2516 



PEAR 



PEAR 



number. There is an instance on record of a gentle- 

 man having sold three hundred and odd dollars' worth 

 of pears from a small orchard, on which he had expended 

 $5 since the last harvest. Most of the pears were 

 shipped in barrels, though some were shipped in bulk. 

 The distribution is still poor, and for the past few years 



2820. Angouleme pear, the most popular variety for growing 

 on quince roots. 



the profits from the remaining trees have not been 

 sufficient to warrant further planting. 



At present, the South as a whole cannot be consid- 

 ered as a pear-producing section. There are still quite 

 a number of pear trees around the homes. These are 

 rapidly disappearing, due to the blight and the lack of 

 care. The old orchards along the Atlantic and the 

 Gulf are rapidly dying with blight. The hybrid pears, 

 LeConte, Kieffer, and Garber, do remarkably well in 

 this part of the country; but the pear industry will 

 never thrive as it did once until there is a systematic 

 fight made upon the blight. Besides this disease, the 

 pears are subject to bitter-rot, brown-rot and crown- 

 gall, as well as the codlin-moth and the San Jose' scale; 

 but of course these insects and diseases can be easily 

 controlled by spraying. 



In the catalogue of fruits appended to the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Thirty-Ninth Annual Session of the 

 Georgia State Horticultural Society is to be found this 

 remark concerning pears: "Owing to the prevalence of 

 the pear blight, the commercial production of pears is 

 an uncertain and hazardous industry. Until it is 

 demonstrated that pear-blight can be successfully 

 controlled, it is useless to recommend the planting of 

 pears in commercial quantities. So far as is known, 

 the Kieffer pear is the most resistant to the pear-blight 

 of the commercial varieties." This report of the Georgia 

 State Horticultural Society can be taken as a general 

 recommendation for practically all of the South, except 

 for particularly isolated and special places. 



T. H. McHATTON. 



The pear in California. 



Visitors at the old California missions during the 

 early part of the last century noted many thrifty seed- 

 ling pear trees in the mission gardens. Many of these 

 trees survived the neglect which came upon the mission 

 properties after their secularization, and were in thrifty 

 growth and bearing at the time of the American occu- 

 pation. The first pears sold in San Francisco and in 

 the mines in 1849-1850 were gathered from the old 

 mission trees, and some of these old trees grafted over 

 gave the first California product of the European and 

 American varieties of more than half a century ago. 

 From this beginning the growth of pears increased until 

 the commercial product of 1914 included the following: 

 2,725 carloads sent overland to eastern and foreign 

 markets (about the same as for the five years preced- 

 ing); 2,000,000 pounds dried pears shipped to the 

 same destination (a decreasing product because of the 

 increasing demand for shipping fresh and canning); 



805,740 cases of canned pears, mostly Bartletts a prod- 

 uct which is rapidly increasing. There are about 

 2,000,000 pear trees in California orchards. The decade 

 1905-1915 was a sensational period in California pear- 

 growing because of the appearance of the pear-blight 

 about 1902. It made such rapid progress that in 1904 

 practically all the pear trees in one district were 

 seriously attacked and largely destroyed. Control 

 measures were provided by state appropriation in 

 1905 and continued several years, and it was demon- 

 strated that the disease can be held in check and profita- 

 bility of trees continued by cutting out all blighted 

 parts from twig to root disinfecting between cuts all 

 tools used in the work. This demonstration, coupled 

 with an apparent lessening of the virulence of the 

 disease, restored confidence among growers and resulted 

 in largely increased new planting in 1914-1915. 



It is a most interesting fact that a single variety 

 furnishes a very great part, perhaps even as much as 

 four-fifths, of the pear products of the state, and that is 

 the Bartlett. Whatever it may lack in high quality is 

 more than compensated for by its commercial ser- 

 viceability. It is handsome and of good size, endures 

 long carriage, cans well and dries well, and is of suffici- 

 ently good quality to please consumers: in fact the 

 California-grown Bartlett is said to be better than the 

 same variety grown in the Atlantic states and in the 

 west of Europe. This is not, however, the chief reason 

 why the Bartlett so largely preponderates in Cali- 

 fornia. The ruling condition is found in the fact that 

 owing to the marked differences in localities not widely 

 distant and yet differing in elevation, in exposure to 

 coast influences and away from them, and other local 

 causes, the Bartlett has a very long ripening season, 

 and valley, coast, and mountain Bartletts follow each 

 other through nearly three months and thus make suc- 

 cession of different varieties during this period unneces- 

 sary. There is, however, at present a greater disposition 

 than heretofore to extend the season by growing other 

 varieties, but they are selected for resemblance to the 

 Bartlett type. Clapp Favorite is sold as an "Early 

 Bartlett," and a Winter Bartlett, an Oregon seedling, 

 has been planted to carry the same style of pear as late 

 as possible. Still some progress is being made in extend- 

 ing the California list of popular pears and some of 

 local and of distant origin will probably achieve 

 prominence, especially in the shipments to distant 

 markets. 



California pears are grown on pear-seedling roots 

 (especially of the Japanese pear because of less liability 

 to blight in the root), very little recourse being had to 

 rooted cuttings or to dwarfing stocks. A dwarf pear 

 tree is almost a curiosity. The heavier loams and even 

 clays are sometimes planted with pear trees, not because 

 they are best for pears but because other fruits do 



2821. Dwarf pear trees forty-five years old, in a New York orchard. 



