THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 129 



Mr. Morrill: The fact is, Mr. Lyon has a too fastidious taste. To him a good Red 

 Canada apple is scarcely good enough. 



Had we been so fortunate as to understand this remark of Mr. Morrill 

 at the time, we would doubtless have entered a protest then and there. 

 Failing to do so, we ask to be indulged with space to correctly define our 

 position. 



Mr. Sessions had been called on and had given a list of eight varieties of 

 peach for planting in Oceana county, and the Lewis was mentioned as just 

 being introduced. 



We do not claim to be intimately acquainted with the Lewns (which, in 

 Mr. Farnsworth's remarks, was compared with the Hale), but the mature 

 specimens which have come under our observation would by no means 

 equal the Hale in quality. 



We by no means advocate the rejection of even so poor a variety as the 

 Lewis, to fill a gap in a list of market peaches, for which no better substi- 

 tute can be had; but w'e deem it quite certain that there are other and 

 better varieties of that season. Our objection to it is, firstly, that planters 

 are not careful to be well informed on the subject; and secondly, that they 

 fail to provide in advance for the obtaining of these better varieties, when 

 not offered ready to their hand. 



It is probal)ly true that the speakers had in mind the selection of 

 varieties to l)e planted for market purposes; but, if so, the fact does not 

 appear in the report, which, owing to such omission, goes out to the general 

 public as a recommendation to plant even the Lewis in the family plat — 

 a distinction which we had long and persistently urged should ever be 

 kept in mind in the making up of lists for planting. 



It has long been not our mere impression, but rather a positive convic- 

 tion, that the sale of attractive-looking fruit, but low and disappointing in 

 quality, has the effect, with many consumers, to so lower their estimate of 

 the general quality of the fruits of the locality from which these have come 

 as to seriously affect both the demand and the price of other and better 

 varieties from that region. 



We have never proposed (as may be inferred from the report in ques- 

 tion ) that the market grower shall plant varieties of fine quality without a 

 careful reference to their profitableness, as well as to their general ability 

 to meet the requirements necessary for such purposes; but we even per- 

 tinaciously insist that the distinction between market and family planting 

 shall be so kept in mind, and so fully brought out in the society's discus- 

 sions, together with the peculiar qualities required for either purpose, that 

 even ignorant or inexperienced planters need not be misled in their choice 

 of their varieties for either purpose. 



We think we pretty fully comj^rehend the difficulty of the process known 

 as " educating the market"; but that such education is not only possible 

 but practicable, is too clearly indicated by the demand in our city markets 

 for such unattractive fruits as Shaffer raspberry and Rhode Island Greening 

 apple, and by the increased demand for the latter in the English markets 

 after only a very few years' acquaintance with it. 



The supplying of city markets with Pennock, Ben Davis, and even so 

 well-flavored an apple as Baldwin is nearly equivalent to the remanding of 

 fruits to the culinary department, along with onions, turnips and potatoes, 

 while, if these be supplemented by Melon, Shiawassee, Hubbardston, R. I. 

 Greening, Red Canada, et hoc genus omne, city tables will be more largely 

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