Localities for the Pear. 249 
Colonel Wilder to be larger than anything previously recorded 
in pear annals.* Notes kept by the writer include five Vicar of 
Winkfields weighing four pounds eight ounces; nine Easter 
Beurre weighing twenty-iour 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 adapta- 
tions. It does as well as the apple in the coast regions, if suita- 
ble varieties 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 tew naturally tender 
varieties, or by proper protection against the scab fungus (fusi- 
cladium dendriticum), in regions where its attacks are severe, one 
can grow pears almost everywhere in California. 
The choice of location is governed more by commercial 
considerations than by natural phenomena. The same facts 
which make the Bartlett the favorite variety with planters, also 
should regulate the choice of locality for growing it. These 
facts were expressed by the late C. W. Reed, of Sacramento, one 
of the leading pear growers and shippers of the State, as fol- 
lows :— 
In the Sacramento Valley proper there is but one variety of pear that 
will justify extensive cultivation, viz., the Bartlett. While nearly all varie- 
ties may be grown successfully, and many varieties may be desirable for 
home purposes, yet for profitable orchards we have to confine ourselves to 
this one variety, except in high altitudes, or localities where the fruit only 
matures very late. The reason for this will be better understood by the 
inexperienced if exp'ained. The Bartlett pear having qualities that make 
it a universal favorite for shipping, canning, and for domestic market, no 
other variety is wanted while it is obtainable. With the difference in the 
time of its ripening in different localities that are adjacent, our markets are 
supplied with this variety about four months each season, viz., July, August, 
September, and October. While this pear is in the markets, any other 
variety to compete with it must sell at very low prices. It is not only the 
great demand the Bartlett pear has over the other varieties in the markets, 
but as a healthy grower and regular bearer it has no equal. In the higher 
altitudes, where pears will keep till the Bartlett has disappeared, other 
varieties may be quite profitable, although they can never be grown to any 
similar extent. 
Of course experienced pear growers, whose taste would 
secon cloy with a continuous diet of Bartletts, and who know 
fully the superior quality of other varieties which ripen soon 
* Tillon’s Journal of Horticulture, March, 1871, p. 87. An engraving of this fruit, natural 
size, was given in Pacific Rural Press, Nov. 8, 1873. 
17 
