PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 25 



DAYS WITH EASTERN POMOLOGISTS. 



BY CHA?. W. GARFIELD OF GRAND RAPIDS. 



A few things noted on a recent visit among the horticulturists of the ' 

 east may be of interest to the meeting. Everywhere, as at home, the 

 markets are filled with oranges and bananas. This fact is depressing 

 to our northern fruitgrowers, for although some of us try to get a grain 

 of comfort in the belief that the tropical fruits eaten only whet the appe- 

 tite for our northern products, we know that this is not true. 



Fresh fruits from the south take the place of canned fruits and fresh 

 fruits of our own growing. We must settle down to the fact that we will 

 have to compete with this imported fruit by putting on the market only 

 that which is the very best and most attractive. There is no doubt in 

 my own mind, that for a large majority of people a fine Jonathan, Hub- 

 bardston, Oakland, Shiawassee, or Wagener apple is intrinsically of greater 

 merit than the finest oranges, as dessert fruit. But apples of the quality 

 of these are not common on our fruit stands, and when shown they are not 

 carefully handled nor attractively exhibited, as are the imported fruits. 

 It made my loyal blood boil when I stepped from the train for a few 

 moments at Philadelphia, and was met by a boy crying "'Florida oranges, 

 Jamaica bananas, Malaga grapes and California Bartletts!" If our horti- 

 culturists were up to their opportunities, there would have been native 

 grapes of the highest quality and of exquisite beauty, and Jersey pears 

 finer than California Bartletts, with which to attract customers, in place 

 of the beautiful but less toothsome importations. 



I took a meal in a dining-car, and after getting pretty well satisfied 

 asked for fruit. I was given a plate containing a large banana, a beautiful 

 Navel orange, and a poor, scabby Rawle's Janet apple — with a worm in 

 it. There was no excuse for this, because New Jersey had a fair crop of 

 apples last season, and, by the basket, they were selling in Trenton at 

 very reasonable prices. 



The trouble is, we do not appreciate our own fruits, and the care and 

 attention required to place them on the market at their best. 



At the meeting of the New Jersey board of agriculture, which I 

 attended, the horticulturists several times attempted to get before the 

 meeting a resolution urging the legislature to enact some laws with regard 

 to the destruction of noxious insects. I confess to having been some- 

 what in sympathy with the men who prevented the passage of a resolution 

 of this character, for I have little sympathy with men who expect to find 

 a remedy for all ills in "Be it enacted." The money and energy expended 

 in securing the enactment of many laws of the character sought here, and 

 the enforcement of them, if put into the dissemination of information, 

 enlightening the people in regard to what they would better do in self- 

 protection, would be far more wisely spent. 



I visited the home of President Williams, of the New Jersey Horti- 

 cultural Society, at Montclair. Mr. Williams is the most practical writer 

 upon growing and handling grapes that I know, and I was interested to 

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