STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 53 



the neighborhood of its origin. I have often heard it said, and 

 I think it likely I have said myself, that Ben Davis would not 

 succeed so well in this northeastern country as he does in the 

 southwest, and that it is, therefore, manifestly bad policy for 

 us to encourage him here. If it is indeed true that Ben Davis 

 does not do so well here, we would simply be putting ourselves 

 at a disadvantage in competing with men who grow the sup- 

 posedly better fruit on cheaper soil and at much less expense. 

 This view of the case has appealed to me very strongly until 

 within quite recent times. During the last few months I have 

 met a good deal of evidence which has shaken this belief pro- 

 foundly. At a fruit exhibit in Ontario, Canada, this winter, 

 where I had the honor of acting as judge, I was called upon to 

 pass upon some samples of Ben Davis just taken out of sixteen 

 months storage. They were as fine and firm as any fruit I ever 

 saw. When the boxes were opened less than two per cent of 

 the fruit had to be discarded from the exhibition table. That 

 is, ninety-eight per cent was not only saleable, but was up to 

 exhibition standard. Moreover, the color of the fruit was equal 

 to any I ever saw in Missouri. Still later in the winter I was 

 again judge on a fruit exhibit at a meeting of the Nova Scotia 

 Fruit Growers Association, where Ben Davis was again strongly 

 in evidence. Once more I found the fruit remarkable for sound- 

 ness, firmness, smoothness and color. The specimens which took 

 first prize were grown in Prince Edward Island, which is about 

 as far to the northeast as the apple business can be carried in 

 this country. There were no exhibits from Labrador nor Green- 

 land, but I have no doubt but that if word had been sent in time 

 some specimens could have been secured, and they certainly 

 would have been Ben Davis, too. The Prince Edward Island 

 specimens were as large and well colored as those shown from 

 Illinois and Missouri at the Pan-American Exposition. Here 

 on the exhibition tables today you will find a number of samples 

 of Ben Davis, all of them good, and many of them extra good- 

 from the standpoint of the commercial dealer. They are not 

 extra large, but the dealer does not prefer large apples. He likes 

 smooth, uniform, sound, late-keeping fruit, and these specimens 

 here before me fill those requirements to the very letter. 



You will notice that I have thus far said nothing about the 

 matter of quality. I am often told that we cannot grow Ben 



