History

There are written records of pear cultivation in Britain at the time of the Roman occupation. The Domesday Book of 1086 mentions old pear trees several times as boundary markers. The court records of Henry 111 (1207-72) shows that pears were imported from France and that the French varieties dominated English orchards. The most famous pear in America history was Bartlett. It was actually developed in Britain in 1770 and taken to Massachusetts in 1797, where it was planted on an state. In 1817 Enoch Bartlett took over the state and sold the pears under his own name as Bartletts.

Pallaius, in the 4th century, wrote that the Romans preferred wine made from pears to that apples. The preferred method of growing pear trees is to graft them onto quince stock.