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CHAPTER 1 
THE PEAR. 
The oldest deciduous fruit trees in California are pear trees, 
as has already been stated in the account of fruits at the old 
missions, and some of the trees are still bearing, though it is a 
century and a quarter since their planting. The pear withstands 
neglect and thrives in soils and situations which other fruit trees 
would rebel against. It defies drouth and excessive moistiire, 
and patiently proceeds with its fruitage, even when the soil is 
trampled almost to rocky hardness by cattle, carrying its fruit 
and foliage aloft above their reach. And yet the pear repays 
care and good treatment, and receives them from California 
growers, for the pear is one of our most profitable fruits. It is 
in demand for canning, for drying, and for distant shipment, 
and its long season and the slow ripening after picking allow 
deliberation in marketing, and admit of enjoying low rates for 
shipment by slow trains. The pear has not the beauty of the 
peach, nor is its handling characterized by so much dash and 
spirit, but the production of favorite market varieties at a time 
when the market welcomes them, is about as well repaid as any 
effort of the California fruit grower. 
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 four- 
teen 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 
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