PEARS. 



101 



questionable if the others are in general cultiva- I 

 tion now. Increasing attention is, however, I 

 being paid to this work, and the chief difficulty 

 that has to be overcome is the maintenance of 

 a good constitution in the product of the cross, 

 while the quality of the fruit is improved, or 

 the season varied. Many Pears of the highest 

 'quality are defective in habit, hardiness, or 

 fertility, and in seeking to correct or reduce 

 these defects there is a danger of inducing the j 

 other extreme, i.e. excessive vigour. There is 

 ample room for improvement amongst Pears, 

 although they are so numerous. With early 

 Pears alone many good results might be ob- 

 tained, while in the production of hardy fertile 

 varieties of general commercial value there is 

 a wide scope for experiments. 



As an indication of what can be effected 

 by new work in the 

 direction of intercross- 

 ing, the results ob- 

 tained in the United 

 States within the past 

 few years are espe- 

 cially inter- 

 esting. The 

 official Year- 

 book of 

 Department of 



Fig. 



•Kieffer Pear (after Bailey) 



Agriculture for 1899 contains a report upon 

 "Progress in Plant -breeding", in which the 

 following passage occurs : — 



" The Pear owes but little of its development 

 to artificially produced hybrids, and yet in no 

 other fruit have -hybrids played such an impor- 

 tant role. The Kieffer, Le Conte, and Garber, 

 all widely -grown commercial Pears, through 

 which this industry has been greatly extended, 

 are naturally produced hybrids of the European 

 Pear and the Chinese Sand Pear. The European 

 Pear, noted for its excellent quality, succeeds 

 admirably on the Pacific coast, but has never 

 proved wholly satisfactory in the Eastern States, 

 and cannot be successfully grown on a commercial 

 scale south of Virginia. The Chinese Sand Pear 



comes from a region having climatic conditions 

 very similar to those of the Eastern and Southern 

 States, and thus finds here a congenial home. 

 The fruit is of poor quality, however, and the 

 variety is grown only as an ornamental tree and 

 for stocks on which to bud other sorts. The 

 Kieffer and Le Conte are both seedlings of the 

 Chinese Sand Pear, and from their characters 

 show that the seeds from which they grew must 

 have been accidentally crossed with the pollen 

 of some good variety of the European Pear. It 

 is probably to the father parent, the European 

 Pear, that the improved quality of the fruit 

 is due, while the vigour and adaptability to 

 growth in warm climates evidently come from 

 the mother parent, the Sand Pear. These 

 hybrid sorts practically revolutionized Pear 

 culture in the eastern United States, extend- 

 ing the limit of profitable commercial Pear- 

 growing several hundred miles southward. 

 From Virginia to Florida the varieties grow- 

 luxuriantly, and have practically driven out 

 all other sorts. Even as far north as Phila- 

 delphia the Kieffer is by far the most import- 

 ant commercial variety." 



The Chinese Sand Pear there mentioned is 

 the Pyrus sinensis we have already refered to, 

 and though not in itself very promising as an 

 improver of the many fine Pears now grown in 

 Europe, it is evident from the results referred 

 to that the commercial value of a new race 

 if Pears adapted to hot dry positions and 

 sandy soils would be very great. The variety 

 Le Conte has, for instance, been 

 extensively planted in the neigh- 

 bourhood of New Orleans, and a 

 consular report states that large 

 shipments of this variety were 

 commenced in 1894. Reports from 

 California state that in quality the 

 fruit there is not equal to the European Pears. 

 At the Hybrid Conference of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society at Chiswick, in 1899, Professor 

 L. H. Bailey of Cornell University, in the 

 course of an interesting paper, had the follow- 

 ing remarks: — "The European Pear does not 

 thrive in our southern states. But a new race 

 has made Pear-growing profitable there. This 

 race is the product of several hybridizations 

 of Pyrus communis and Pyrus sinensis. Of this 

 race two varieties, the Kieffer (fig. 899) and 

 Le Conte, are widely planted. The acres upon 

 which they are planted are counted by the 

 tens of thousands. The Kieffer is now the 

 leader. It is a poor Pear in quality, but it 

 is immensely productive, handsome, and a long 



