Yow, thats too bad. Is it a recent outbreak or just over the years they have lost some?

Scott

I took the sentence above to mean that many of the varieties (living) in their collection could be considered "lost" to commerce, not that they had died.

The main goal of an organism like Corvallis isn't to make bussiness.
After an attack of firebligh you can consider the peartree 90% dead (immediatly or later).
If Mr Postman write something like that, isn't to indicate than the peartree is a little ill.

I try to give you in totally the message :

"At Corvallis, american conservatory of pears, there is a big collection, scarcities(?) from Belgium and France.
For some of them, we can say "it has"
Indeed according to Joseph Postman, person in charge, some of them aren't avalaible because firebligh have contamined their orchard.
Here is the message, in English, than he send to me :

"At Corvallis, american conservatory of pears, there is a big collection, scarcities(?) from Belgium and France.
For some of them, we can say "it has"
Indeed according to Joseph Postman, person in charge, some of them aren't avalaible because firebligh have contamined their orchard.
Here is the message, in English, than he send to me :
:-(
" - Erwinia amylovora is fireblight.

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']I guess we have varieties in our collection that could be considered lost. Many are historic or heirloom varieties. You can catalogs for our pear collection here:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=11372

Joseph Postman
USDA Agricultural Research Service
National Clonal Germplasm Repository
33447 Peoria Road
Corvallis, Oregon 97333 USA
""

I'll see if I can get clarification. I still believe that he meant they were "lost" from commerce, that is a common usage of the term "lost" in the US regarding fruits and roses.

Real thanks !
If you can reassure me...

Nevertheless, I'm thinking than preserving something in only one place isn't a good thing.