THE PEAR 169 



orange. The varying qualities of the hybrids 

 are doubtless due to the releasing of latent char- 

 acters brought about by the commingling of the 

 two widely diverse strains. 



It was necessary thus to hybridize and select 

 through successive generations, because the 

 oriental pear brought to the combination very 

 undesirable qualities of fruit as to texture and 

 flavor. Only when these were eliminated from 

 later generations, and the qualities of the Bart- 

 lett and its allies substituted, did the hybrid pear 

 become a commercial possibility. 



But, along with its undesirable qualities of 

 fruit, the oriental pear brought other qualities 

 that were preeminently desirable. First and 

 foremost it had fundamental vigor of constitu- 

 tion that promised to supply precisely what the 

 European pear most lacked. This was mani- 

 fested not only in the vigor of its growth, but in 

 its almost entire immunity to the attacks of the 

 disease that has been the scourge of the pear 

 growers of America for more than a century, 

 and which made its appearance in California 

 about ten years ago, known as the pear blight. 



THE PEAR TREE SCOURGE 



To appreciate the importance of this element 

 of resistance to disease, as manifested by the 



