LUTHER BURBANK 



Here, in America, we like fruits that are soft, 

 large, sweet, luscious, juicy, aromatic, easy to 

 digest when eaten raw. Our pears grow that way. 



In Japan and China they like fruits which are 

 hard, small, bitter, dry, acid — suitable only for 

 pickling, preserving, or cooking. The Chinese and 

 Japanese pear trees bear that kind of fruit. 



Neither the Japanese pear, nor our American 

 type, is like the original wild parent which was 

 first discovered near the middle of Russia. 



Each has changed — one toward one set of 

 ideals — and the other toward another set. 

 ***** 



If we could lay bare before us the whole history 

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

 its stages of progress beginning back in the times, 

 say, when instead of a fruit it bore only a seed 

 pod like the geranium's — we should see a record 

 of endless change, constant adaptation. 



We should see that the soil, and the moisture, 

 and the sunshine, and the air, throughout the ages, 

 have played their parts in working the pear tree 

 forward. 



We should see that other plants, crowding it 

 for room, or sapping the moisture from its feet, 

 or adding richness to the soil by their decaying 

 leaves and limbs, have done their share in hasten- 

 ing its improvement. 



[1221 



