296 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



return of $500 per acre; and 95 tons in 1906 at $36 per ton or $427 

 per acre. There are higher returns than this, and, unfortunately, 

 many that are much lower. 



The most obvious marks of the California pear are size and 

 beauty. The most conspicuous example is the Bartlett, which is 

 the pear of California, judged by its popularity, fresh, canned and 

 dried. When well grown, its size is grand, and its delicate color, 

 aroma, and richness unsurpassed. What extreme in point of size 

 has been reached is not known to the writer, but he saw at the 

 San Jose Horticultural Fair, of 1886, thirteen Bartlett pears grown 

 by A. Block, of Santa Clara, which weighed fourteen pounds, the 

 heaviest of the group weighing twenty-two and one-half ounces. 

 Other pears have made standard sizes in California far in advance 

 of their records elsewhere. There was in 1870 a Pound pear sent 

 from Sacramento to the late Marshall P. Wilder, president of the 

 American Pomological Society, which weighed four, pounds nine 



.ounces, and was reported by Colonel Wilder to be larger than any- 

 thing previously reported in pear annals.* But California has 

 recently done even better for a pear from near Marysville in 1904 

 is reported as nine inches high, sixteen inches around the base and 

 five pounds in \veight. Notes kept by the writer include five Vicar 



~ol Winkfields weighing four pounds eight ounces ; nine Easter 

 Beurre weighing twenty-four and one-half pounds, the heaviest 

 single specimen weighing two and three-fourths pounds ; thirty- 

 five Beurre Clairgeau "weighing thirty-seven pounds, the heaviest 

 one, nineteen ounces ; Seckel pears, nine and three-fourths inches 

 in circumference Downing's figures make the Seckel five and 

 seven-eighths inches around. 



LOCALITIES FOR THE PEAR 



The pear has a wider range than the apple in local adaptations. 

 It does as well as the apple in the coast regions, if suitable vari- 

 eties are grown; it thrives far better than the apple in the interior 

 valleys : it rivals the apple in the ascent of the slope of the Sierra 

 Nevada, and gains from the altitude, color and late keeping, as 

 does the apple. By rejecting a few naturally tender varieties, or 

 by proper protection against the scab fungus (fusicladiuni dcndriti- 

 cnm), in regions where its attacks are severe, one can grow pears 

 almost everywhere in California providing pear blight can be held 

 in check, as will be discussed later. 



The choice of location is governed more by commercial consid- 

 erations than by natural phenomena. The same facts which make 

 the Bartlett the favorite variety with planters, also should regulate 



* "Tilton's Journal of Horticulture, March, 1871, p. 87. An engraving of this 

 fruit, natural size, was given in Pacific Rural Press, November 8, 1873." 



