PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 25 



attractive sorts will be offered us. We know but little yet of the banana 

 and pine-apple. To meet this competition, we must make our own fruit 

 fit to eat, and that is more than can be said of the stuff now grown and 

 called best market varieties. Southern fruits will continue to crowd ours 

 out of market until we take up our own best kinds. There are plenty of 

 men ready to pay any price for the best fruits if they can only be secure 

 in their supply. This is our only way to make head against the increas- 

 ing consumption of southern fruits. We can send good apples south and 

 sell them for more than the price oranges sell for there. 



NEW VARIETIES. 



Consideration of this subject was begun by the reading of the following 

 letter: 



Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, ] 

 March 22, 1889. \ 

 " Mr. Edwy C. Eeid, Allegan, Mich. : 



" 3Iy Dear Sir — Your favor of the 13th, inclosing programme of the 

 spring meeting, was duly received. I must deny myself the pleasure of 

 attending, this time, but will inclose a dollar so as to retain my member- 

 ship in your society. Being at a safe distance, I will also avail myself 

 of the privilege of saying what I might not say were I present: 



" It seems to me that the originators of new fruits are entitled to great 

 credit for their efforts, and that they should receive every encouragement 

 to go on in their work. Let them think as well of their pets as they can; 

 let them visit them every day and see that all their wants are supplied; let 

 them pour liquid manure around them in the evening and hoe them in the 

 morning. They are surely entitled to all the satisfaction they can get out 

 of this work, especially as they are almost certain to get a great deal of 

 disappointment and very little money in the end. Which of us has not 

 been over-estimated, when we were seedlings, and what harm came of it? 



" Were it not for new seedlings, horticultural societies and horticultural 

 papers would become very insipid; catalogues would lose their charms, 

 and progress would be greatly retarded or cease altogether. 



" Let the experiment stations determine the true value of all new varieties 

 in advance of dissemination. They do this work perfectly, and their testi- 

 mony is entirely disinterested. This can be said of no other class. If all 

 horticulturists would urge originators to send their best seedlings to the 

 stations, for trial before they are offered for sale, and then refuse to buy 

 any until they received the approval of at least the station in the origina- 

 tor's state, all worthless ones would be speedily suppressed. 



" If northern people want to buy oranges, lemons, bananas, and southern 

 people want to sell these things, who would prevent the exchange? When 

 it is proven that citrus or sub-tropical fruits are poisonous or intoxicating, 

 it will be in order to suppress the traffic in them. Until then, the proposi- 

 tion smacks of selfishness and will come very far short of increasing the 

 demand for northern fruits at the south. Are we not one family, and shall 

 we not have free-trade between the states? Yours truly, 



M. Crawford." 



Prof. Beal recommended the selection by this society of best varieties 

 for various locations, and said something of the same kind should be done 

 as to vegetables. Seedsmen will not do this as it is not to their interest. 

 4 



