P. Barry.

A very promising new variety, raised by S. B. Fox, San Jose, California. Mr. Fox has raised several seedling pears of great merit, at least as grown with him; how they will succeed elsewhere has yet to be tested. We give descriptions of Colonel Wilder, P. Barry and S. B. Fox, from specimens received from Ellwanger & Barry and Marshall P. Wilder.

Fruit large, elongated pyriform, a little obtuse; skin deep yellow, nearly covered with rich golden russet; stalk of medium length and thickness, inclined, set rather obliquely in a medium cavity, sometimes by a lip; calyx small, open; basin small, regular; flesh whitish, fine, juicy, melting, sweet, slightly vinous and rich. December.

— A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)

P. BARRY

1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 38. 1875.
2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 2d App. 152, fig. 1876.
3. W. N. Y. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 18. 1882.
4. Wickson Cal. Fruits 340. 1889.
5. Ellwanger & Barry Cat. 20. 1892.
6. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 17, 68. 1895.
7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 41. 1909.
8. Wickson Cal. Fruits 273. 1919.

The fruits of P. Barry are among the latest of all the pears grown on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. They do not ripen here until mid-winter and then keep until spring. A serious defect is that they sometimes refuse to ripen but shrivel until decay sets in late in the spring. To make certain that the pears ripen properly, the fruit-room must not be too cold. The pears are excellent in flavor, have good flesh-characters, and when properly ripened are excelled in quality by no other winter pear. The variety should have a place in the collection of every pear fancier to extend the season for this fruit, and commercial pear growers might find it a profitable sort for local market. Unfortunately, the trees are small, fastidious as to environment, and somewhat uncertain in bearing.

Bernard S. Fox, San Jose, California, raised many pears from seed of Belle Lucrative. Among these seedlings was one which fruited in 1873 and was named P. Barry in honor of Patrick Barry,1 an eminent nursery-man and horticulturist of Rochester, New York. Of many scores of seedlings raised by Mr. Fox only this one, Fox, and Colonel Wilder were considered by the originator to be worthy of propagation. All these received Wilder medals from the American Pomological Society in 1875 and 1881. In 1909, this Society added P. Barry to its catalog-list of fruits.

Tree variable in size, lacking in vigor, spreading, open-topped, unusually hardy, medium in productiveness; trunk slender; branches stocky, zigzag, reddish-brown mingled with gray scarf-skin, marked with large lenticels; branchlets slender, long, with long internodes, reddish-brown, smooth, glabrous, with few small, very slightly raised lenticels.

Leaf-buds small, short, conical, free. Leaves 1¾ in. long, 1¾ in. wide, leathery; apex abruptly pointed; margin finely serrate, tipped with few glands; petiole 1½ in. long. Flower-buds small, short, somewhat obtuse, free; flowers open late, 1¼ in. across, well distributed, averaging 7 buds in a cluster; pedicels 1 in. long, slender, slightly pubescent, pale green.

Fruit matures in late December to February; variable in size, averaging 2¾ in. long, 2¼ in. wide, oblong-obtuse-pyriform, irregular, with unequal sides; stem 1 in. long, thick, curved; cavity obtuse, narrow, furrowed, compressed, often lipped; calyx small, open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, obtuse; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, smooth and regular; skin variable in smoothness, dull; color rich yellow, many specimens almost entirely overspread with russet or with russet coating around the cavity and with russet nettings and patches; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; flesh yellowish-white, fine, melting, sweet, juicy, with a rich, vinous, aromatic flavor; quality good.

Core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, conical; seeds large, wide, long, plump, acute.

1 Patrick Barry, one of the founders of the firm of Ellwanger and Barry, whose Mount Hope Nurseries at Rochester, New York, were long of national and international reputation, was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1816 and died in Rochester, N. Y., in 1890. Besides contributing to the fame of the nursery company he helped to found, Barry was for many years one of the leading pomological editors and authors of the country. New York, especially western New York, is greatly indebted to George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry for the horticultural services of their firm. It is not an exaggeration to say that they introduced fruit-growing in western New York, a region now famous for its fruits. So, also, the parks and home grounds of the many beautiful cities, towns, and villages in western New York are adorned and enriched by ornamental trees, shrubs and vines from the nurseries of Ellwanger and Barry. Patrick Barry came to America in 1836 and with George Ellwanger founded the Mount Hope Nurseries in 1840. Here for a half century he devoted himself to the introduction and distribution of fruit and out-of-door ornamental plants. In the early life of the nursery company many importations were made from Europe and at a time when there were no railroads, telegraph wires, nor ocean steamboats. It was during this early period that the Mount Hope Nurseries began the importation of pears and soon built up one of the largest collections in the country and one which was maintained long after the famous collections farther east had disappeared. At one time or another over 1000 varieties of pears were tested on the grounds of this nursery. For a half century, fruit-growers have studied with pleasure and profit the exhibits of pears made by Ellwanger and Barry at the State and National exhibitions of note. From 1844 to 1852, Patrick Barry edited The Genesee Farmer, one of the best agricultural papers of its day and succeeded A. J. Downing in the editorship of The Horticulturist which he brought to Rochester in 1855 where it was published until 1887. Barry's Treatise on the Fruit-Garden appeared in 1851 and at once became one of the most popular books on pomology. In 1872 the "Treatise" was rewritten and published as Barry's Fruit Garden. Another notable work of which he was author was The Catalogue of Fruits of the American Pomological Society which was compiled by him. Patrick Barry was one of the founders of the Western New York Horticultural Society, for many years the leading horticultural organization of the continent, and of which he was president for more than thirty years. Patrick Barry ranks with Coxe, Kenrick, the Downings, Warder, Eliot, and Thomas as a great leader in pomology of the time in which he lived.

William Crawford Barry, son of Patrick Barry of the preceding sketch, was born in Rochester, New York, in 1847. As a boy he attended parochial schools at Rochester and at Seton Hall, South Orange, New Jersey. As a young man he studied in Berlin, Heidelberg, and the University of Louvain in Belgium. Upon returning to America he took a position in a seed house in New York that he might have practical knowledge of the seed business to bring to the firm of Ellwanger and Barry of which he was soon to become a member. After serving an apprenticeship in the seed business he returned to Rochester to enter the firm which his father and George Ellwanger had founded. From the time of entrance in this company he took a prominent part in its affairs, and for many years before his death, December 12, 1916, he was president of the corporation. Of his horticultural activities, he may be said to have been an organizer and promoter, one of the captains in the industry. For twenty-six years he was president of the Western New York Horticultural Society, having succeeded his father to this office. He was the first president of the American Rose Society, and in 1882 was president of the Eastern Nurserymen's Association. For three years he was president of the Board of Control of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. He helped to establish and took a leader's part in developing the parks of Rochester which have made that city famous among lovers of landscapes. Highland Park was almost a creation of the firm of Ellwanger and Barry. In 1888 the firm gave the city twenty acres of land adjoining the Highland reservoir as the first step in establishing a park system for Rochester. Mr. Barry was chairman of the committee of the park board having in charge Highland Park from the creation of the board until the year before his death when it passed out of existence. Besides these horticultural activities, Mr. Barry was either president or an officer in six banks and trust companies in Rochester. His was a commanding figure in the horticulture of New York. No one attending the meetings of the Western New York Horticultural Society during the twenty-six years he was president can forget Mr. Barry. His knowledge in every division of horticulture, his devotion to grape and pear culture, his genial manner and pleasant greeting to all members, and his force and tact as a presiding officer fitted him so preeminently well for the place that he was unopposed for the presidency during twenty-six terms following the death of his father and until his death.

George Ellwanger, one of the founders and thereafter until his death one of the partners in the Mount Hope Nurseries, Rochester, New York, was born in Germany in 1816 and died in Rochester, New York, in 1906. He came to the United States in 1835, having been educated as a horticulturist in Stuttgart, although possibly the training he received throughout his youth from his father, a grower of grapes and fruits, taught him most, for Ellwanger often said that it was from his father that he acquired his love of horticulture and was by him persuaded to devote his life to the vocation of nurseryman. Ellwanger settled in Rochester in 1839, and the next year joined with Patrick Barry in forming the nursery and seed firm of Ellwanger and Barry, calling their place of business "Mount Hope Nurseries." Ellwanger was one of the founders of the American Pomological Society, and of the Western New York Horticultural Society and throughout his life took an active interest in both organizations. Mr. Ellwanger had large business interests in Rochester and western New York and helped most materially to develop the city and the country about. His chief contributions to horticulture were made through the Mount Hope Nurseries, the influence of which is briefly set forth in the sketch of the life of Patrick Barry.

— U.P. Hedrick, The Pears of New York (1921)

P. Barry. Long pyriform, pale greenish-yellow, juicy, melting, rich. December. Origin, California.

— John J. Thomas, The American Fruit Culturist (1903)

Barry (P. Barry).—Medium, elongated, pyriform; color greenish yellow; stalk one inch long, inclined, inserted in abrupt and quite deep cavity; basin narrow, shallow, regular. Flesh whitish, juicy, melting, firm, vinous, and rich; quality better than good. Does well in Michigan but as yet not much propagated. California.

— J.L. Budd & N.E. Hansen, American Horticultural Manual, Part II: Systematic Pomology (1914)

P. BARRY. Fig. 91.

The fruits of P. Barry do not ripen until March or April and keep until late May. A serious defect is that they sometimes refuse to ripen but shrivel and decay. The pears are excellent in flavor, have good flesh-characters, and when properly ripened are excelled in quality by no other winter pear. The variety should have a place in the collection of every pear fancier to extend the season for this fruit, and commercial pear-growers might find it a profitable sort for local market. Unfortunately, the trees are small, fastidious, as to environment and somewhat uncertain in bearing. Bernard S. Fox, San Jose, California, raised many pears from seeds of Belle Lucrative; among these seedlings was one which fruited first in 1873 and was named in honor of Patrick Barry.

Tree variable in size, lacking in vigor, spreading, open-topped, unusually hardy; trunk slender; branches stocky, zigzag, reddish-brown, marked with large lenticels. Leaves 1⅞ inches long, 1⅜ inches wide, leathery; apex abruptly pointed; margin finely serrate, tipped with few glands; petiole 1⅜ inches long. Flowers open late, 1¼ inches across, well distributed, averaging buds in a cluster. Fruit matures in late November and December; averaging 2⅝ inches long, 2¼ inches wide, oblong-obtuse-pyriform, irregular, with unequal sides; stem ¾ inch long, thick, curved; cavity obtuse, narrow, furrowed, compressed, often lipped; calyx small, open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, obtuse; basin shallow, narrow, obtuse, smooth and regular; color rich yellow, almost entirely overspread with russet; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; flesh yellowish-white, fine, melting, sweet, juicy, with a rich, vinous aromatic flavor; quality good; core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, conical; seeds large, wide, long, plump, acute.

— U.P. Hedrick, Cyclopedia of Hardy Fruits (1922)