not raise pears owing to the cold or the blight. In my
travels in Asia, including four tours of exploration in Siberia, I made
a business of buying up basketfuls of pears in Manchuria, Mongolia,
Western China and Eastern Siberia and saving the seed, giving the flesh
away to the coolies, who were glad always to get the fruit. These have
raised me many seedlings. In addition I have imported a lot of pears
from Russia.

[Illustration: Pyrus Simoni

The hardy, blight-proof sand pear used by Prof. N.E. Hansen in breeding
pears for the Northwest. A careful study of our eastern Arctic pears has
been made recently by Mr. Alfred Rehder, botanist at Arnold Arboretum,
and this form of sand pear is now called Pyrus Ovoidea instead of Pyrus
Sinensis, or Pyrus Simoni.]

The pears of northern China and eastern Siberia are usually called the
Chinese sand pear and have been given various names, _Pyrus Sinensis_,
_Pyrus Ussuriensis_, _Pyrus Simoni_. The form I am working with mainly
was received in the spring of 1899 at the South Dakota Station under the
name of _Pyrus Simoni_, from Dr. C.S. Sargent, Director of the Arnold
Arboretum, Boston, Massachusetts. Since the publication of Bulletin 159,
of the South Dakota Experiment Station, April, 1915, in which I give a
brief outline of this work, the pears of this region have been studied
by Dr. Alfred Rehder of the Arnold Arboretum, and it now appears that
the true name of _Pyrus Simonii_ should be _Pyrus Ovoidea_. These trees
have proved perfectly hardy at Brookings and have never suffered from
blight. Varieties of other pears have been top-grafted on this tree, and
they have blighted, but the blight did not affect the rest of the tree.
Mr. Charles G. Patten, Charles City, Iowa, also has a form of the
Chinese sand pear which has proven immune to blight. In other places
sand pears have been under trial which have suffered from
winter-killing. However, I understand that the pear Mr. Patten has
tapers toward the stem, while the pear received by me as _Pyrus Simonii_
tapers toward the blossom end. The actual source of seed is really of
greater importance than the botanical name, as it is possible to get the
seed from too far south, whereas we should plant only the northern form
of the species.

The fruits of _Pyrus Ovoidea_ correspond in size to the ordinary pear
much like the Whitney crab-apple does to the apple. It is a real pear,
juicy and sweet, but not high flavored. Other varieties of