LUTHER BURBANK 



that keep quite as well as ordinary winter apples. 



These furnish the foundation for future hy- 

 bridizing and selecting experiments, through 

 which, without question, it will be possible to 

 produce races of pear having all the qualities of 

 flesh that have hitherto made the fruit popular, 

 and with the added property of keeping over 

 winter. 



Other possibilities of pear development lying 

 a little farther in the future and therefore some- 

 what more vaguely outlined, have to do with the 

 hybridization of the pear with the allied fruits of 

 related species. It is well-known that the pear 

 shows, in this regard, a strong disinclination for 

 entering into such an alliance. The pear may be 

 grafted on the quince but it is usually considered 

 impossible to graft it on the apple. 



I successfully carried out such a grafting ex- 

 periment, however, when I was a boy in Massa- 

 chusetts, the cion being a Seckel pear. But al- 

 though this grafted cion bore fruit for two sea- 

 sons, it then died, probably because of the uncon- 

 geniality of the alliance. 



This experiment shows that there is not com- 

 plete antagonism between the two species; and 

 the same thing is further demonstrated by the 

 well-known fact that the apple may be grafted on 

 the pear stock; although here also the alliance is 



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