PEAR GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



227 



The effect of blight in limiting planting in other states has also had a 

 similar effect, but in a lesser degree, in California. Thus, while our 

 acreage has greatly increased since the year 1910, many have not 

 planted because of the fear of blight and the possibility of losing an 

 orchard from this disease after the expense of planting and caring for 

 it during a few years of its life. 



Another significant fact regarding the pear industry, especially of 

 the south and middle west, is that it has been a failure despite the fact 

 that the Kieffer variety, which is much more resistant to blight than the 

 Bartlett, has been grown. Such failure can only be attributed to the 

 fact that the growers have not made the effort characteristic of the 

 California pear growers in the fight against this disease. While we 

 should not glory in others' misfortune there is little doubt that the 

 failures of the pear growers in other states have had a beneficial effect 

 upon the industry in this state, and a better market and better prices 

 have come about because of scarcity of a cosmopolitan fruit, the produc- 

 tion of which has been limited by the attack of a fatal disease. 



TABLE SHOWING THE ACREAGE OF PEARS IN CALIFORNIA BY 

 COUNTIES IN 1917. 



*1916 figures. 



COST OF BRINGING AN ORCHARD INTO BEARING. 



The prospective pear grower frequently wishes to secure accurate 

 information as to what it will cost to plant an orchard and bring it into 

 bearing. Figures of this kind must necessarily vary with locality and it 

 is exceedingly hard to secure information along this line. The follow- 

 ing estimate of the cost of developing a 20-acre orchard of pears in the 

 foothill region of Butte County was written for a recent number of 

 the Monthly Bulletin by Mr. E. Meriam, of Paradise, California: 



