"THE BARTLETT PEAR. Notwithstanding the great variety of new fruits which have been introduced of late, and highly extolled for their superior excellence, the Baldwin Apple, Hovey's Strawberry, and the Bartlett Pear are still favorites in the Boston market. The Bartlett Pear, as it succeeds well when dwarfed by being grafted on quince, and thus comes into bearing much sooner than when grown as a standard, is a very desirable fruit. Taking into consideration its rapidity of growth, hardiness, size, form, flavor, and market value, the continued popularity of the Bartlett Pear is not at all surprising.
Mr. Downing says this fruit originated in Berkshire, England, about 1770, and was there known as the Williams. It was imported into this country in 1799 by Enoch Bartlett, Esq., of Dorchester, Mass., from whom it received its American name.
Mr. Cole says it is liable to be affected by hard winters, and that more hardy native kinds are better adapted to the northern part of New England. Fruit of large size, irregularly pyramidal. Skin very thin and smooth, clear yellow, (with a soft blush on the sunny side, in exposed specimens,) rarely marked with a faint russet. Stalk one to one and a half inches long, stout, inserted in a shallow, flat cavity. Calyx open, set in a very shallow, obscurely plaited basin. Flesh white, and exceedingly fine-grained and buttery; it is full of juice, sweet, with a highly perfumed, vinous flavor. (In damp or unfavorable soils, it is sometimes slightly acid.) Ripens from the last of August to the middle and last of September."
Clever guy, that Enoch Barlett. He stole Mr. William's Pear, and went down in history. I don't know...should I consider that to be yankee ingenuity? Or something else?
