128 Bulletin 153. 



fruit-grower in western New York asked me if I would advise 

 him to plant Arkansas apples. I told him no ; but I advised 

 him to test them. 



A variet}^ which is suited only to the general market, is most 

 profitable in that region in which it thrives best. It is doubtful, 

 for instance, if the New York grower can compete long in Kieffer 

 pears with growers in the middle and southern states ; and it is 

 certain that those regions cannot compete with New York in 

 Bartletts and Seckels. Wherever a fruit reaches its highest 

 development, there it should be grown ; and local varieties are 

 often best adapted to local and personal markets. 



The nurseries grow fruit trees to supply the demand for gen- 

 eral-purpose varieties ; and as a consequence the}' tend to reduce 

 varieties and to make them uniform over the whole country. 

 Many of the fine dessert varieties cannot be obtained at nurseries. 

 With the refinement of our horticulture more varieties will be 

 grown. The more fully the horticulture of any country is 

 developed, the more perfectly are the various localities and needs 

 supplied. In this direction we have much to learn from Europe, 

 for one is there impressed with the great numbers of varieties 

 which are actually known and grown. But in Europe, the fruits 

 are grown for local and personal markets ; here we grow for 

 the world's markets, and varieties must therefore be few in com- 

 parison. 



Since the selection of varieties is a question of locality and of 

 the personal ideals of the grower, it follows that those lists of 

 varieties are most valuable, other things being equal, which are 

 made by the most local and circumscribed societies. 



Does spraying pay f — The past season has given strange re- 

 sults in spraying. In very many instances spraying seemed to 

 do no good. Does spraying pay, then ? Certainly, the same as 

 tillage and pruning do. We do not know wh}^ there were 

 so many unsatisfactory experiences in 1898 ; but this does not 

 lessen the fact that bugs and fungi should be killed. That 

 spraying pays is as well demonstrated as it is that apple-worms, 

 tent-caterpillars and potato-blight are injurious. Markets often 

 fail, but it does not follow that markets are a nuisance. The 

 safest way is to make it a rule to spray everything every year. 



