THE MONTHLY BULLETIN 



421 



DWARF PEARS. 



By Frank T. Swett, County Horticultural Commissioner, Martinez, Cal. 



Twelve years ago, at the Hillgirt orchards, we were faced with a definite problem. 

 We had planted standard pear trees alongside an old orchard, which, like most old 

 orchards in this part of the state, was infested with Erioaoma pyricola, a root louse 



smiliar, but not identical, with the woolly apple aphis. 

 This pest, about which very little is known, has 

 infested pear orchards in California for over thirty 

 years. 



A large |iroportion of the young trees were stunted 

 by the attacks of the aphis. Some trees died; others 

 just lingered along. A few trees grew nicely in spite 

 of the aphis. This may be accounted for by the fact 

 that I be roots of all seedling trees vary in their 

 characteristics. French pear seedlings come from 

 seeds taken from the pomace piles of pear cider and 

 pear vinegar factories in France. They are not the 

 seeds of Bartlett and our well-known Pyrus com- 

 munis species, but are the seeds of the wild pears of 

 France, I'ynis nivalis, according to Waugh. There 

 is a wide variation among them. Look down a 

 nursery row of French seedlings, and you will find 

 broad "leaves, narrow leaves, smooth leaves, rough 

 l eaves — a n SO rts of variations. The roots, of course, 

 also vary. 



So, despairing of obtaining a healthy uniform 

 orchard on French root, we planted dwarf pears. We are glad we did. 



The trees were obtained from a nursery in Alameda County which makes a 

 specialty of dwarf pears. Angers quince roots, grown from cuttings, are planted, 

 and these, of course, are uniform. As the Bartlett does not make a good union 

 with quince, the Beurre Hardy is budded on the quince root. The next season the 

 Bartlett is budded on the Beurre Hardy, so we have a three-story pear tree, root, 

 quince: stem to a height of 12 inches, Beurre Hardy, top, Bartlett. They are 

 called "double worked" pears. 



Instead of waiting ten years for a crop, we had a commercial crop of a box to the 

 tree, or 170 boxes to the acre at the sixth year. Since then, we have had five good 

 crops of pears. Standard trees alongside are only just beginning to bear commercial 

 crops. We have, therefore, had an income for five years which would not have come 

 to us on this land with standard trees. 



This season we picked 1,200 boxes of fine, clean, shapely pears from three acres of 

 dwarfs. They have netted us a little over two dollars a box, f. o. b. cars at shipping 

 point here. 



Our trees are planted 10 feet apart. I think 14 feet apart would be a little better. 

 uivins i"Jl trees to the acre instead of 170. 



The trees are stocky and strong. They are from 6 to S inches in diameter a foot 

 above the ground. They are about 10 to 12 feet high, and are broad and spreading. 

 There are some cultural advantages of the dwarf trees. Our men prune about 00 

 of these trees a day as against 10 to 20 standard trees. Spraying can be more 

 thoroughly done, as the trees are close to the ground. No tower is required on the 

 spray rig. It is easier to reach every part of the tree, and the result is almost 

 absolutely dean fruit. It. is not easy to spray large trees 16 to 20 feet high and 

 shool tie' spray into every bud cluster so as to effectively control pear thrips. 



When it comes lo picking, there is material economy. Most of the pears are 

 picked without the use of a ladder, and only a short ladder is required to gather the 

 pears higher up. I have seen a good picker picking at the rate of 60 boxes a day 

 on these dwarfs, where the average rate on standard trees was 20 boxes a day. 

 owing to the time expended in climbing up and down ladders and moving the ladders. 

 There arc pros and cons in all enterprises. As against a perfectly healthy standard 

 orchard 20 years old and a similar dwarf orchard of the same age, the standard 

 orchard should give more fruit. But comparing an irregular standard orchard 

 affected with root aphis, and a dwarf orchard, the dwarfs might be preferable. 



The quince root is not as resistant to oak fungus as the French root, and where 

 this fungus is a menace, dwarfs should not be planted. Dwarf trees suffer just as 

 severely from blight as standard trees. 



