The Pears of New York. U. P. Hedrick
published several works on agriculture, mostly compilations, but all containing original observations, in one of which, his “Seminarium,” printed in Paris in 1540, is a list of sixteen pears with brief descriptions of each. Not one of Estienne’s pears is now important, but all appear in the histories of minor sorts in the last chapter of this text.
De Serres, known in France as “The Father of Agriculture,” published his Le Théâtre d’Agriculture in 1608, a book ever to be notable in agriculture as the first to break wholly away from the 1600 years of repetition of book after book in the languages of Europe which but copied the ancients. De Serres was a good farmer—most of his farming operations have not been improved upon; he founded the first experimental farm of which there is record at his home near Pradel and so became the first of a long line of modern experimenters in agriculture. Lastly, De Serres was a charming writer and his book rapidly ran through many editions and was translated into several languages. To him must be given credit for first sounding the alluring call of “back to the land” which rings from nearly every page of his books. Here is his appeal to plant pears; and words could hardly make it simpler, more charming, and more compelling:
“There is no tree among all those planted which abounds so much in kinds of fruits as the pear tree, whose different sorts are innumerable and their different qualities wonderful. For from the month of May to that of December pears good to eat are found on the trees. In considering particularly the different shapes, sizes, colors, flavors, and odors of the pear, who will not adore the wisdom of the creator. Pears are found round, long ‘goderonnees’[3] pointed, blunt, small, and large. Gold, silver, vermillion, and satin green are found among the pears. Sugar, honey, cinnamon, clove, flavor them. They smell of musk, amber, and chive. In short, so excellent are the fruits that an orchard would not be worth while in a place where pear trees do not thrive.”
This laudation of the pear, in which it is made manifest that many pears of diverse shapes, colors, flavors, and perfumes existed in the year 1600, is all that space permits from De Serres, though much could be quoted as to the care of pear orchards, and a list of kinds could be given, of which, however, the descriptions count for but little. Le Lectier, to whom we now come, is a better authority on varieties.
Le Lectier, an attorney of the king at Orleans, was an amateur fruit collector, but a collector who reflected and printed his reflections. He seems to have been about the first of the many collectors who, with fruit-growing as an avocation, have zealously sought to improve and distribute varieties, and thereby have done as much or more for pomology than those who have made fruit-growing a vocation. Though Le Lectier collected all of the fruits of his time and country, the pear was mistress of his passion, a passion which gave him such pleasure that it excited others to become amateurs and emulate him. The result was that a country-wide taste for pears was stimulated and a veritable craze for this fruit was started—everybody planted pears.
The famous collection of fruits was begun by Le Lectier in 1598. By 1628, the infatuation to plant had progressed until Le Lectier could send to his fellow amateurs a catalog of his possessions of fruits with the desire to exchange. His offer to exchange shows all of the collector’s zeal. It reads as follows:
“I beg all those who have good fruits (not contained in the present Catalogue) when he obtains them to inform me of it, so that I can have grafts of them in exchange for those which they have not, but which they wish to get from me, and which I will furnish them.
“Signed, Le Lectier, Attorney of the King at Orleans.
20th of December, 1628.”
From Le Lectier’s list we learn that 300 years ago the French had at least 254 pears. In this catalog are many pears in the pomologies of today, but, unfortunately without descriptions or any attempt to determine duplicates in names or varieties, the list serves for little more than a monument for one of the first and one of the most zealous collectors of pears. Le Lectier, however, may be said to have introduced the golden age of pomology in France; for, during historical times there seems to have been no other period in which pomology exercised the minds and hands of well-to-do people as in the century that followed Le Lectier. Even the kings of France took pleasure in using the spade and the pruning-knife. La Quintinye, the best of the pomological writers of the day, complained that the country was overwhelmed with books on pomology. Thus, was ushered in the period which we may call our own in which the history of the pear may be read in books innumerable.
As steps in the progress of the pear, the number of varieties may be noted as given by French pomologists in the modern era of pear-growing. Merlet, 1667, describes 187 varieties; La Quintinye, 1690, 67; Duhamel, 1768, 119; the Chartreuse fathers, 1775, 102; Tollard, 1805, 120; Noisette, 1833, 238; while Leroy, 1867, from whom the figures just given were taken, says that in the half century preceding, the number of pears in France was quadrupled and that there are 900 varieties for which there are 3000 names. Leroy notes three events as the cause of the generous multiplication of pears in the period of which he writes: The introduction of the many varieties grown by Van Mons and other Flemish pomologists beginning about 1805; a little later, the establishment of exchange relations with English nurseries; and still later, 1849, the importation of a great number of new varieties from America. To Americans, it is particularly significant to note that the great progress of the pear in France is due to amateur tendance and not commercial success.
THE PEAR IN BELGIUM
Providence ordained Belgium to produce the modern pear. The evolution of the pear proceeded slowly, indeed, until its culture became common on the clayey and chalky soils in the cool, moist climate of Belgium, where flavor, aroma, texture, size, and color reach perfection. The pear was improved more in one century in Belgium than in all the centuries that had past. The part Providence played in endowing the Belgians with an ideal soil and climate for the pear, is but one of two causes of the results in improving the pear in this country. The other is that the Belgians, ever notable horticulturists, give the pear assiduous care, cultivate only the most approved varieties, and in breeding, aim ever at high quality, so that Belgian pear-growers, as well as an ordained soil and climate, must be given credit for the modern pear.
The early history of the pear in Belgium follows step by step that of the pear in France. In the sixteenth century, botanists were numerous in the Low Countries, their zeal and activity showing forth in several of the best of the early herbals. These herbalists, however, gave scant attention to the pear. Dodoens, most noted Belgian botanist of the century, dismissed the matter of varieties with the statement that the names change from village to village, and that it is therefore useless to give them. From this we may assume that a considerable number of pears were cultivated in Belgium at the time Dodoens wrote, about the middle of the sixteenth century.
Pear-breeding began in Belgium about 1730, when Nicolas Hardenpont, 1705–1774, a priest in his native town of Mons, made a large sowing of pear seed with a view of obtaining new pears of superior quality. Time is fleeting in breeding tree fruits, and the Abbé Hardenpont waited nearly 30 years before introducing his selected seedlings, and then, beginning in 1758, he introduced one new variety after another until a dozen or more new pears were accredited to him. At least six of these are still grown in Europe, but only one, the Passe Colmar, is known in America. But before going further with the work of the Belgian breeders, it is necessary to take stock of what was on hand before their time.
La Quintinye, the most noted French pomologist of his time, in 1690 listed 67 pear varieties. The Belgians probably had all of these. What were they? Most of them were old sorts—some were centuries old. All, so far as their histories show, originated by chance in garden, orchard, hedge row, and forest. No one seems yet to have planted seed with a view of obtaining new and better pears. Camerarius in 1694 had made known the fact of sex in plants. Soon after, experiments in hybridization began, but no one as yet had hybridized pears. Lastly, nearly all pears, before the Belgians began to improve them, were crisp or breaking in flesh, the crevers of the French, while the soft-fleshed, melting pears, the beurrés of the French, were