34 
The Colorado Experiment Station 
spurs were located on scaffold branches, the disease spread so that 
the entire limb had to be removed. 
Many cures for blight have been advertised and some of them 
have been tried out by Grand Valley fruit growers. They usually 
consist of a paint which is applied to the trees, the supposition be¬ 
ing that some poisonous substance in the paint will penetrate the 
bark and be carried in the circulation of the sap and thus kill the 
bacteria which cause the disease. This belief is erroneous, how¬ 
ever, as it is not in the least effective in curing the disease. The 
authors saw some of these paints tried, and trees which had been 
painted with it blighted as badly as those to which it had not been 
applied. The best and surest method of preventing blight is to 
keep the trees in a slow growing condition by refraining from too 
frequent irrigation or over-cultivation. 
There is a great varietal difference in resistance to blight. 
Keiffer withstands .the disease exceptionally well. Anjou, Garber 
and Lawrence are fairly resistant while Bartlett and P. Barry are 
very susceptible to blight. 
Pears are grown most extensively in the three eastern districts 
of the Valley. Clifton takes first place in the production of pears, 
having 54.3% of the trees in the Valley. Grand Junction is second 
with 24.3%, and Palisade, third, with 16.2%. 
i 
At Palisade nearly half, and at Loma over nine-tenths of the 
pears have never borne fruit, but two-thirds of the pear trees of 
the Clifton District, three-fourths of those in the Grand Junction 
District, and nine-tenths of the pears in the Fruita District are of 
bearing age. 
In the Palisade District, a good many pears are being planted, 
often replacing peaches. The Loma District has but few pears, and 
almost all of the trees are young. Practically no pear trees are 
being planted ‘in the Fruita District, and very few in the Grand 
Junction District. There are some pear orchards in these two dis¬ 
tricts whose development it will be interesting to watch. Chief of 
these are the Wallace orchard about one mile south of Holland- 
ville, the Copeco orchard two miles east of the Hunter school- 
house, and the Chula Vista orchard one and one-half miles north 
of the Copeco ranch. These are all large orchards and are planted 
to good varieties. 
V ariettes 
Bartlett is the most popular pear grown in Mesa County. Al¬ 
most one-half of the trees are of this variety. The Bartlett trees 
in the Clifton District alone constitute one-fourth of all the pears 
