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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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