310 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tatoes) mealiness. It may supply the 'intelligent Englishman's table with des- 

 sert,' but it is only when his pocket will not allow him to purchase higher- 

 flavored and rarer varieties that are only to be found in the rich man's estab- 

 lishment. For market purposes, the Baldwin, no doubt, stands preeminent, 

 but that it deserves the praise bestowed upon it I cannot allow without record- 

 ing its faults to prevent others from being misled by your correspondent's 

 opinion of its merits." 



Our Michigan fruit catalogue grades the Baldwin, as a dessert apple, as 6 in 

 a scale of 10, and there is some doubt if a single fruit-grower can be found in 

 our State who would rank it higher as an apple to eat. 



ODD YEAR BALDWINS. 



When Mr. Ewer of Battle Creek, Mich., moved upon his present farm there 

 Avere seven Baldwin apple trees upon it. Six of them came into bearing on the 

 off year, and the following year the seventh bore and the six omitted. They 

 have kept up that order ever since. He has grafted other trees from these 

 and as they came into bearing they bore on the same years on which the trees 

 from which their grafts were taken bore. One year, the odd, he plowed up the 

 orchard in the spring, which had been in sod many years, and those trees which 

 would have borne that year blossomed, but shed their blossoms; still they did 

 not bear the next year, and waited till their regular year came round again, 

 when they bore. Those that had borne on the even year adhered to their regu- 

 lar year without change. He has grafted many times since from the original 

 seven, on different years, but they all followed their parent trees in their bear- 

 ing years. — Rural Home. 



THE BEN DAVIS APPLE. 



Beyond all question the Ben Davis is the great market apple of Illinois and 

 in states south and west of us. It was stated by well-informed parties at the 

 State Horticultural meeting, that fully half of all the recent apple planting in 

 Illinois had been of this variety. Other sorts have an equal local value, but no 

 other sort succeeds in every soil and climate of the Mississippi valley like the 

 Ben Davis. Of course everybody admits its lack of high quality, but as long 

 as it brings a better price in every south-western market than any other variety, 

 its poor quality will not hinder people from planting it. But its great popu- 

 larity in the market illustrates anew the fact that it is beauty and not quality 

 which sells all of our fruits. 



With us at the South the chief defect of the Ben Davis is its early maturity. 

 It don't keep well into the winter. This is a matter that can be remedied by 

 using artificially cold storage for the first few weeks of our warm autumns. In 

 Central Illinois, where the season is a month shorter than ours, it is a 

 good keeping winter apple. Now, there is no reason in the world why 

 the same apple grown with us, if equally free from insect and other 

 injuries, should not keep equally well if placed in a cool preservative tem- 

 perature when first picked. Further north it has become cool before winter 



