North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

Richard, 

    Northern or southern Louisiana?  Lawson's Nursery in N GA has been selling a small early pear for years.  He said when his family bought the property in 1906, the tree was bearing then and it's still cropping.  The Early Harvest pear was offered for sale in a national agricultural advertiser in 1871.  James Lawson told me his "early June sugar pear" takes 6-8 years to crop, which sound like Early Harvest, mentioned in one article as taking 10-12 years to crop. Considering that's apparently less than 10% of the tree's lifespan, I guess it's not too bad.  I'm grafting high on a mature tree to check out fruit quality, and on a younger tree with some other varieties to make me feel like the tree's not wasting space.  I'm going to try to find out if this old tree in town is the same as his.  He said someone from around Louisville sent him a box of pears that were the same as his.  Louisville is where the EH got planted the most by market growers. 

    You want some scions?   Donna