The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1922-11-30
PEAR STOCK VARlE-
TIES INVESTIGATED

Gordon G. Brown, of the Hood River
Experiment Station. is developing a
fiye-acre pear orchard at Dee for in
vestigational purposes. 1t is evident
that future fruit tree development To-
cally will be with pears. and Informs
ton along this line will be of great
value. There is a tremendous acreage
vet to be developed in the Upper Val
ley. When the land is cleared, pears
will undoubtedly be planted. Wher-
ever resetting is done in the Lower
Valley, pears have been chosen.
Mistakes in the past have been made
| in setting apple orchards. Had we
known what we do today about certain
varieties we would have avoided plant
ing them.
With pears there are several out
standing features worthy Of close OBJ
servations. Blight resistance is one
of these. This year blight has again
entered the valley and it is possible
that some day we may have to make
strenuous fight against it to save onr
trees.
Then there is the problem of root
fungus. This has caused great dam
sge in the Northwest. principally to
apples. No practical method of con-
troll has yet been evolved despite years
of study. 1t. has been assumed that
pears are more resistant to this disease
than apples. This is probably so to
some extent. 1t is worthy of note that
great many of our older pear orch
ards are probably planted on the
French root stock. 1t appears that al
though this is quite susceptible to fire
blight, it is quite resistant to the at.
tack of root-rot fungus. In districts
where blight is not factor, growers
are again turning to the use of the
French root. On the other hand, most
of the young pear orchards in the
Northwest are on the japanese root
stock and although this is quite blight
resistant in character, il is quite sus-
ceptibIe to attacks of root-rot fungus.
This has been observed especially in
California. Pear trees in this valley
have died from this cause.
The matter of soil drainage is of
great Importance in the planting of
pears. 1t is considered that pears are
more tolerant of adverse soil moisture
than apples. This is not entirely 30.
Apparently the French root is more
JOlCIdIlb Ln1n OuDdlCDG btO~h WhNAO
drainage is questionable.
Furthermore the question OF varie-
ties is very important. The Bose ap-
pears to be a universal favorite but
where soil moisture is unfavorable this
tree makes stunted growth and is very
subject to winter-kiIl. especially while
young; bark splitting is one typical
form of injury. This was quite so last
winter. Many trees were killed in this
way. On the other hand, Winter Mel |
lis showed not sign of injury even
under poor moisture conditions. Both
Anjou and Bartlett are much harder |
apparently than Bose.
In Mr.. Browns experimental orch |
ard there are many combinations under |
study. A blight-resistant stock known
as Surprise has been top-worked to |
Bartlett, Bose, Anjou, Winter Nellis
and Easter. These are on Japanese
roots. Another combination is the |
direct top-working of Japanese stock |
in the main limbs with different varie-
ties. The Anjou body is also being |
In Massachusetts where |
Bose is grown on Anjou bodies, trees
are harder and more vigorous.
One of the most hopeful leads is the |
use of a Chinese Seeding known as
Pyrus Usuriensis. This is a rapid |
grower, top-works well and in addition |
to being very hardy is entirely blight
resistant. Hundreds of acres in Cal |
ifornia are thus developed. One of
the largest pear orchards in the world, |
2l2 acres, is set to this stock and top |
worked to commercial varieties.
In addition to these various combina- |
tions, Mr.. Brown will plant next spring |
for further test, blight-resistant stocks
known as Home, Estella and Chilli,
all of which have great promise for !
this section.