-1924- 
size, color, shape, character of the flesh, taste, and aroma are all typi- 
cal of Clapp Favorite. The pear trees at Chico, however, differ in two 
essential and important ways from Clapp Favorite. The trees of the lat- 
ter, as they grow older, usually become rough and shaggy, the branches 
being overspread with gray scurfy skin. Clapp Favorite is very subject 
to fire blight; in fact, this dread disease has practically limited one 
of our finest pears to a very few locations. Doctor Hedrick, in his 
"Pears of New York," says: 
"Except in one particular, the trees of Clapp Favorite are as nearly 
perfect as those of any fruit in American orchards. The weak character, 
unfortunately, is a most important one, and all but debars the variety 
from some regions in which pear-growing is a large industry. The weak- 
ness is susceptibility to blight. No standard pear goes down so quick- 
ly as thiB one when blight is epidemic." 
Up to this time, after the lapse of eleven years, the parent trees 
of S.P.I. No. 33207 at Chico show no evidence of bark roughness and have 
been practically free from fire blight. This disease has attacked other 
trees nearby, > especially Bartlett, proving severe in some cases. Speak- 
ing of the probable resistance of the Favorita to blight, Mr. Wight, in 
one of his letters, says: 
"It has this indication in its favor. One year I made a few Bart- 
lett crosses. I gathered my pollen before the flowers opened and I 
suspect I may have secured a little pollen from an infected bud, as that 
spring the Bartlett pears developed a good deal of blight. At any rate 
every twig on which I used that pollen blighted three or four inches, 
then stopped." f 
Recognizing that the real test of a tree like the Favorita pear to 
stand up under blight is a field trial under widely varying conditions 
of soil and climate, it became of interest to know what had happened to 
the trees that had been distributed, or at least representative selec- 
tions that would clearly cover the widest variations of soil and 
climate. Accordingly, early in August of this year two hundred names 
of experimenters were selected from those that had received trees and 
inquiries were sent to them asking for data as to the condition of the 
trees, and especially whether they had shown any evidence of fire blight. 
To make sure that fire blight might not be confused with other diseases, 
a brief summation of the more important characters of fire blight was 
given on the questionnaire card sent out. One hundred and fifteen re- 
ports have been received; one hundred experimenters reported that the 
trees grown by them had shown no evidence of fire blight; fifteen re- 
ported blight and the remaining eighty-five have not yet been heard 
from. Not a single case of blight was reported from the Pacific Coast 
where more than seven hundred and fifty trees have been distributed. 
Texas received, in the nine years of the distribution, one hundred and 
thirty- three trees. Ten experimenters selected to report on the trees 
