As i said, there is a lot, Dr. Bell has been up to in recent years. 10 years ago, he was doing some very interesting work. That work has continued which many of the pears you are now seeing. The harrow pears have long been of interest to me 25 Harrow pear varieties .
Canadian fruits are not just interesting to me. Prarie Cherries are imported by and sold through a conglomerate that owns companies like Gurneys. Green Grade aka crisp and sweet , Ambrosia, drippin honey and other pear projects are theirs. Large nurseries work with universities at times as well not just on imports. You will find the attached document on fireblight resistance highly informative. Here are a few teaser screenshots from the attached document. The point i’m making here is i’m aware of these old pears and the correlations with the new pears that are being released. Have known about what many of the pear breeders are doing for a long time. Took me awhile to put it all together. Many people will be very interested in this 2013 document on pear cultivars i think.
New-Fire-Blight-Resistant-Pear-Cultivars-MAFVC-2013.pdf (1.2 MB)