Chapter III: Pear Culture (1)

The common pear or some of its hybrids with the oriental pear is grown for a home supply of fruit, if not for the markets, in every part of North America where hardy fruits thrive except in the extreme north and south. But commercial pear-growing on this continent is confined to a few regions, and in these is profitable only in carefully selected situations. Perhaps the culture of no other fruit, not even of the tender peach nor of the capricious grape, is more definitely determined by environment than is that of the pear. A study of the regions in America in which pears are successfully grown for the markets furnishes clews to the proper culture of this fruit in New York, and shows with what regions this State must compete in growing pears for the markets. The location of the pear regions in America is readily determined by figures showing the number of trees and their yield in the various fruit regions of the country.

PEAR STATISTICS FOR THE UNITED STATES AND NEW YORK

Six states produced over 65 per cent of the pears grown in the United States in 1919. The census of 1920 shows that in the preceding year the total crop of the country was 14,211,346 bushels, of which California produced 3,952,923 bushels; New York, 1,830,237 bushels; Washington, 1,728,759 bushels; Oregon, 761,063 bushels; Texas, 637,400 bushels; and Missouri, 430,828 bushels. Trees in all other states yielded 4,870,136 bushels. There were according to this census 14,646,995 bearing trees and 6,051,845 not of bearing age. The yield of fruit was 60 per cent greater than in 1909; the number of bearing trees 3 per cent less; and the number of non-bearing trees 28 per cent less. Compared with other tree-fruits, according to this census, the pear occupies fourth place in value of product, the apple, peach (including the nectarine), and plum (including the prune), in order named, outranking the pear. Probably the orange, grape, and strawberry yield greater value to the country than the pear, although the acreage of each of these three fruits is smaller. Commercial production cannot be segregated from the total, but without question the increase in plantings is due to commercial activities; for the development of the canning industry, refrigerator service, and better transportation have greatly stimulated trade in this fruit.

In the states in which pear-growing is a commercial industry, commercial orchards are confined to localities in which climate, soil, and transportation combine to favor the pear. In New York, for example, pears are grown for market on a large scale in only ten of the sixty-one counties. These, with the number of trees in each, according to the last census are as follows: Niagara, 620,743; Monroe, 384,374; Orleans, 377,371; Columbia, 308,298; Wayne, 305,239; Ulster, 304,158; Greene, 208,885; Oswego, 154,576; Ontario, 121,934; Orange, 96,456.

Over 77 per cent of all the pear-trees in the State are in these counties, and 79 per cent of the pears grown in the State are produced in these ten counties. The production of pears in New York for the eleven-year period from 1909 to 1919, inclusive, show the increase and fluctuation in the production of pears in the State for this period. The figures for 1909 and 1919 are from the thirteenth and fourteenth census reports, while those of the intervening years are estimates from the Bureau of Crop Estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture. The yields run in bushels for the eleven years as follows: 1,343,000, 1,530,000, 1,886,000, 1,128,000, 2,016,000, 1,298,000, 1,375,000, 1,675,000, 1,708,000, 1,352,000, and 1,830,237.

Bartlett and Kieffer are conspicuous leaders among varieties in number of trees and in production for the whole country. In the great commercial pear-growing regions of New York and California, Bartlett is the favorite variety, but Kieffer is grown largely also, especially for canners. In the South and in the Mississippi Valley, Kieffer is the leading variety because it is relatively resistant to blight and withstands extremes in climate better than other varieties. For many years after its introduction about 1870, Kieffer was over-praised by both fruit-growers and nurserymen. Fruit-growers liked it because of its resistance to blight and great productiveness, and nurserymen preferred it to other sorts because it is the easiest of all varieties to grow in the nursery. It is, however, so universally condemned for its tasteless fruits that it is losing its popularity, and is not now as largely planted in competition with Bartlett as it once was. Seckel, Clapp Favorite, Winter Nelis, Beurré d'Anjou, Beurré Bosc, Howell, Sheldon, Beurré Clairgeau, and Garber for the South, are the standard varieties following Bartlett and Kieffer in popularity.

Bartlett is far in the lead of commercial varieties in New York. At present, Kieffer probably holds second place in this State, but its popularity is fast waning and Seckel is nearly as commonly planted, if, indeed, it does not now surpass Kieffer in number of trees. Clapp Favorite, Beurré d'Anjou, Beurré Bosc, Beurré Clairgeau, Duchesse d'Angoulême, Howell, Lawrence, Sheldon, Vermont Beauty, and Winter Nelis are all planted more or less in commercial orchards, and are the favorites for home use. All of these varieties are susceptible to blight, are a little too tender to cold, and have other faults of tree and fruit, so that pear-growers in New York anxiously look forward to better varieties. It is hardly too much to say that pear-growing can never become a great industry in New York until better varieties take the place of the unreliable sorts that must be planted now.

To some extent, man-governed agencies determine where pears may be grown profitably if the planter is growing for the markets. Pears do not keep long and are easily bruised, and transportation must not take too great toll; therefore, handling facilities must be suitable, markets must not be distant, and transportation must be cheap and efficient. But in the culture of this fruit, natural agencies outrank those depending on man, two of which determine very largely where pears are to be grown commercially in both the country and the state. These two, climate and soil, have been mentioned before, but must now be discussed somewhat in detail.

CLIMATE

The ideal climate for a cultivated plant is one in which the plant thrives as an escape from cultivation wholly independent of care from man. The apple, cherry, plum, and peach are often found wild in one or another part of America, but the pear almost never. The pear does not naturally become inured to the American climate, and in the orchard is not well acclimated even in the varieties which have originated in the country. In particular, as a young tree and until well advanced toward maturity, the pear shows the bad effects of maladjustment to climate, but as an old tree it seems to be far less susceptible to the extremes of climate to which fruit trees are subjected in most parts of America. Both of the two chief constituents of climate, temperature and rainfall, are determinants of regions and sites in pear-growing.

Extremes in temperature, more particularly of cold, are the only phases of temperature that pear-growers need consider in New York. The pear is not nearly as hardy as the apple, and Bartlett, the foremost variety in the State, is almost as tender to cold as the peach. The limits of commercial pear-culture are set in this State by the winter climate. The pear cannot be grown profitably where the temperature often falls below -15° F., for while winter-killing of the wood does not always occur at this temperature it sometimes does, and even occasional injury to the tree is almost fatal to the profitable growing of fruit. Fruit-buds of the pear are a little more tender to cold than the wood, and a season's crop is often ruined when the temperature drops to -10° F. Pears in the nursery are more tender to cold than trees in the orchard, and unless the wood is thoroughly mature or protected by a heavy covering of snow, nursery stock is likely to be injured by any temperature below zero. The injury of nursery stock is manifested in the well-known "black heart" of young pear-trees subjected to severe cold.

Happily, there is some flexibility in the constitutions of varieties of pears, as with all fruits, and a degree of cold that will kill a variety under one set of conditions may not under another. While, therefore, it is not safe for commercial fruit-growers to gamble with the weather, those who grow pears for their own use may do so with the expectation of losing trees or crop now and then but of having them in most seasons. A little can be done to prevent winter injury by carefully selecting sites protected from prevailing winter winds, and by planting on warm soils on which the wood matures more thoroughly than on cold soils. Careful cultural methods, especially the use of cover-crops, may be helpful. Not much can be done in the way of coddling pear-trees from cold. They cannot be laid down as is sometimes done with peach-trees, nor can they be grown low enough, even as dwarfs, to count on much protection from deep snow.

Happily, also, there are varieties of pears endowed with constitutions fitted for very different climates. Varieties of pears from central and northern Russia show remarkable capacity in resisting cold, heat, dryness, strong winds, and other peculiarities of the climate of the Great Plains, and some of them can be grown in the coldest agricultural regions of New York. A few hybrids, as Kieffer, Le Conte, Garber, Douglas, and others of their kind can be grown in the Gulf States where the common pear cannot withstand the hot summers. Cincinis, Le Conte, and Garber thrive as far south as central Florida and southern Texas. There is considerable variation in the hardiness of the common pear. Tyson, Flemish Beauty, and Beurré Superfin are much hardier than Bartlett, Seckel, or Clapp Favorite, and may be chosen to extend the culture of this fruit to any part of New York in which the Baldwin apple can be grown. It is most surprising to find occasionally these hardiest of the common pears growing in some of the coldest parts of the State, usually as demonstrations not only of superior inherent hardiness but also of hardiness brought about by conditions which enable the trees to enter the winter with unimpaired constitutions.

The pear is seldom injured by heat in the summers of New York. Occasionally fruit and foliage suffer from long-continued heat in the dry weather of a hot summer. More often the trunks of pear-trees are injured by a blazing sun in late winter or early spring, especially when the sun's rays are reflected by ice or snow and strike the tree intensified. Indeed, sun-scald so produced is one of the common troubles of the pear in New York. With the pear, as with all other fruits, there is a sum total of heat units above a certain temperature, put by most experimenters at about 43° F., the awakening point of growth, necessary to carry the crop from blossoms to proper maturity. Of the number of units necessary to mature a crop little is known. Many varieties do not ripen in New York in a cold season, but come to perfect maturity in warm seasons. A study of phenology would throw much light on the failure of pears to ripen properly.

The average date at which the last killing frost occurs in the spring helps to determine the limits in latitude and altitude at which the pear can be grown in New York. The pear blossoms early, and while both in bud and blossom the reproductive organs seem able to stand more cold than those of the peach and sweet cherry, yet even in the most favored regions for growing this fruit in New York a crop is occasionally lost from killing frosts, and there are few years in which frost does not take toll in some part of the State. Damage from frost must be expected when the commonly recognized precautions in selecting frost-resistant sites are not recognized. Little or nothing can be done in New York to prevent injury from frost once trees have been set. Windbreaks, whitewashing, smudging, and orchard-heaters are all failures in frost-fighting in this State.

The pear-grower should know how the blooming time of the varieties of pears he plants agrees in time with spring frosts. To do this he must have weather data and must know the approximate date of blooming of varieties. He ought also to be able to synchronize three of these phases of climate--spring frosts, fall frosts, and the length of the summer--with the ripening dates of varieties. Data as to the average dates of spring and fall frosts can be obtained from the nearest local weather bureau. The accompanying table gives the blooming and ripening dates of pears grown at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. Blooming and ripening dates vary in different parts of the State, and to make use of the data from this Station the grower must compare the latitude, altitude, and local environment of his orchard with those of the Station. Data for the Station is as follows:

BLOOMING SEASON AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEAR-VARIETIES ========================================================================== | Blooming season | Ripening season ----------------+-----+-----+------+----+----|-----+-----+------+----+---- |Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very |early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late ----------------+-----+-----+------+----+----|-----+-----+------+----+---- Abraham | | * | | | | | | | | Alamo | | | * | | | | * | | | André Desportes | | | * | | | * | | | | Ansault | | | * | | | | | * | | Appert | | | * | | | | | * | | Bartlett | | | * | | | | | * | | Belle Lucrative | | | * | | | | | | * | Beurré d'Anjou | | * | | | | | | | * | Beurré | | | | | | | | | | d'Arenberg | | | * | | | | | | | Beurré Bosc | | * | | | | | | | * | Beurré Clairgeau| | | * | | | | | | * | Beurré Diel | | * | | | | | | | * | Beurré Giffard | | | * | | | | * | | | Beurré Hardy | | | * | | | | | * | | Beurré de Jonghe| | | * | | | | | | | Beurré Superfin | | | | | | | | * | | Bihorel | | | * | | | | * | | | Bloodgood | | * | | | | | * | | | Bordeaux | | | * | | | | | | * | Buffum | | | * | | | | | * | | Canner | | * | | | | | | * | | Chamogea | | | * | | | | | | | Cincincis | | * | | | | | | | | * Clapp Favorite | | | * | | | | | * | | Cocklin | | * | | | | | | | * | Colonel Wilder | | | | | * | | | | * | Columbia | | | * | | | | | * | | Craig | | | | * | | | | | * | Dana Hovey | | | * | | | | | | * | Dearborn | | | * | | | | * | | | Diamyo | | * | | | | | | | | * Dorset | * | | | | | | | | | * Douglas | | | * | | | | | | * | Doyenné | | | | | | | | | | d'Alençon | * | | | | | | | | * | Doyenné Boussock| | * | | | | | | * | | Doyenné du | | | | | | | | | | Comice | | | | * | | | | * | | Duchesse | | | | | | | | | | d'Angoulême | | | * | | | | | | * | Duchesse | | | | | | | | | | d'Orléans | | | * | | | | | * | | Duhamel du | | | | | | | | | | Monceau | | | | * | | | | | * | Early Harvest | | * | | | | | * | | | Easter Beurré | | | * | | | | | | * | Eastern Belle | | | * | | | | | * | | Elizabeth | | | * | | | | * | | | Fitzwater | | | * | | | | | * | |

BLOOMING SEASON AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEAR-VARIETIES -- _Continued_ ========================================================================== | Blooming season | Ripening season ---------------------------------------------|---------------------------- | Very|Early| Mid- |Late|Very| Very|Early| Mid- |Late|Very |early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flemish Beauty | | | * | | | | | | * | Fontenay | | | | | * | | | | * | Fox | | * | | | | | | * | | Frederick Clapp | | | * | | | | | * | | French | | | * | | | | | * | | Gansel-Seckel | | * | | | | | | | * | Garber | | | * | | | | | | | Glou Morceau | | | | * | | | | | * | Golden Russet | | | | * | | | | | | * Grand Isle | | * | | | | | | * | | Guyot | | | | | | | | * | | Hemminway | | | * | | | | | * | | Howell | | * | | | | | | | * | Japan | | * | | | | | | | | * Jargonelle | | | * | | | | * | | | Jones | | * | | | | | | | * | Joséphine de | | | | | | | | | | Malines | | * | | | | | | | * | Kieffer | | * | | | | | | | * | Koonce | | | * | | | | * | | | Krull | | | * | | | | | | | * Lady Clapp | | * | | | | | | * | | Lamartine | | * | | | | | | | * | Lamy | | | * | | | | | | * | Lawrence | | * | | | | | | | * | Lawson | | * | | | | | * | | | Le Conte | * | | | | | | | | * | Léon Leclerc | | | | | | | | | | (Van Mons) | | | * | | | | | * | | Lemon | | * | | | | | * | | | Liegel | | * | | | | | | | * | Lincoln | | | * | | | | | | * | Lincoln Coreless| | | * | | | | | | | * Longworth | | * | | | | | | | * | Louise Bonne de | | | | | | | | | | Jersey | | | * | | | | | | * | Louvenjal | | | * | | | | | | * | Lucy Duke | | | | * | | | | | * | Madeline | | | * | | | | * | | | Magnate | | | * | | | | | | * | Margaret | | | * | | | | * | | | Marie Louise | | | * | | | | | | * | Mongolian | * | | | | | | | | * | Mount Vernon | | | * | | | | | | * | Nickerson | | | * | | | | | | * | Ogereau | | | | * | | | | | | Olivier de | | | | | | | | | | Serres | | | * | | | | | | | * Onondaga | | | * | | | | | | * | Osband | | * | | | | | | | | P. Barry | | | | * | | | | | * | Peffer | | | * | | | | | | * | Pitmaston | | | * | | | | | | * |

BLOOMING SEASON AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEAR-VARIETIES -- _Concluded_ ========================================================================== | Blooming season | Ripening season ---------------------------------------------|---------------------------- | Very|Early| Mid-|Late|Very| Very|Early| Mid-|Late|Very |early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pound | | * | | | | | | | | * Président | | | | | | | | | | Drouard | | | * | | | | | | * | Président Mas | | | * | | | | | | | Raymond | | | * | | | | | * | | Reeder | | | * | | | | | | * | Riehl Best | | | * | | | | | | * | Ritson | | | * | | | | | | * | Romain | | * | | | | | * | | | Roosevelt | | * | | | | | | * | | Rossney | | | * | | | | | | | Russet Bartlett | | | * | | | | | * | | Rutter | | | * | | | | | | * | Seckel | | | * | | | | | | * | Seneca | | | * | | | | | * | | Sha Lea | | * | | | | | | | | * Sheldon | | | * | | | | | | | Siebold | | | * | | | | | | * | Souvenir de | | | | | | | | | * | Congrès | | | * | | | | | * | | Souvenir | | | | | | | | | | d'Espéren | | | | * | | | | | * | Sudduth | | | | * | | | | * | | Summer Beauty | | * | | | | | | | | Summer Doyenne | | | * | | | | * | | | Treyve | * | | | | | | | * | | Triumph | | | * | | | | | | * | Tyson | | | * | | | | * | | | Ulm | | | * | | | | | * | | Vermont Beauty | | | * | | | | | | * | White Doyenné | | * | | | | | | | * | Wilder Early | | | | * | | | * | | | Winter Bartlett | | | | | * | | | | * | Winter Nelis | | | | * | | | | | * | Worden Seckel | | | * | | | | | * | |

The latitude of the Smith Astronomical Observatory, a quarter of a mile from the Station orchards, is 42° 52' 46.2"; the altitude of the orchards is from five hundred to five hundred and twenty-five feet above the sea level. The soil is a loamy but rather cold clay; the orchards lie about a mile west of Seneca Lake, a body of water forty miles in length and from one to three and one-half miles in width and more than six hundred feet deep. The lake has frozen over but a few times since the region was settled, over a hundred years ago, and has a very beneficial influence on the adjacent country in lessening the cold of winter and the heat of summer and in preventing early blooming.

The blooming period is that of full bloom. The data were taken from trees grown under normal conditions as to pruning, distance apart, and as to all other factors which might influence the blooming period. There is a variation of several days between the time of full bloom of the different varieties of pears. These differences can be utilized in selecting sorts to avoid injury from frost. In using blooming-time data it must be kept constantly in mind that varieties of fruits may not bloom in the same relative time. In very warm or very cold springs the usual relations of blooming-time may be upset.

Rainfall, moisture, and cloudiness are most important in growing pears. England, Belgium, and northern France, regions where the pear finds the climate most congenial, have much cool, moist, cloudy weather with much less variation in temperature than is the case in the United States. The climate of New York and the states bordered by the Great Lakes where most of the pears of eastern America are grown, is cooler, moister, and cloudiness is more prevalent than in other eastern states. The summer climate of the Pacific slope is not moist but is equable and, in the best pear orchards, moisture is supplied abundantly by irrigation. From these considerations we may assume that the pear requires more moisture than most other fruits. The pear in New York more often suffers from too little than from too much rain. The exception is when pears are in bloom, at which time the crop is sometimes lost or badly injured by cold, wet weather. Warm, moist weather is favorable to both fire-blight and the scab fungus, the two most dreaded diseases of the pear.

Several other weather problems should be studied before selecting a region as a site for a pear-orchard. The direction, force, and frequency of prevailing winds both in winter and summer are important considerations. Unfavorable winds in winter favor winter-killing; in blooming time prevent the proper setting of fruit; and at ripening time make many windfalls. Hail storms are more frequent in some parts of New York than in others and may be a deterrent in selecting a site. Lastly, drouths, so fatal to the pear, are more common in some parts of the State than in others.

LOCATIONS AND SOILS FOR PEARS

Pears thrive in a great diversity of soils, provided, almost always, that there is depth for proper root-run. A few varieties may be grown in comparatively shallow soils, but most pears are deep-rooted. The common pear is rather averse to sand, gravels, and light soils in general, and does best in rather heavy loams, clays, and even in silts. Many varieties show preferences for the several types of loam and clay, and the commercial grower must see to it that the varieties he plants are suited in their particular soil preference. Hybrids between the common pear and the oriental pear--the Kieffer and its kin--grow well in much lighter soils than pure-bred sorts of the common pear, and, as a rule, find sands and gravels more to their liking than clays and heavy loams. Pears will stand rather more water in the soil than any other of their orchard associates, but a soil water-soaked for any great length of time in the growing season is a poor medium in which to grow pears. If, therefore, a soil is not sufficiently dry naturally it must be tile-drained.

Pear soils must be fertile. All varieties of this fruit refuse to produce good crops in soils lacking an abundance of the several chemical elements of plant nutrition. Even the light soils on which Kieffer, Garber, and Le Conte seem to do best must be well stored with plant-food. This means that good pear land is costly. Soils that grow good pears usually grow good farm crops. Pears planted in a poor soil do not live but linger. Who has not seen short-wooded, rough, malformed, dwarfed, starved trees which have come to their wretched condition because planted on land not fertile enough for this fruit? The land-skinner who grows grass in his orchard usually comes to grief quickly. Pears start best in a virgin soil from which the forest has not been long removed; on the other hand, they are often hard to start on senile soils even though they have been heavily fertilized. Plenty of humus seems to stimulate pears. There is a prejudice against soils too rich, some holding that on overly rich land the growth is soft and sappy and therefore a good medium for the multiplication of the blight bacteria. This is mostly prejudice, but certain it is that culture and fertility should not be so managed that the growth continues late, and the trees go into the winter soft and tender to cold.

Soils seem to have a profound influence on the flavor and texture of pears. In uncongenial soils the fruits are often so sour or astringent, dry or gritty, that the product is poor in quality; whereas the pears of the same variety in a soil to which it is suited are choicely good. A few varieties, as Bartlett, Clapp Favorite, and Seckel, grow well and produce fine fruit in a great diversity of soils, but most sorts do so much better in one soil than in another that it becomes a matter of prime importance in pear-growing to discover the particular adaptations of the varieties to be planted. To discover an ideal soil for a variety is about the highest desideratum in pear-growing.

Some varieties are made to grow in uncongenial soils by grafting them on stocks better adapted to the soil. Thus, on certain soils some pears grafted on quince stocks do better than on pear roots. This is a great field of future discovery and one in which discoveries are being made as experimenters try new stocks to secure greater resistance to blight. In all of this work, pear-growers must know not only how well the stock resists blight, but also how well the cion takes to the stock and the stock thrives on various soils.

The pear is easy to suit in matter of site for the orchard so far as lay of land is concerned. Altitude, exposure, slope, and local climate, all so important in choosing sites for the more tender peach, plum, and sweet cherry, need receive little consideration in planting the pear. A site somewhat higher than the surrounding country gives the two great advantages of soil drainage and air drainage. Good air drainage is a prime requisite with pears, as it helps to reduce the danger from frost, and neither pear-scab nor fire-blight are as virulent as on trees planted on sites where there is little movement of air. Rolling land, so often recommended for all fruits, seems not to be essential for pears, as many splendid orchards of this fruit are on flat lands, which, however, usually have an elevation above the surrounding country on one or more boundaries. The influence of large bodies of water, so favorable to the peach, is not as necessary with the pear, although the best pear regions in the State are near the Great Lakes, the Finger Lakes, or along the Hudson. There are no successful pear-orchards in the State surrounded by higher land. Frosts, freezes, pear-blight, and fungi would soon play havoc with pear-trees in such a situation.

The shelter of hills, forests, or of apple-orchards, provided they do not shade the pear-orchard too much, may be a valuable adjunct to a site. Such shelter, however, is desirable only when so situated as to protect against unseasonable winds and storms. Tree and fruit suffer greatly when loaded branches are whipped about by strong winds. The advantages of artificial windbreaks, whether of evergreen or deciduous trees, are usually more than offset by disadvantages. The direction in which land slopes is greatly over-emphasized by horticultural writers if orchards in New York are considered. The only important aspect of exposure for pears in this State is that the land slope toward the water when near a large body of water that the orchard may secure in full the effects that come from planting trees near the water.

Economic considerations are becoming more and more important in choosing sites for all fruits in New York. Transportation facilities, including good roads, markets, labor, and packing and selling organizations are now more important in the pear regions of the State than the natural determinants of soil and climate, since these are so favorable in any of the fruit regions in which pears are largely grown. Natural advantages are more common than man-made ones, and the pear may be grown on vast areas of New York lands so far as climate and soil are concerned, but which are wholly unsuited because the economic factors are unfavorable. Sites for pear-orchards should be sought for in localities where there are pears enough grown for a central packing association; near a shipping center where the haul is short and over good roads; the freight service should be prompt, regular, and efficient, with low freight and good refrigerator service; labor should be abundant and not too expensive; and the markets should be several and so located that they are not controlled by growers in regions more advantageously situated.

The pear-grower is becoming more and more concerned with the kind of stock upon which his trees are grafted. One or more of several objects is sought in working a pear on roots other than its own. The stock may be chosen, and most often is, with the single purpose in view of perpetuating a variety; it may be selected to dwarf or magnify the size of the cion; very often the stock is better adapted to the soil than the cion would be on its own roots; the quality of the fruit is sometimes improved by the stock; lastly, some stocks are much more resistant to fire-blight than others. It is this last character of the stock that is now receiving most attention. Stock and cion are united either by budding or grafting, with budding coming more and more in use. More than with any other fruit, _double-working_ is used in propagating pears. For example, the quince stock is often preferred to a pear stock. But some varieties of pears do not unite well with the quince, in which case a sort which makes a good union with the quince is first budded or grafted on the stock, and when this cion has grown to sufficient size, it is top-worked to the desired variety. According to the size of the mature plant, pear-trees are designated as _dwarfs_ and _standards_, the difference in size being brought about by the stock. Dwarf trees are usually grown on quince stocks; standards, on pear stocks.

Dwarfing pear-trees is an old practice, having been in use in Europe at least 300 years. During this time the use of quince stocks to dwarf the pear has been a common practice in France and England. For a century, dwarfing the pear by growing it on the quince has been common in America. Dwarfing is recommended to secure several effects. Dwarf trees are more manageable than standard trees when the orchard area is small; dwarfing stocks are shallow rooted, and dwarfs, as a rule, do not need a soil so deep as do standard trees; pears grown on quince stocks are often larger, handsomer, and better in flavor and texture than those grown as standards; the trees come in bearing earlier. Dwarf pears, never very common on this continent, are not planted as much now as they were some years ago. At one time, orchards of these dwarfs were a familiar sight in New York. A dwarf orchard and even a dwarf tree is now seldom seen. The faults that have driven them out of New York are: The stocks used in dwarfing are not uniform, consequently the trees vary in vigor, health, habit of growth, and in time of maturity; nurserymen find that the stocks vary greatly in ease of propagation either from cuttings or layers; the quince stocks are of several varieties, difficult and expensive to obtain and, therefore, the orchard trees are expensive; dwarf trees require much more care in pruning, training, and cultivation than do standard trees; the cost of producing pears in a dwarf orchard is greater than in a plantation of standard trees, and the fruit does not command a much higher price; dwarf trees are commonly rated as less hardy than standard trees and are much shorter-lived; left to themselves, or if planted too deep, the cions take root and the trees are but half dwarf. Some of the objections to dwarf trees could be done away with by obtaining a variety of the quince which would dwarf the pear satisfactorily, which could be grown easily from cuttings or layers, and upon which most pears could be easily worked. A quince of this description is not in sight.

There is great difference of opinion among growers as to what varieties may be successfully grown on quince stocks. Probably all will agree that the following, few indeed, are the best dwarfs in America: Beurré d'Anjou, Duchesse d'Angoulême, Howell, Lawrence, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Elizabeth, and White Doyenné. All other sorts, if to be grown on dwarfs, grow better when double worked.

Almost all of the pears grown in America, as has been said, are standard trees. The stocks for these standard pears are nearly all imported from Europe under the name French stocks, although on the Pacific slope seedlings of oriental species are being used more and more. The French stocks are seedlings of vigorous forms of the common pear, _P. communis_. Efforts to grow stocks of this species in America usually fail because leaf-blight is so destructive as to make their culture unprofitable. Leaf-blight can be controlled by spraying, but other deterrents, as high price of labor and losses from dry summers, added to the cost of spraying, make American-grown stocks expensive. Stocks raised in this country are usually seedlings from imported seed. Seedlings of the Sand pear, _P. serotina_, and its hybrids have been tried extensively in the South and West to obtain cheap stocks more resistant to pear-blight than the French stock, but they do not seem to be much more resistant to blight, and many of the best varieties do not take on these stocks, so that they are generally considered a failure.

New types of stocks are needed badly. The ideal stock must be vigorous and hardy; fairly immune to leaf-blight and fire-blight; it must come from a species which seeds freely, and the seedlings from which are uniform; this ideal stock must be adapted to all pear-growing regions in the country; a large percentage of the seedlings must make first-class stocks; the budding season must be long; congeniality with all cultivated varieties must be great or very nearly perfect; the consort of stock and cion must make a long-lived tree.

Quince stocks are obtained from cuttings or mound-layers. Layering is considered the better method of the two. Stocks from the oriental hybrids, of the Kieffer and Le Conte type, are often grown from cuttings in the South. These are made in the spring from mature wood of the preceding year's growth, and are treated much as are grape and currant cuttings. Long cuttings, a foot in length if possible, should be used. These stocks are of little value for varieties of the common pear, but are better than French stocks for the oriental hybrids, since these, in the South at least, usually overgrow French stocks. Own-rooted trees of these oriental hybrids are often grown from cuttings.

While of doubtful utility, stocks from other genera may be used for the pear. Some of the thorns are occasionally used as dwarfing stocks. The mountain ash is sometimes used to adapt pears to light sandy soils. Occasionally one hears of pears grafted on sorbus. The pear on the apple is short-lived, but old apple-trees top-worked to pears sometimes give abundant crops for a few years. Apple roots may be used as a nurse for pear cions. To be successful, the pear cion should be long, when, if grafted on short apple-roots and set deeply, the pear sends out roots and eventually becomes own-rooted.

PEAR ORCHARDS AND THEIR CARE

Perhaps no tree-fruit is more exacting in care than the pear. Young trees, in particular, must be well cared for and more or less coddled if any factor in environment is adverse. Almost any young orchard of this fruit becomes moribund if the owner settles down to self-satisfied complacency. As the trees come into full bearing, the several items of culture need not be so intensive. A perfect pear-orchard is about the consummation of good fruit-growing. But a perfect orchard of this fruit is seldom to be found, for, sooner or later, blight is certain to take its toll. Because of blight, the culture of no other fruit is attended with more frequent or keener disappointments. Today a man may walk in his orchard with adoration, as an artist walks in a beautiful landscape. Tomorrow, blight may blast the fairest trees. Pear-growing, thus, becomes a good deal of a gamble, and the boundaries within which a fruit-grower's ambitions must be confined as to acreage must be more closely drawn than with other fruits. In most pear regions, the risks are too great to venture all in the culture of this fruit.

It is an uphill task to grow pears on land not well fitted before planting. A young pear-tree is about the least self-assertive of any of the tree-fruits. For the first year or two young pears seem to have almost no internal push, and are unable to get much of a start out of any but land in the best of tilth. A bare, stony, starved soil is no place for a young pear. The ground should be well tilled almost or quite to the depth the trees are to be planted, otherwise the roots seek the upper layers of earth where there is least resistance and food is most available. If the drainage is faulty, subsequent treatment is well-nigh useless. Sometimes retentive soils in which drainage is good most of the year but slow at planting time may be brought into condition by plowing a back-furrow along the line of each row in the direction of surface drainage to carry away the surface water. Under no circumstances should a tree be planted in a hole in which water is liable to stand about the roots. If possible, the land should be prepared a year in advance by putting in a hoed crop, after which it should be plowed deeply in the fall and pulverized well in the spring, and the trees planted as promptly as possible.

Land suitable for growing pears does not need to be fertilized for young trees. It is not too much to say that land which will not grow good wheat or corn is hardly fit for pears, although lighter soils fertilized as the trees come in bearing grow some varieties very well; but even on these the young trees will start as well without as with fertilizers. Commercial fertilizers, at least, are not wanted by young trees. Stable manure, usually priceless in orchard regions, often puts an atmosphere in an orchard not to be had by any other means, chiefly, probably, because it helps to put the land in good tilth rather than because of the plant food supplied.

Present practices in the use of fertilizers for mature pear-trees are very diverse. Until experiments in fertilizing pears are carefully carried out, the pear-grower may well follow the practices of apple-growers, since a considerable number of long-time experiments have thrown light on the fertilizer requirements of apples in the several great fruit regions of the country. The pear, however, requires a richer soil than the apple; but, on the other hand, it is pretty well agreed that the blight bacterium finds readier entrance and a better medium in which to grow in the soft wood of a luxuriant growth than in the more compact wood of slow growths. Whatever fertilizer is used should be applied early to promote early growth and so permit thorough ripening of wood well in advance of severe cold. Many growers maintain that blight is less virulent in orchards laid down to grass. It is doubtful if this is true and if true the produce is so scant and the pears so small that an orchard grown in grass is about as often a liability as an asset. When the pear is set in grass, however, nitrate of soda applied very early in the season in liberal amounts is a necessary adjunct to the grass-mulch. In any pear orchard, when the foliage is off color, small, sparse, or hangs limp, nitrate of soda is a sovereign rejuvenator.

This discussion may be closed with advice as to how one may know when his trees need fertilizers. If the trees are vigorous, bearing well, the fruits of proper size, the foliage a luxuriant green, the growth plump, the buds turgid, he may well assume that his trees need no additional plant-food. If the trees are not in the condition of well-being indicated, one ought to be well assured that drainage, tillage, and health are as they should be before applying expensive and uncertain fertilizers. Nothing is more satisfactory than making sure that one is not putting chemicals in the ground for nothing in the use of fertilizers. A simple experiment to obtain positive evidence as to whether a pear-orchard needs fertilizers is easily carried on and gives assurance where before there was doubt.

The following is an example of such an experiment: (1) Acid phosphate to give about 50 pounds of phosphoric acid to the acre applied to one plat; (2) phosphate as above and muriate of potash to give 100 pounds of potash to the acre on another plat; (3) phosphate and muriate as above and nitrate of soda and dried blood to give 50 pounds of nitrogen per acre on a third plat; (4) six tons of stable manure on a fourth plat; and (5) one plat left unfertilized as a check.

Planting practices vary so greatly from place to place and from time to time, and each method at the place and time seems so justifiable, that one can hardly advocate particular methods and can only state what they are. Thus, pears have been set in accordance with all of several planting plans, and at distances ranging from sixteen to twenty-five feet apart. At present, pear-orchards are usually laid out in meridians and parallels at intervals of eighteen and twenty feet; when the first distance is used, one hundred and thirty-four trees are planted to the acre; if the second, one hundred and eight trees. It is patent to the eye of every passer-by that these distances are more often too small than too great. Certainly on rich soils and with varieties the trees of which are spreading, the distance might often better be put at twenty-two or twenty-four feet. A poorly-colored pear is usually a poorly-flavored pear; and color and flavor are largely dependent on sunshine and air which are hardly to be had in closely-planted trees. Perfect alignment is imperative for convenience in working and pride of appearance. Dwarf trees in New York should be set at least fifteen feet apart each way, one hundred and ninety-three trees to the acre, although it is a common practice to set them closer.

Until recently one of the discouragements in pear-growing was the failure of fruit to set, even though the trees bore an abundance of blossoms. The discovery that failure was often due to self-sterility in a variety, and that it was necessary to set another variety near-by to furnish pollen to fertilize the self-sterile blossoms has removed much of the uncertainty in growing pears. We now know that self-sterility has a most important economic aspect in the planting of pears. Some of the varieties most profitable when planted to secure cross-pollination, are so unfruitful as to be quite unprofitable when a tree stands alone or when the variety is set in a solid block with no other sort near. Under most conditions Bartlett and Kieffer, the mainstays of American pear-culture, both need pollen from another variety to insure a full set of fruit. Under some conditions both may be sufficiently self-fertile. From these two statements it is seen that self-sterility is not a constant factor in a variety.

Self-sterility and self-fertility are greatly influenced by the condition under which a variety is grown. Thus, a variety is often self-sterile in one locality and not in another. Occasionally Bartlett, usually nearly or quite self-sterile, and other varieties as well, set fruit one season and not the next. All pears, the Bartlett in particular, seem to have a greater degree of self-sterility in eastern pear regions than on the Pacific slope. In general, the better the adaptation of a variety to its environment the better it sets fruit with its own pollen. It is obvious, therefore, that it is not possible to give lists of self-sterile and self-fertile varieties. Such lists can be made out only for regions and localities. Some varieties, however, more often fail to set fruit because of self-sterility than others. Among standard pears, Bartlett, Beurré d'Anjou, Beurré Clairgeau, Clapp Favorite, Howell, Kieffer, Lawrence, Sheldon, and Winter Nelis appear to be most often self-sterile. Beurré Bosc, Flemish Beauty, and Seckel are usually self-fertile.

A self-sterile variety usually sets fruit when another variety is at hand to supply pollen. Several considerations determine the selection of varieties to interplant. Thus, the two varieties must blossom at the same time if cross-pollination is to be effective. The table on pages 88 to 90 shows the sorts that bloom at the same time, or nearly enough so to make cross-pollination possible. Under normal conditions, the blooming time of varieties overlaps sufficiently for cross-pollination excepting those that bloom very early and very late. If the table is used for regions much to the north or to the south of this Station, allowance must be made for a shorter blooming period the farther north; a longer one the farther south. That varieties of pears have sexual affinities is another consideration that merits some attention. That is, one variety will fertilize another sort very well, while pollen from a third may not be at all acceptable. "Affinities" can be determined only by hand crossing. Probably the importance of affinities is over-rated. The distance between varieties set for cross-pollination must not be too great--not more than two or three rows apart. For convenience in harvesting, varieties should be selected in relation to ripening. Only commercial varieties should be interplanted, as the wastage is too great if comparatively worthless sorts are set to fertilize a standard commercial variety.

Some disadvantages attend the setting of mixed orchards of pears, and these must be weighed and overcome as far as possible. There are many current statements to the effect that all varieties, whether self-sterile or self-fertile, are more fruitful and produce better fruit with foreign pollen than with their own. To old pear-growers, this seems to be putting it rather strong, but the statements come from accurate experimenters and observers and should have consideration. Cross-pollination, be it remembered, is not a cure-all for failures to set fruit. Unseasonable weather, lack of vitality in trees, various fungi, and no doubt other agencies, may be the cause of unfruitfulness.

As to commercial varieties, the tale is soon told. Only a half-dozen sorts are generally planted in New York orchards. These, about in order of importance, are: Bartlett, Kieffer, Seckel, Beurré Bosc, Beurré d'Anjou, and Winter Nelis. To this short list may be added the following grown more or less for local markets: Clapp Favorite, Sheldon, Beurré Clairgeau, Lawrence, Howell, Tyson, and Mount Vernon. A list for the home orchard should include all of these and many more to be chosen from the major varieties described in Chapter IV. The pear flora of the country changes very slowly, and there are now almost no new sorts on general probation in the country.