LUTHER BURBANK 
ing a considerable company of other fruits that 
have come to us from tropical and sub-tropical 
regions. 
The olive, the fig, the persimmon, the guava, 
the alligator pear, the banana, the pomegranate, 
the pineapple—these are but a few of the more 
familiar members of a varied company of fruits, 
not in themselves related except that they all had 
their original home in the Tropics and for the 
most part have proved indisposed to migrate ex- 
tensively into temperate zones. 
One or two of these, to be sure, have shown a 
tendency to follow the example set by the plum, 
the pear, and the apple, and try their fortunes in 
regions lacking the perpetual summer of their 
original habitat. 
Most notable among these, perhaps, is the per- 
simmon, which made its way to Japan on one con- 
tinent, and to the south central regions of the 
United States on the other. 
This fruit has been cultivated to best advantage 
in Japan, where the secret was first discovered 
that its astringency is lost when the fruit is packed 
closely in air tight receptacles. In this country it 
was discovered by Mr. Geo. C. Roeding of Fresno 
that the secret of the Japanese persimmon is no 
more mystifying than this: It is merely necessary 
to pack the fruit in tubs from which Saki or 
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