158 LUTHER BURBANK 



In Japan and China they like fruits which are 

 hard but juicy, suitable for pickling, preserving 

 or cooking. The Chinese and Japanese pear 

 trees bear that kind of fruit. 



Neither the Oriental pear, nor our American 

 type is like the original wild parent which was 

 first discovered in Eurasia. 



Each has changed — one toward one set of 

 ideals — and the other toward another set. 



If we could lay bare before us the whole his- 

 tory of the pear tree — if we could picture in our 

 niinds its stages of progress beginning back in 

 the old times, say, when instead of a fruit it 

 bore only a seed pod like the wild rose — we 

 should see a record of endless change, constant 

 adaptation. 



We should see that soil, moisture, sunshine, 

 and air, throughout the ages, with the aid of 

 fruit-loving animals and man, have all played 

 their parts in gradually transforming the pear 

 tree into its present state. 



We should see that other plants, crowding it 

 for room or sapping the moisture from around it 

 cr adding fertility to the soil by their decaying 

 leaves, have done their share in hastening its im- 

 provement. 



We should see that the bees and butterflies 

 and birds with their help, and the caterpillars. 



