Riehl Best is described among the major varieties because it is as nearly blight-proof as any other European Pear. It might well be tried in localities where standard sorts cannot be raised because of blight, and is worth growing in breeding work as a parent to obtain blight-resistant varieties. The pears are rather unattractive in appearance, but are excellent in quality. The flesh is juicy, tender, vinous, free from grittiness and seldom rots at the core. The trees, besides being nearly free from blight, are hardy to heat and cold, and bear annually. The fruits fall far short of those of standard varieties in New York.This pear was discovered by Edwin H. Riehl, Godfrey, Illinois, and was introduced by Stark Brothers, Louisiana, Missouri. Mr. Riehl says: 'The farm on which the original tree stood was owned by a pioneer nurseryman who evidently imported from France a number of varieties, some perhaps without name. Riehl Best trees and several hundreds of other varieties represent the remains of three old orchards planted fifty years ago (written in 1912). Trees of other varieties are ruined by blight while Rielh Best is in perfect health and bears every season.' From this history it is probably that Riehl Best is a old European Pear renamed. -- U.P. Hedrick. 1921. The Pears of New York, quoting from Stark Bros. Catalogs from 1912 and 1916.
This 'Riehl Best' tree, as identified by C. Compton, is growing in the Applegate Orchard near the southwest corner of the Francis Writsman donation land claim, north of Corvallis, Oregon. It is by the north edge of McDonald Forest along Tampico Road and is among several fruit trees growing at the edge of an open field east of the forested area and several hundred feet south of Tampico Road on forest road 400. The tree has metal tag number AP-P3 placed in 1990. Tree location is latitude 44.69420 degrees N, longitude 123.25766 degrees W, elevation 108 meters.
Retired OSU horticulture Professor Cecil Compton continued his passion for identifying unknown fruit trees for farmers, homeowners, and natural resource managers well into his 90s. Following his death in August, 2005, at the age of 102 a group of Oregon Master Gardeners sorting through his papers found a list of apple and pear varieties that he had identified in abandoned orchards on what were once Donation Land Claim homesteads and are now the OSU McDonald Research Forest. Dozens of old trees were identified by Compton from fruit samples collected by OSU foresters Bob Zybach and Sanliang Gu in the fall of 1990. Zybach placed metal tags on the trees and mapped their locations. A team of master gardeners working with OSU McDonald Forest cultural resources specialist Debra Johnson and USDA ARS NCGR pear curator Joseph Postman toured McDonald forest in April 2007 and were able to locate a number of the fruit trees that Cecil Compton had identified 17 years earlier including one tree of 'Riehl Best', one of the Lost Pears of New York -- J. Postman, 2007.