Easter Beurré

[A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)] Easter Beurré.

winter or spring Pears. It seems to require a rather warmer climate than that of the Eastern States to arrive at full perfection, and has disappointed the expectations of many cultivators. It bears well here, but is rather variable in quality. In good seasons, if packed away in boxes and ripened off in a warm room, it is a delicious, melting, buttery fruit.

The tree grows upright, and thriftily, with reddish yellow shoots. It requires a warm exposure and a rich soil to give fine fruit as an open standard tree. It is said to succeed well at the South.

Fruit large, roundish obovate obtuse, often rather square in figure. Skin yellowish green, sprinkled with many russety dots, and some russet, which give it a brownish cheek in some specimens. Stalk rather short, stout, planted in an abruptly sunken obtuse cavity. Calyx small, closed, but little sunk among the plaited folds of the angular basin. Flesh white, fine-grained, very buttery, melting and juicy, with a sweet and rich flavor. January to March.

[U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York (1921)] EASTER BEURRÉ

1. Pom. Mag. 2:78, Pl. 1829. 2. Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 397. 1831. 3. Kenrick Am. Orch. 160. 1841. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 425, fig. 196. 1845. 5. Gard. Chron. 168, fig. 1845. 6. Mag. Hort. 16:73. 1857. 7. Am. P. Soc. Rpt. 157. 1854. 8. Ibid. 66. 1862. 9. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 751, fig. 1869. 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 572. 1884. 11. Ont. Dept. Agr. Fr. Ont. 159, figs. 1914.

Bergamote de la Pentecôte. 12. Ann. Pom. Belge 4:41, Pl. 1856.

Doyenné d'Hiver. 13. Mas Le Verger 1:43, fig. 28. 1866-73. 14. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:72, fig. 1869. 15. Guide Prat. 61, 265. 1876.

Beurré Rouppe. 16. Mas Pom. Gen. 4:87, fig. 236. 1879.

Winter Dechantsbirne. 17. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 300. 1889. 18. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. No. 71, Pl. 34. 1894.

The fruit-books of Europe have so much to say in praise of Easter Beurré that the variety has been tried time and time again in America, but nearly always with unfavorable results. The variety grows well only in comparatively warm climates and on light, warm, limy soils, and refuses to ripen its crop in any others. There are occasional places in eastern America where Easter Beurré can be well grown, but for most part it is at home only on the Pacific slope. The fruits are of first rate excellence when at their best, and add much to the winter supply of pears, the product of few other winter pears surpassing that of this sort from January to March in regions where it does well. The pears are excellent shippers, keep well in common or cold storage, so that where the variety succeeds it is valuable for home, and distant and foreign markets. The trees are in every way satisfactory except that they bloom a little earlier than other sorts, and are somewhat more susceptible to the scab fungus in both fruit and foliage than a commercial variety should be. Although a little too susceptible to blight, the trees are above the average in immunity, and are hardy, vigorous, and productive. The variety is well worth planting in soils and climates where the crop matures properly.

In the gardens of the Capucin Monastery at Louvain, Belgium, there was, about 1823, an old pear tree known to the monks as the Pastorale de Louvain, which attracted the attention of Van Mons. He propagated the pear and in due course distributed it. By the year 1853, it was to be found pretty generally in the gardens of Belgium under the name of Pastorale. Since that time it has been very widely disseminated, but unfortunately has received a confusing variety of names, Leroy mentioning twenty-four and Mathieu fifty-five. The leading authorities, however, of England and this country have uniformly adopted the name Easter Beurré. It was received in the former country soon after its first dissemination, and it was brought to this country not later than 1837. Since 1862, Easter Beurré has appeared in the list of pears recommended for general cultivation by the American Pomological Society.

Tree medium in size, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, slow-growing, hardy; branches reddish-brown overspread with gray scarf-skin, sprinkled with inconspicuous lenticels; branchlets variable in length, with short internodes, greenish-brown mingled with red, rough, glabrous, with small, round, raised lenticels. Leaf-buds small, very short, obtuse, free. Leaves 2¼ in. long, 1¼ in. wide, thin; apex abruptly pointed; margin finely serrate, the teeth very short, tipped with red; petiole 2 in. long, slender. Flower-buds small, short, conical, plump, free, singly on short spurs; flowers 1⅜ in. across, occasionally tinged with pink in the bud, becoming white when open, well distributed, average 9 buds in a cluster; pedicels ¾ in. long, slender, pubescent.

Fruit in season late December to February; 3 in. long, 2¾ in. wide, obovate-pyriform, with a short, thick neck; stem ¾ in. long, thick, woody; cavity acute, very deep, narrow, furrowed, uneven, compressed; calyx open; lobes narrow, acute; basin deep, narrow, abrupt, furrowed and wrinkled; skin thick, tough, roughened by the dots, the surface uneven; color yellow, marked with many russet dots and with patches and veinings of russet, often with a dull brownish-red blush; dots numerous, small, very conspicuous, russet; flesh tinged with yellow, granular near the center and toward the calyx, tender and melting, juicy, buttery, sweet, with a rich, pleasant flavor, very aromatic; quality very good. Core large, closed, axile, with meeting core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds large, wide, long, plump, acute.

[John J. Thomas, The American Fruit Culturist (1903)] Easter Beurré.* (Doyenné d'Hiver, Bergamotte de la Pentacôte, Beurré de la Pentacôte, Beurré de Pâques, Chaumontel très gros, Canning Seigneur d'Hiver.) Large, obovate, approaching oval; surface yellowish-green, with some russet; often a broad, dull reddish cheek; stalk stout, an inch long; cavity deep, sometimes obtuse, abrupt; calyx small, closed in a moderate or rather shallow, plaited basin; flesh fine-grained, very buttery, melting, and juicy, and when well grown and ripened, of excellent flavor. It does not often mature well in the Northern States. Keeps through winter. Growth moderate, rather upright, shoots reddish-yellow; leaves narrow, folded, recurved. Grows best on the quince. Europe. Fig. 735.