LUTHER BURBANK 
As Europe became more and more settled, the 
pear kept pace with the invaders. It followed them 
to the British Isles, it followed them across the 
Atlantic to America. It followed them westward 
across this continent as the pioneers pushed their 
way to the Pacific. 
In the same way it worked its eastward journey 
through Siberia, and China, and Japan — more 
slowly, perhaps, than under the influence of 
European and American hurry and enterprise, but 
just as constantly, and just as surely—till now, in 
friendly climates, it is a world-wide fruit. 
Both of the pear trees described here, as in fact 
all of the pear trees which we know today, seem to 
have come from those common parents in eastern 
Europe or western Asia. 
The one in Mr. Burbank’s yard which bears the 
luscious fruit is the Bartlett pear—an excellent 
though common variety in the United States. 
The other, with its bitter, indigestible fruit, is 
one which was imported from Japan. 
The lesson which these two pear trees teach is 
that fruits, like flowers, in their rivalry to please 
us, adapt themselves to the tastes, desires, and 
ideals of the human neighbors among whom they 
grow. 
[120] 
