September  5,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
219 
The  Pear. 
Thk  flavour  of  fruits  has  been  a  subject  that  has,  from  a  very  early 
period  of  gardening  records,  more  or  less  engrossed  the  attention  of 
cultivators ;  and  although  there  is  no  lack  of  connoisseurs,  there  are 
comparatively  few  who  have  attempted  to  throw  much  light  on  the 
cause  whereby  fruits  of  the  same  variety  should  differ  in  flavour 
when  grown  under  similar  circumstances.  Yet  that  it  does  so  is  an 
unquestionable  fact ;  and  some  of  the  cases  are  so  self-evident  that  a 
few  examples  will  suffice  to  define  what  is  hereby  meant  by  the  term 
“  inexplicable,”  or,  in  plain  language,  a  case  where  a  reason  for  the 
anomaly  is  difficult  to  assign. 
Open  Standard  or  Wall  Tree. 
In  an  orchard  on  grass  of  mixed  Apple  and  Pear  trees  we  have 
several  large  trees  of  the  Marie  Louise  Pear,  which  in  favourable 
# 
question  for  which  the  following  suggestion  may,  perhaps,  supply  an 
answer. 
Assuming  the  soil  on  which  both  the  open  standard  and  wall  trees 
above  alluded  to  are  growing,  to  be  exactly  adapted  to  the  wants  of  a 
fruit-bearing  Pear  tree  (and  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  so),  we 
have  here  a  manifest  example  of  the  evil  effects  of  pruning  and 
managing  a  fruit  tree.  The  wall  trees,  of  course,  receive  the  usual 
summer  and  winter  treatment;  while  the  standards  have  had  nothing 
whatever  done  to  them  except  thinning-out  the  branches  more  or  less 
severely  once  in  six  years  or  so,  and  gathering  the  fruit  when  ready. 
With  regard  to  the  certainties  of  a  crop  I  can  say  but  little,  the  one 
being  as  good  as  the  other  ;  and  I  have  never  Been  much  on  the  wall 
trees  when  the  other  failed,  so  we  must  not  deduce  much  from  that, 
but  consider  the  causes  of  the  one  being  so  much  better  flavoured  than 
the  other  ;  and  my  opinion  on  this  point  is  that  all  the  wall  tree  fruit 
is  overfed.  The  tree  being  denuded  of  branches  and  shoots  to  a  great 
extent,  both  in  winter  and  summer,  to  make  it  conform  to  the 
SAG1TTARIA  JAPONICA  FL.  PL.  (See  page  218.) 
seasons  bear  well,  the  fruit  being  much  smaller  and  more  russetty 
than  the  same  kind  trained  to  eastern,  northern,  or  western  walls ; 
but  they  are  infinitely  superior  to  the  latter  in  flavour — so  much  so, 
that  some  have  doubted  their  being  the  same  variety.  But  the 
difference  is  entirely  due  to  the  conditions  under  which  they  are  grown, 
for  they  were  originally  from  the  same  stock.  Another  variety  of 
Pear,  Williams’  Bon  Chretien,  is  exactly  the  same;  large,  fine-looking 
fruit  grown  on  the  walls  being  inferior  in  point  of  flavour  to  the  same 
when  grown  on  open  standards,  the  fruit  of  the  latter  being  much 
smaller.  Now,  these  examples  are  difficult  to  understand  on  the 
generally  received  notions  that  cultivation,  training,  and  other  judicious 
management  tend  to  produce  good  fruit.  Certainly  it  is  a  finer-looking 
fruit  than  the  other;  but  being  obtained  at  a  much  greater  cost,  in 
smaller  quantities,  and  of  inferior  quality,  the  question  naturally  arises, 
Is  it  prudent  to  plant  Pears  against  a  wall?  To  this  a  qualified 
answer  must  be  given.  At  such  a  placjs  as  this  (Haddington),  most 
certainly  it  is  not  advisable  to  plant  either  of  the  kinds  above 
mentioned ;  but  at  a  place  less  favourable  to  the  growth  of  Pears  as 
open  standard  trees  it  may  be  different.  Still,  the  question  has  to  be 
asked,  Why  are  the  fruit  on  the  walls  so  much  inferior  to  the 
standards,  the  soil  and  climate  being  the  same?  This  involves  a 
situation  it  is  placed  in,  and  the  crop  of  fruit  being  seldom  proportionate 
to  the  activity  of  a  vigorous  root,  an  undue  amount  of  food  is  forced 
into  the  cells  of  the  fruit,  and  it  is  swelled  beyond  its  proper  proportion, 
while  sugar  and  the  other  items  constituting  flavour  are  not  furnished 
in  a  like  ratio  ;  hence  a  full-grown  but  indifferently  flavoured  fruit  is 
the  result. 
Perhaps  someone  will  urge  that  the  greater  amount'  of  air  the 
standard-grown  fruit  receives  is  the  cause  of  its  merit.  This  may, 
perhaps,  have  something  to  do  with  it  ;  but  1  am  still  of  opinion  that 
when  a  fruit  grows  really  well  in  a  state  of  nature,  its  quality  is  rarely 
improved  by  cultivation,  especially  when  such  severe  measures  are 
adopted  as  those  taken  by  the  dresser  of  the  wall-grown  Pear  tree, 
cutting  off,  as  he  does,  nine-tenths  or  more  of  each  season’s  growth 
every  year.  Some  fruits  may  benefit  by  a  treatment  of  this  kind,  but 
1  have  much  doubt  of  the  Pear  doing  so,  as  some  consideration  is 
always  due  to  the  natural  habit  of  the  tree  operaied  on  j  and  when 
we  know  that  the  Pear  in  a  wild  state  assumes  an  almost  forest  tree 
character,  we  must  pause  ere  we  seek  to  reduce  it  to  the  condition  of 
a  dwarf.  Fruit  it  may  bear  in  such  a  condition,  and  such  fruit  may 
now  and  then  assume  a  more  or  less  unnatural  character,  just  in 
proportion  to  the  paucity  of  its  numbers  ;  but  its  true  character  can 
