PROPAGATING PEARS 263 



Alhambra Valley near Martinez in Contra Costa County. The 

 reasons for resort to the quince root and the results are thus given 

 by Mr. Frank T. Swett : 



The Bartlett does not make good union with the quince root, but by 

 working Beurre Hardy on the quince root, and Bartlett on the Hardy, per- 

 fect unions are obtained. We have a three-story pear tree: root, quince; 

 stem to a height of 12 inches, Beurre Hardy; top, Bartlett. 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. In 1907 we picked 1200 boxes of fine, 

 clean, shapely pears from three acres of dwarfs. Our trees are planted 16 

 feet apart. I think 14 feet apart would be a little better, giving 221 trees 

 to the acre instead of 170. The trees are stocky and strong. They are 

 from 6 to 8 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 60 of these trees a day as against 16 to 20 standard trees. Spraying 

 can be more thoroughly done, as the trees are close to the ground. 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 clay. We resorted to the 

 quince root to escape the root aphis, but 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. 



The following varieties are commended for cultivation on quince 

 stock as dwarfs, experience proving them vigorous growers and 

 abundant bearers in suitable localities : Bartlett (by double work- 

 ing), Beurre Hardy, Doyenne du Cornice, Duchess d'Angouleme, 

 Glout Morceau, Pound, Beurre Diel, White Doyenne, Easter Beurre, 

 Winter Nelis, P. Barry, Winter Bartlett. 



Blight-Proof Roots. But the pear is usually grown in California 

 by budding or grafting on its own roots ; that is upon pear seed- 

 lings. Formerly these were almost exclusively imported from 

 France, but in 1918 more than three-fourths of the nursery trees 

 were grown on Japanese stock, and in 1921 seedlings of European 

 species are almost wholly abandoned. The seedlings of the Sand 

 pear, of Asia (Pyrus serotina), are being demonstrated to be in- 

 ferior to other Asiatic species which are being introduced and bid 

 fair to become a main reliance. Very interesting pamphlets describ- 

 ing these new species were published in 1918 and in 1920 by Mr. 

 A. L. Wisker of Grass Valley, California, who is commending the 

 growing of ussuriensis seedlings to be top-grafted in the orchard 

 after attaining some size. 



It is, however, not demonstrated that these Asiatic species will be 

 our only reliance in the future, for even if some of them do furnish 

 a resistant root they may not make a good stem and, therefore, it is 

 proposed to bud or graft some other resistant wood to make a trunk 

 and top work the Bartlett upon such a trunk so that only the 

 branches shall be susceptible to blight. Such a trunk is commended 



