LUTHER BURBANK 
posed analogies, to be sure,—the fact that the pear 
over-rides adversity, as it were, bearing abund- 
antly in bad soils and when totally neglected; the 
fact that it grows by roadsides and in dooryards 
showing a domestic habit and as it were a friendly 
spirit toward man; and finally, the fact that it 
responds to attention and proves as receptive and 
responsive to good treatment as it is resistant to 
bad. 
But I am by no means sure that as to most of 
these traits, and for that matter in regard to any 
others that might be mentioned, the apple tree is 
not to be given a place quite on a par with that 
which the pear can claim. There is no occasion 
to dispute about the matter, however, for at best 
such comparisons have no great significance. 
Let it suffice that the pear and the apple, close 
cousins as they are, may very well be considered 
the two orchard trees that are friendliest to man, 
in the broad use of the word. 
They have been his associates probably almost 
from the earliest times when he learned that 
plants would respond to cultivation. 
They have gone with him on his chief migra- 
tions throughout the temperate zone and even well 
into sub-arctic regions. 
They have proved themselves adaptable to all 
soils and nearly all climates; and they jointly pro- 
[106] 
