North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

I've found a tree in the middle of town that has ripe fruit June 15 thru 
about July 1.  I suspect it is the Early Harvest aka Chambers pear that was 
grown all around Louisvillle Ky in the late 1800's.  This pear is mentioned 
in journals from Ontario thru Maryland where it originated, across Ky and 
into Indiana.  Lucky put me in touch with James Lawson, now 83, owner and 
sole operator of the Lawson nursery in N GA.  He has been selling the early 
"sugar pear" that was already cropping on property his family bought in 
1906.  The tree is still cropping in 2009.  The fruit is short lived, ripe 
in June.  He's really not all that far south of me.  Years ago someone in KY 
sent him scions of a really early pear, and he noted the leaves looked an 
awful lot like his early pear.  Then the guy sent him a shoebox full of 
fruit and it was identical to his.  I figure we're right in between those 
two states, and anyway, the rather odd leaves on the local tree look much 
like the odd leaves shown on the Corvallis site for Early Harvest.  Anyone 
else in the right part of the country know of a really early pear that 
actually comes in right with or even before Yellow Transparent apples? 
Donna    Cookeville Tenn