RUTTER
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 151. 1867. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 24. 1869. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 848, fig. 1869.
Rutter does not seem to have made a very high place for itself in the country at large, but about Geneva, New York, it is a most excellent late autumn variety. The pears are good or very good in quality, rather attractive, keep well, ship well, and sell well to those who know the variety. The trees have a combination of good characters that commend them most highly. Thus, they are comparatively immune to blight, enormously productive, bear early, grow rapidly, live long, and are hardy. The fruits hang exceptionally well to the trees, so that the variety is a valuable one for exposed situations. Rutter can be recommended for both home and market plantations.
This variety was raised by John Rutter, West Chester, Pennsylvania, from seed of Léon Leclerc (Van Mons) about sixty years ago. It was approved by the Committee on New Native Fruits of the American Pomological Society in 1867. This Society placed the variety on its list of recommended fruits in 1869.
Tree large, vigorous, upright, dense-topped, rapid-growing, productive; trunk stocky; branches thick, reddish-brown, covered with gray scarf-skin, sprinkled with very conspicuous lenticels; branchlets long, light brown mingled with green and streaked with ash-gray scarf-skin, smooth, glabrous, with small, conspicuous, raised lenticels.
Leaf-buds long, conical, pointed, plump, free. Leaves 3⅜ in. long, 1⅝ in. wide, thick, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin nearly glandless, almost entire; petiole 2 in. long, glabrous, reddish-green. Flower-buds medium in size and length, conical, plump, free, singly on short spurs; flowers very showy, 1⅜ in. across, almost in racemes, 6 or 8 buds in a cluster; pedicels 1¼ in. long, pubescent.
Fruit matures in late October and early November; large, 3⅛ in. long, 3 in. wide, roundish-obtuse-pyriform, with a very thick, blunt neck, with unequal sides; stem ¾ in. long, thick, woody; cavity acuminate, unusually large, deep, russeted, occasionally furrowed and wrinkled, slightly lipped; calyx small, open; lobes separated at the base, short, narrow, acute; basin deep, obtuse, smooth, symmetrical; skin thick, gritty, roughish, dull; color yellow, overspread with light russet, mottled and flecked with russet; dots numerous, small, russet, conspicuous; flesh whitish, granular at the center, tender and melting, juicy, aromatic, sweet but refreshing; quality good to very good. Core small, closed, abaxile, with meeting core-lines; calyx-tube long, conical; seeds small, roundish, plump, obtuse.
