166 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



under such a system consists in apprising the inspector of the point 

 from which the material wa.s shipped. Experience has tanght ns never 

 to accept them as passports. The blame in such instances as the present 

 one should not lay upon the official who signed and issued the certifi- 

 cate, but upon the system which obliged him to so do. The certificate 

 in question is beyond doubt but one of hundreds similar in nature 

 placed in the possession of the nurseryman by the operation of the 

 system, and which permits the unscrupulous dealer to attach the same 

 to plants the inspector never even saw. 



Exception may be taken to the foregoing that under the regulations 

 in force at point of origin the infested plant in question did not come 

 under the classification of nursery stock, but such a distinction is not 

 a general safeguard, and just so long as such a system is in vogue and 

 permits the attachment of certificates of inspection to infested plants, 

 Californians should adhere more firmly than ever to the principle 

 established in this State of inspecting all imported plants and plant 

 products at point of delivery. 



A PROMISING NEW PEAR STOCK. 



By F. C. Reimer, Superintendent, Southern Oregon Experiment Station, 



Talent, Oregon. 



In the Monthly Bulletin of the California State Commission of 

 Horticulture for July, 1915, appeared an article on "Blight-Resistant 

 Pear Stocks," written by Mr. George Compere. This article was 

 prompted by an article written by myself and published in the Monthly 

 Bulletin for March, 1915. In my article I recorded the fact that the 

 Southern Oregon Experiment Station was doing extensive work on the 

 problem of blight resistance, and that the Chinese sand pear, Pyriis 

 sinensis, had shown far greater resistance to blight than the French 

 pear, Pyrus communis. In his article Mr. Compere records the fact 

 that while he was collecting useful insects in China in 1908, he was 

 impressed with the healthy appearance and vigor of the wild pear 

 trees even under very trying conditions. He collected seeds of this 

 wild pear which were sent to California, and some of these were planted 

 by Mr. B. B. Whitney at Oroville, California, and the trees which 

 resulted from this planting have shown no signs of pear blight and have 

 been remarkably free from the woolly aphis. 



I wish to record the fact that when Mr. Compere sent these seeds 

 he performed a far greater service to Pacific coast horticulture than 

 his article indicates, or than he has probably realized heretofore. The 

 Chinese sand pear, commonly known as Pyrus sinotsis, was introduced 

 into the United States many years ago, and has been known to horticul- 

 turists in this country for at least seventy years. Hence, if Mr. Com- 

 pere had sent seeds of the Chinese sand pear to this country on that 

 occasion, it would be a matter of strictly secondary importance. This, 

 howev( r, is not the case. 



Mr. Compere's article, fortunately, was illustrated. One of these 

 illustrations convinced me that this pear was not the Chinese sand 

 pear. For this reason I had leaves find iiniiinture fruit from these 



