PEAR BREEDING 
Valuable Group of Fruit Trees Lends Itself Readily to Cross-Pollination, and 
Valuable Results Are Possible—Considerable Time 
NWeeded—Methods of Operation 
YBRIDS are easily made in the 
H pear genus (in which many 
botanists now include the apple, 
quince, medlar, etc.), and many 
of these hybrids offer valuable com- 
mercial possibilities. As trees of this 
kind are accessible to nearly every one 
in the temperate regions of the world, it 
is a particularly good group for amateur 
plant-breeders to work with, provided 
they are not in a hurry. : 
The European pear (Pyrus communis) 
is found throughout southern Europe 
and Asia, being indigenous as far east 
as Kashmir. It has been cultivated 
since the dawn of history, and selec- 
tion of the best, with such cross- 
pollination as has been done by nature, 
seems to be responsible for the produc- 
tion of such superb pears as those which 
are known in Europe as the beurre 
type, and which are represented in the 
United States by the Bartlett. 
Pears of this kind were among the 
first fruit trees imported by the early 
settlers in North America. Some time 
before the middle of the nineteenth 
century a very distinct species, the 
Chinese Sand Pear (P. sinensis) was 
introduced. The fruit of this species 
is considered good by the Chinese and 
Japanese, but it is hard and lacking in 
flavor, and full of stone-cells. When 
one’s teeth crunch into these, it is not 
difficult to understand why this variety 
got the name Sand Pear. 
Peter Kieffer, of Roxborough, Phila- 
delphia, an Alsatian gardener, who died 
in 1890, grew some of these Sand Pears, 
according to L. H. Bailey, ‘“‘and sold 
the seedlings as ornamental trees, for 
this species is of very distinct and hand-.- 
some growth and the fruit is ornamental 
and fragrant. Alongside the Sand Pears 
were Bartletts. Among one of the 
batches of seedlings from the Sand Pear 
he noticed a plant with different foliage, 
and this he saved. Its fruit was found 
to be superior to the Sand Pear, and it 
was. introduced as the Kieffer. The 
Kieffer pear is now very popular in 
many parts of the country because 
of its great vigor, healthfulness, pro- 
ductiveness and the keeping quality of 
its fruit. In point of quality the fruit 
is distinctly inferior, but it meets the 
demands of the market and is an excel- 
lent fruit for canning.”’ 
There is no doubt that the Kieffer, 
which is second only to the Bartlett in 
popularity in the United States, is 
a hybrid of the Bartlett and the Sand 
Pear. While the circumstances of its 
origin, as told by Bailey, would not 
be conclusive on that point, there are 
plenty of other crosses of a similar 
nature, many of which are in the trade. 
The Le Conte is perhaps the best known 
of these hybrids, after the Kieffer. 
ROOM FOR NEW VARIETIES 
One who undertakes pear-breeding 
need not expect to produce, at the first 
attempt, a hybrid that will supplant 
the Kieffer, although many connoisseurs 
have declared that it would not be hard 
to surpass the quality of that popular 
variety. There is need of varities that 
will be hardy and _ disease-resistant, 
and that will extend the fruiting season, 
and any one who undertakes the task 
of pear-breeding intelligently and per- 
sistently has a chance to succeed.! 
1 A cross between the pear and quince was described by Dr. L. Trabut in the last issue of this 
Journal. 
The Office of Seed and Plant Introduction, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washing- 
ton, D. C., has brought in many wild species of Pyrus for breeders, and any experimenter could 
probably secure specimens from it; but as is pointed out in the present article, more is to be 
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