762 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 13, 
Ruralisms 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
New Hybrid Pear.— Commercial hy¬ 
brids of the Oriental pear, Pyrus Sinen¬ 
sis, such as Kieffer, Le Conte, Garber and 
Smith, all appear to he chance seedlings 
that attracted attention because of the 
good qualities of their fruits. No inten¬ 
tionally cross-bred variety of this vigorous 
species, of special importance, has yet 
been announced, though systematic hy¬ 
bridization between selected varieties of 
the Oriental pear and the most success¬ 
ful kinds of common pear cultivated in 
this country is being carried out by the 
National Department of Agriculture, and 
perhaps by amateur plant breeders inter¬ 
ested in the development of orchard 
fruits. We have noted in this column 
the fine seedlings of Kieffer and Le 
Conte raised by Judge Woodbridge 
Strong, New Brunswick, N. J. They are 
in every way promising, but the origina¬ 
tor is still working for something better. 
Many hybrid seedlings of the Oriental 
pear in its various types are under way 
on the Rural Grounds, the first to fruit 
being illustrated in Fig. 325, page 758. It 
is a product of the beautiful but almost 
inedible Japan Golden Russet pear, pol¬ 
linated by Lawrence, a yellow Winter 
variety of high quality. The tree is of 
rapid growth, like its seed • parent, but 
the foliage is smaller, and the older 
branches droop somewhat in the manner 
of Lawrence. The pears are of moderate 
size, clear yellow in color, roundish-pyri¬ 
form in shape, with sweet, buttery flesh, 
but retain too much of the Sand pear 
flavor to be generally agreeable. ' While 
a great advance in quality on its Japan 
Russet parent we only regard it as a step 
toward further improvement, and have 
pollenized the fruits borne this year with 
Bartlett, Seckel, Angouleme, Anjou, Win¬ 
ter Nelis and Barry, as well as the more 
nearly related Kieffer and Le Conte, in 
the hope that better quality may be bred 
in some of the progeny without serious sac¬ 
rifice of vigor, resistance to blight or 
scale and early productiveness. We have 
not heard of the Japan Russet form of 
the Oriental pear being used in breeding 
new varieties. The outcome may show 
that it is not desirable for the purpose. 
We are, however, not without hopes that 
the next generation of hybrids that may 
be expected to fruit in seven or eight 
years, may develop some really desirable 
qualities. 
Oriental Pears Useful.— Asiatic peo¬ 
ples do not appear to highly regard their 
native pear, and have done little towards 
its improvement. The persimmon and 
the peach stand higher in their estimation 
than the apples, pears and plums they are 
acquainted with. The Sand or Oriental 
pear is, however, utilized as a conserve, 
and to a greater extent by the Chinese 
as an ingredient of the more elaborate 
kinds of chop-suey or combined meat, 
vegetable and fruit salads they so taste¬ 
fully concoct. Pears of the Golden Rus¬ 
set type, both home-grown and imported, 
are frequently noticed in the Chinese mar¬ 
kets of New York and other cities. While 
Americans make little use of their typical 
fruits, the trees being rarely grown ex¬ 
cept as ornamentals, the great commercial 
value of Kieffer, Le Conte and other hy¬ 
brids is known to all. The former is the 
most important canning pear grown in 
this country, while Le Conte is success¬ 
fully taking the place of Bartlett, now in¬ 
creasingly difficult to grow, as a Sum¬ 
mer eating and cooking pear. Garber and 
Smith are chiefly useful in the South, the 
former for its earliness and the latter for 
its lateness in ripening. Resistance to 
scale or blight alone would make this 
type of pear worthy of consideration, but 
the additional features of great vigor, 
productiveness, early bearing and adapta¬ 
tion to diverse climates greatly increases 
its importance. Good eating quality only 
is lacking, and must be added, if at all 
possible, by careful breeding and selec¬ 
tion. 
The Kieffer Pear in Monmouth 
County, N. J.—The Kieffer pear has been 
cultivated in this locality for upwards of 
30 years, and has probably returned the 
growers more money than any other fruit 
crop, with the probable exception of the 
strawberry. The price for several years 
past has not exceeded that of apples, but 
the trees have been generally so much 
more productive that the profits have been 
greater. Some of the older orchards have 
ceased to bear pears of first quality, even 
under best culture, but younger plantings, 
if well cared for, yield good-sized pears, 
but hardly of as good appearance as when 
the variety was newer. Crops have been 
light for the last two seasons, but this 
'year the trees are generally loaded to 
their utmost capacity. We have no esti¬ 
mate of acreage or number of Kieffer 
trees in Monmouth County, nor of the 
probable crop, but one orchard alone is 
likely to turn out 5,000 barrels of pears. 
Owing to the prevalence of the “cloudy” 
fungus, discoloring the pears with brown¬ 
ish patches, but not otherwise affecting 
the quality, no great proportion will be 
suitable for fruit stand sales, but all are 
acceptable to the canners, whose stocks 
of choice canned “Bartletts” have run low 
on account of the recent shortages in the 
Kieffer crop. The fear of overproduction 
and the failures on heavy or unsuitable 
soils, as well as the San Jose scale scare, 
have curtailed the planting of Kieffers for 
some time past, but the present crop, if 
sold at profitable prices, will again direct 
attention to this useful fruit. As has 
been frequently stated in The R. N.-Y., 
neither Kieffer nor Le Conte is immune 
to scale or blight, but both are so strong¬ 
ly resistant to the ill effects of these pests 
that their culture may be considered a 
preferred risk, where soil and market con¬ 
ditions seem to warrant it. 
Pruning the Kieffer.— Orchard expe¬ 
rience on a fairly extensive scale has 
about settled the problem of pruning Kief¬ 
fer pear trees. The let-alone method, af¬ 
ter the head is fairly started on young 
trees, appears in the long run most profit¬ 
able. There is, of course, occasional op¬ 
portunity to thin out crowded branches, 
or lop off too aspiring leaders, but on the 
whole the tree is best able to care for its 
own growth, really pruning itself by the 
breaking of overloaded branches in full 
crop years. It is such a fine grower in the 
nursery that the young trees are usually 
headed too high. Planters should if pos 
sible secure trees with lower branches not 
over three feet from the soil line—18 
inches would likely be better, but heads so 
low are scarcely to be had unless grown 
to special order. There is great tempta¬ 
tion to shorten the long branches, that 
bend so threateningly under their load, to 
rigid stubs, but the result is to decrease 
the crop and degrade quality, though the 
average size may be increased, and to risk 
serious losses from Autumnal gales. The 
fruits are carried far more securely 
through dangerous winds on the swaying 
branches than on the stiffer ones. We 
have advocated close pruning of the Kief¬ 
fer, and have tested the practice through 
an eight-year trial, but the results have 
not confirmed our anticipations. Large, 
showy pears of particularly coarse tex¬ 
ture are secured, if not prematurely blown 
off, but the crop is so lessened that the 
market value would not favorably com¬ 
pare with that from similar trees lightly 
pruned. Broken limbs from overcropping 
are not usually evidences of good orchard 
management, but they are less significant 
in a Kieffer planting than in many others. 
Few fruit trees so quickly outgrow in¬ 
juries of this character if otherwise 
thrifty, and breakages may easily be pre¬ 
vented by thinning. Le Conte grows more 
like ordinary pears than Kieffer, and is 
better suited for conventional pruning 
methods. w. v. f. 
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