhoun proves the 
best, and the Dallas a good fruit; the others not so 
worthy of notice. 
Standards on Quince. —Those sorts which grow 
freely and endure well on the Quince, as Louise Bonne 
of Jersey, Angouleme, Glout Morceau, &c., may beset 
out in orchards and trained standard height. Specimens 
thus treated, more than twenty years old, bearing usual¬ 
ly several bushels a year, were observed in a fine condi¬ 
tion in the gardens of S. Walker and M. P. Wilder. 
The Langelier and Boussock promise to be good for this 
purpose. 
Double-Worked Trees.—S. Walker strongly doubts 
the propriety of double-working many of the refractory 
sorts. He has trees of the Aremberg, Yan Mons’ Leon 
le Clerc, and Dix, all double worked, but they succeed 
but poorly. Their growth is usually slow, and it is 
some years before they bear much; and the first good 
crop exhausts nature and the tree commonly perishes 
after a full effort at bearing. Dearborn’s Seedling, when 
double worked, does well, and itds nearly the only sort 
that does so. Results may sometimes prove more favor¬ 
able on other soils and in other places; but these show 
the necessity of caution in the promiscuous planting of 
such trees. 
Influence of Locality. —The difference thus created 
is often remarkable. Dr. Brinckle of Philadelphia 
showed specimens of the Seckel pear, which would be 
looked upon by cultivators further north, as of great 
size; one specimen, which he assured us was by no 
means the largest he had seen, measured only two lines 
less than three inches long; and a fine crop of Doyennes 
in Baxter’s garden, furnished plenty of specimens three 
inches in breadth and in height. The Pennsylvania and 
Chapman pears are greatly superior to the same sorts 
grown further north; and the Lodge, so poor with us, 
becomes really a fine pear at Philadelphia. 
A Productive Tree. —A tree of the Winkfield pear, 
not of very large size, at S. Walker’s, bore one year 
15 bushels of fruit. The second rate ones (that is. after 
all the best had been selected,) sold for $6.00 per barrel. 
What would an acre of such trees yield per annum, 
admitting the value of the crop at half the preceding 
price , or $3 per barrel? 
