An American hybrid of the Chinese Sand Pear.
Snow. 1. Ia. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 149. 1873.
Originated with Suel Foster, Muscatine, Ia. Reported in 1873 as “better than Vicar except for size and keeping. Its flesh is very white; valuable for cooking.”
Sœur Grégoire. 1. Leroy Dict. Pom. 2:667, fig. 1869.
Xavier Grégoire, the well-known Belgian seedsman, Jodoigne, Brabant, obtained this variety. It bore its first fruit in 1858. Fruit large, in form variable from irregular long gourd-shaped to long-cylindrical, usually rather bossed; skin thick and rough, yellow-ochre, dotted and stained with gray-russet and shaded with dark red on the cheek next the sun; flesh yellowish, semi-fine, melting, granular at the core; juice rarely abundant but very aromatic, saccharine and with a delicate flavor; first when sufficiently juicy, otherwise second; Nov. and Dec.
Soldat Bouvier. 1. Mas Pom. Gen. 4:37, fig. 211. 1879.
Raised by Xavier Grégoire, Jodoigne, Bel. Fruit nearly medium, globular-conic, regular in outline; skin rather firm, at first a dark green, sprinkled with dots of a darker shade, brightening to yellowish at maturity and extensively colored with blood-red on the cheek next the sun; flesh whitish, rather fine, buttery, melting; juice sufficient, saccharine and delicately perfumed; good to first; Sept.
Soldat Laboureur. 1. Ann. Pom. Belge 3:31, fig. 1855. 2. Bunyard Handb. Hardy Fr. 198. 1920.
Soldat Laboureur was obtained from a seed bed made about 1820 by Major Espéren, Mechlin, Bel. Fruit medium to large, ovate-pyriform or turbinate, bossed; skin smooth, rather thick, bright green passing to golden-yellow when perfectly ripe, dotted and shaded with fawn; flesh yellowish-white, semi-fine, melting; juice abundant, saccharine, perfumed, and, on land suiting it, very vinous; very good, highest quality; Oct. and Nov.
Sommer-Russelet. 1. Dochnahl Führ. Obstkunde 2:46. 1856.