CHAPTER XXII 

 THE PEAR 



The oldest deciduous fruit trees in California are pear trees, as has 

 already been stated in the account of fruits at the old missions, and 

 some of the trees are istill bearing, though it is a century and a third 

 since their planting. Trees planted by pioneers in the old mining dis- 

 tricts have actually assumed semblance to adjacent oaks. Notable 

 instances are found in the Stillwater district of Shasta County and 

 elsewhere. Near San Jose there is a tree over half a century old, with 

 a trunk seven and a half feet around and yielding annually about 

 fifteen hundred pounds of fruit, some of which was exhibited at the 

 Columbian Exposition. .; 



The pear withstands neglect and thrives in soils and situations 

 which other fruit trees would rebel against. It defies drouth and exces- 

 sive moisture, and patiently proceeds with its fruitage even when the 

 soil is trampled almost to rocky hardness by cattle, carrying its fruit 

 and foliage aloft above their reach. And yet the pear repays care and 

 good treatment, and receives them from California growers, for the 

 pear has been one of our most profitable fruits. It is in demand for 

 canning, for drying, and for distant shipment, and its long season and 

 the slow ripening after picking allow deliberation in marketing, and 

 admit of enjoying low rates for shipment by slow trains. One of the 

 most striking demonstrations of the commercial suitability of the Cali- 

 fornia pear is found in successful marketing in London. Solomons, 

 who is called "London's greatest fruiter," said in 1903 that California 

 Bartletts from Block of Santa Clara are the "best in the world." Even 

 after crossing the continent they seemed to endure shipment across the 

 Atlantic better than eastern pears. 



The most obvious marks of the California pear are size and beauty. 

 The most conspicuous example is the Bartlett, which is the pear of 

 California, judged by its popularity, fresh, canned and dried. When 

 well grown, its size is grand, and its delicate color, aroma and richness 

 unsurpassed. What extreme in point of size has been reached is not 

 known to the writer, but he saw at the San Jose Horticultural Fair, of 

 1886, thirteen Bartlett pears grown by A. Block, of Santa Clara, which 

 weighed fourteen pounds, the heaviest of the group weighing twenty- 

 two and one-half ounces. Other pears have made standard sizes in 

 California far in advance of their records elsewhere. There was in 

 1870 a Pound pear sent from Sacramento to the late Marshall P. 

 Wilder, president of the American Pomological Society, which weighed 

 four pounds and nine ounces, and was reported by Colonel Wilder to be 

 larger than anything previously reported in pear annals.* But Cali- 

 fornia has recently done even better, for a pear from near Marysville in 

 1904 was reported as nine inches high, sixteen inches around the base 



*"Tilton's Journal of Horticulture, March, 1871, p. 87. An engraving of this fruit, 

 natural size, was given in Pacific Rural Press, November 8, 1873." 



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