Page 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



June 



will find among these desirable com- 

 mercial varieties which will not be 

 seriously alTected by blight. 



The production of blight-resistant 

 varieties of pears offers a splendid 

 field for horticultural work, which up 

 to the present time has received too 

 little attention. The writer is very 

 thoroughly convinced that desirable 

 blight-resistant varieties can be pro- 

 duced by breeding. For example, by 

 crossing such high-quality varieties as 

 Bosc or Anjou with such blight-resist- 

 ant varieties as Surprise or Burkett, 

 and then growing thousands of seed- 

 lings from these crosses it will be pos- 

 sible to originate a variety which will 

 possess high quality as well as blight 

 resistance. That this is possible has 

 been repeatedly demonstrated with 

 other fruits and plants. In this con- 

 nection it should be emphasized that 

 high quality and susceptibility to blight 

 are not necessarily correlated. For 

 example, the Seckel, a pear of very 

 high quality, shows much greater re- 

 sistance to blight than most of the low- 

 quality pears. 



One of the most promising lines of 

 work and one which offers perhaps the 

 most immediate results is that of grow- 

 ing our commercial varieties on root 

 systems and trunks which are resistant 

 to blight. It is well known that the 

 greatest injury of blight, at least on 

 the Pacific Coast, is inflicted on the 

 root system, trunk and body branches. 

 Here the disease performs its most 

 fatal work; and here it is by all odds 

 the most difTicult to combat. The 

 French seedling, on which most of our 

 older pear orchards were budded or 

 grafted, is very susceptible to blight. 

 It is often more susceptible to the dis- 

 ease than many of our cultivated vari- 

 eties; and this is responsible for the 

 large amount of pear blight in the roots 

 in our older orchards. We now have 

 available an abundance of the Japan 

 pear stock (Pyrus sinensis), which is 

 far more resistant to blight than the 

 French pear stock (Pyrus communis). 

 A\Tiere root blight is as severe as it is 

 here on the Pacific Coast the French 

 pear stock should not be used. Local 

 nurserymen are giving this matter 

 serious consideration and are now 

 propagating most of their trees on the 

 Japan stock. It must be stated that the 

 Japan pear stock has not been so ex- 

 tensively tested in this country as the 

 French stock. Hence we do not know 

 its shortcomings so well. It is possible 

 that for some varieties and on some 

 soils this stock may not prove all that 

 could be desired. But one thing is cer- 

 tain, we cannot afford to continue to 

 use the French stock. In this connec- 

 tion it must be said that we may find 

 other stocks for pears superior to 

 either the French or the Japan stock. 

 All of the French stocks belong to one 

 species, Pyrus communis; and the 

 Japan stock belongs to another species, 

 Pyrus sinensis. These two species 

 grow wild in their respective countries 

 and have come into extensive use be- 

 cause they are abundant and conven- 

 iently obtained. At least twenty other 



wild species of pears have been found 

 in Europe and Asia. In China one of 

 these (Pyrus betulaefolia) has been 

 successfully used as a stock for their 

 cultivated varieties for many years. 

 This grows readily from cuttings, is a 

 very vigorous grower, and in China is 

 giving excellent results as a stock. 

 Since pear blight has never become 

 prevalent in Europe or Asia we know 

 little regarding the susceptibility or 

 resistance of these species to blight. 

 The Southern Oregon Experiment Sta- 

 tion is growing these species to deter- 

 mine their behavior toward blight and 

 their value as stocks for our cultivated 

 varieties. It is possible that we may 

 find in this large collection stocks for 

 our pears which are superior to those 

 now used. 



I have already stated that we now 

 have varieties of pears which are 

 rarely, and some never, attacked by 

 blight. The fruit of most of these has 

 little commercial value, but the trees 

 are of the greatest value. We should 

 plant these blight-resistant varieties 

 (on Japan pear stock), grow them in 

 the orchard for two years and then top- 

 work them with our commercial varie- 

 ties. By doing this it will be possible 

 to keep blight out of the root system, 

 trunk and the main body branches, 

 and by this method we can avoid at 

 least fifty per cent of the injury now 

 inflicted. This will increase the cost of 

 the tree, but the increase will be slight 

 and is not worth considering when 

 compared with the present cost of 

 fighting blight in the trunk and root 

 system. During the past three or four 

 years the Kieffer has been quite ex- 

 tensively used in the West for this 

 purpose. Up to the present time our 

 commercial varieties have made a sat- 

 isfactory growth on the Kieffer. In the 

 Eastern States this variety has not 

 proved very satisfactory when top- 

 worked with our standard commercial 

 varieties. The scions would usually 

 grow fairly well for a few years, and 

 then most of them would either die or 

 break off at the union. Most of the 

 Kieffers top-worked in the Eastern 

 States were trees old enough to bear, 

 and consequently the grafts were in- 

 serted where large branches had been 

 cut off; and under such conditions the 

 union may be much weaker than 

 where the top-working is done by bud- 

 ding into small branches. The writer 

 has observed here in the West that 

 top-grafted Kieffers, even on small 

 branches, will often form a rough, 

 swollen union, while top-budded trees 

 usually have much smoother unions. It 

 is well known that the Kieffer is a 

 hybrid between two very distinct 

 species, and this variety is markedly 

 different from our cultivated European 

 varieties of pears. This is probably re- 

 sponsible for so many weak unions. 



We now have varieties which un- 

 doubtedly are far superior to the 

 Kieffer as stocks for top-working with 

 our commercial varieties. These vari- 

 eties are Surprise, Burkett, Krull, Fluke 

 and Orel No. 15. All of these belong to 

 the species Pyrus communis, to which 



all our connnercial varieties on the 

 Pacific Coast belong. For this reason 

 they will make a far better union with 

 these varieties when top-worked than 

 will the Kiefier. Unfortunately trees 

 of these varieties cannot be purchased 

 in large quantities at the present time. 

 We have these varieties growing at the 

 Southern Oregon Experiment Station, 

 and have already interested some of 

 our nurserymen in them. They should 

 have a supply of these for sale in two 

 or three years. In conclusion permit 

 me to say that the pear-blight problem 

 overshadows all other problems con- 

 nected with pear culture. That this 

 problem will ultimately be solved is 

 beyond the shadow of a doubt. 



Apple Exports Were 359 Cars 



Washington exported 359 carloads of 

 apples through the North Pacific Fruit 

 Distributors in 1914, according to fig- 

 ures being compiled by that organiza- 

 tion to be used in tables in the Wash- 

 ington building at the Panama-Pacific 

 Exposition. The organization's total 

 exports were approximately 600 cars. 



The figures call attention to the fact 

 that the export business of the Distrib- 

 utors is not all confined to the Hood 

 River district. The Washington figures 

 show a wide range of varieties ex- 

 ported, exclusive of Yellow Newtowns 

 and Spitzenbergs, which constitute the 

 bulk of the Hood River exports. The 

 Washington apples went to the follow- 

 ing foreign cities in the following num- 

 ber of carloads: 



Liverpool 55 



London ^ 53 



Hull ^.■^^^.\. [...... ..'.'.41 



Bristol ^Q 



Manchester '!.*!.'."' 6 



Glasgo\\' ... . OK 



CardilT '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.['.'.'.'." I 



Sw ansea 5 



Rotterdam ..ii 



Copenliagen .67 



Stockholm . ". '.'.'.'.'.'.'.' 2 



Honolulu !.!!!!!!!! 5 



Manila .22 



Buenos ■\ires 2 



The above figures do not include any 

 of the expoi-ts by the other agencies. 

 One of the heaviest shippers from 

 Wenatchee was E. Wagner. But using 

 the above figures as something of a 

 criterion, it is probable that the foreign 

 shipments during the past year from all 

 sources ran over 1,000 cars. 



A new market in South America is 

 open for potato growers of United 

 States. The Department of Agriculture 

 is making investigations with a view to 

 building up a good trade with South 

 America on our potatoes. Particular 

 care is called to the attention in pre- 

 paring potatoes for South America 

 shipments — First, all bruised or dam- 

 aged potatoes should be thrown out; 

 second, frosted potatoes should be ex- 

 cluded; third, no potatoes that show 

 any dry rot or late blight should be 

 shipped; fourth, the barrels should be 

 ventilated by cutting a liberal number 

 of holes in their sides; fifth, shippers 

 should insist that potatoes be stowed 

 in a cool, well ventilated part of the 

 vessel. 



