BLOODGOOD
1. Mag. Hort. 3:14. 1837. 2. Manning Book of Fruits 65. 1838. 3. Mag. Hort. 9:366, fig. 31. 1843. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 332, fig. 132. 1845. 5. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Gr. 51. 1848. 6. Mas Le Verger 2:181, fig. 89. 1866-73. 7. Leroy Dict. Pom. 1:449, fig. 1867. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 532. 1884.
Bloodgood’s Sommerbirne. 9. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 186. 1889.
Bloodgood has long been a standard summer pear in America. It surpasses any European associate of its season in both fruit- and tree-characters. In particular, the fruits are meritorious for flesh of fine texture, which, though a little granular, is melting and juicy, and has a rich, sweet, perfumed flavor. Complaints appear in the horticultural press that the quality is exceedingly variable. The reports of poor flavor may arise from the fact that the quality is always poor if the fruit is not picked as soon as full grown and ripened indoors. The season in New York is August. The trees are resistant to blight, healthy, bear young and regularly, are long-lived, and attain large size, although in some situations they are but medium in size. The variety has little or no value in commercial plantations, but is prized in every collection for home use.
The origin of this pear is unknown, but it is supposed to be a native of New York. It seems to have been brought to notice about 1835 by James Bloodgood of the nursery firm of Bloodgood and Company, Flushing, Long Island. According to Robert Manning, the variety was listed in Prince’s Catalogue for 1837 as Early Beurré. After being introduced by Bloodgood and Company, it was speedily recognized as one of the most valuable native sorts. The variety was placed upon the fruit catalog-list of the American Pomological Society in 1848.
Tree medium in size and vigor, upright, dense, slow-growing, productive; trunk medium in thickness and smoothness; branches zigzag, reddish-brown partly overspread with grayish scarf-skin, marked with few small lenticels; branchlets thick, very long, with long internodes, reddish-brown, the new growth greenish, with a brown tinge, glossy, smooth, with small, raised, conspicuous lenticels.
Leaf-buds broad at the base, small, short, sharply pointed, free; leaf-scars with prominent shoulders. Leaves 2¼ in. long, 1⅜ in. wide, oval, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin finely serrate; petiole 1¼ in. long, slender, tinged red; stipules few, variable in size and shape, tinged red. Flower-buds medium in size and length, conical, plump, free, arranged singly on short spurs; flowers early, 1¼ in. across, in dense clusters, 7 or 8 buds in a cluster; pedicels often ⅞ in. long, pubescent.
Fruit matures in late August; medium in size, 2⅛ in. long, 2 in. wide, roundish-pyriform to acute-pyriform, symmetrical, uniform, with equal sides; stem ¾ in. long, thick; cavity russeted, lipped, drawn up in fleshy folds about the stem; calyx open, small; lobes separated at the base, short, broad, obtuse; basin narrow, obtuse, smooth, symmetrical; skin thick, tough, roughish; color bright yellow, with patches and nettings of russet, producing a mottled russet effect; dots many, small, russet, inconspicuous; flesh tinged yellow, granular, melting, buttery, rich, very juicy, sweet, highly flavored, aromatic; quality very good. Core small, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, narrow, conical; seeds small, short, plump, acute.
