SHELDON
1. Mag. Hort. 17:252, fig. 25. 1851. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 151. 1854. 3. Ibid. 210. 1856. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 444, fig. 1857. 5. Elliott Fr. Book 347. 1859. 6. Hoffy N. Am. Pom. 1: Pl. 1860. 7. Mas Le Verger 3: Pt. 2, 119, fig. 156. 1866-73. 8. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 855, fig. 1869. 9. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:662, fig. 1869.
Were the fruits alone to be considered, Sheldon would take rank as one of the best of all pears. The fruits please both the eye and the palate. Those of no rival in season surpass them either in appearance or in characters that satisfy taste. While not large, the fruits are of sufficient size to meet the demands of a good dessert pear. The shape is a perfect turbinate, truncated at the base of the fruit, usually very symmetrical, and the fruits run uniform in shape. In color, the pears are distinctive in their russeted skin, with a handsome ruddy cheek. The accompanying color-plate does not do justice to the fruit in illustrating size, shape, or color. The flesh is melting and juicy, and deserves, more than that of almost any other pear, the adjective luscious. The flavor is sweet, vinous, and highly perfumed. The fruits keep well, ship well, and sell well during their season, and are esteemed both for dessert and for culinary purposes. The list of faults in the trees is as long as the list of virtues in the fruits. The trees, while large, vigorous, and hardy, blight as badly as any pear-tree in the orchard, are reluctant in coming in bearing, niggardly in production, and seldom hold their crop well. With these faults of the tree, Sheldon is not a commercial variety of high rank, but the splendid fruits make it worth growing by the pear-fancier, in the home orchard, or for the markets where the faults of the trees are not too marked. The variety grows better in New York, possibly, than in any other part of the United States.
This pear is a native of the town of Huron, New York. The original tree stood on the premises of Major Sheldon, having sprung from seed brought by his father from Washington, New York, about 1815. The fruit was first exhibited at the Pomological Convention in Syracuse in the autumn of 1849. In 1854, Sheldon was mentioned by the American Pomological Society as promising well, and in 1856 it was given a place in the Society’s fruit-catalog.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, rapid-growing, hardy, moderately productive; trunk stocky; branches thick, reddish-brown, overlaid with dull gray scarf-skin, marked with large lenticels; branches thick, dull brown, glabrous, with numerous slightly raised, conspicuous lenticels.
Leaf-buds large, above medium in length, obtuse or somewhat pointed, appressed. Leaves 2½ in. long, 1¼ in. wide, oval, leathery; apex taper-pointed; margin finely serrate; petiole 1½ in. long. Flower-buds conical or pointed, free; flowers 1⅛ in. across, in dense clusters, 13 or 14 buds in a cluster; pedicels ½ in. long, thick, pubescent, greenish.
Fruit matures in October; large, 2¾ in. long, 2½ in. wide, uniform in size and shape, turbinate, often with a tendency to oblateness, symmetrical; stem ¾ in. long, thick, nearly straight; cavity obtuse, deep, slightly furrowed, occasionally lipped; calyx large, open; lobes very broad, obtuse; basin wide, obtuse, symmetrical; skin thick, granular, tender, roughish; color dull greenish-yellow, with a brownish-red blush, overspread with russet nettings and streaks; dots numerous, small, russet; flesh whitish, somewhat granular, tender and melting, very juicy, sweet, and vinous, with a rich and pleasantly aromatic flavor; quality very good to best. Core large, closed, with clasping core-lines; calyx-tube short, wide, conical; seeds acute.
