SUMMER MEETING AT BUTLEK. 63 



the owner, and in answer to my many questions (to be brief) they 

 usually answer me about like this as we go through the orchard : 



Well, says the planter, here is Winesap ; very good apples, but 

 usually too small and not a regular bearer ; don't think I will plant 

 any more of them. 



Here is Jauneton of good quality and a very showy apple and very 

 fair bearer, but not very profitable as a shipping apple, generally 

 speaking. 



Here is Willow Twig, rather shy in bearing on some soils ; won't 

 plant any more of them. 



Here is Raul's Jannet, a good apple, good keeper; not very regu- 

 lar in bearing, and don't bring as much money as something else ; 

 won't plant any more of them. 



Here is Lawver. Ah, says I ; you surely will give this fine grow- 

 ing tree and handsome apple a favorite place in your orchard? No, 

 says the planter, I can't do it ; I am afraid to do it. I says, why ? 

 Well, it's late in bearing and it drops and — well, I wont plant any more 

 of them. 



We go on a little farther, the planter stops. He says to me, point- 

 ing to a low spreading tree here is Missouri Pippin. Well, I says, 

 that has a good record. Yes, he says, so they tell me ; but then the 

 wood is very brittle, unable to hold up large crops of apples and re- 

 sist such heavy storms as we have in Southwest Missouri, and then it 

 is short lived. Well, says I, it bears very young and is a fine looking 

 apple. Oh, yes, he says, that's all so, but then — well, I guess I won't 

 plant any more of them, either. 



Wego a little farther we come to the orchard proper, and I am 

 shown several hundred fine looking trees, healthy trees, trees that 

 would, seemingly, last a century, trees that stand there on the bleak, 

 open prairie with their large trunks and compact heads .that stand the 

 storms, the heat and cold alike. 



Now, says the planter, these trees are Ben Davis, and this is the 

 kind that I shall plant in the future. 



I noticed an article in the Prairie i^^rme/* sometime ago, in which 

 the writer took occasion to censure Mr. Goodman for his favorable 

 opinion of the Ben Davis, as expressed, I belive, in a Kansas City paper,' 

 and he goes on to state that in Illinois the Ben Davis tree is very 

 short lived and not a healthy tree. This may be true of the Ben Davis 

 in Illinois, but I know it is not the case in Southwest Missouri. He 

 also asserts that in time the consumers of apples would be better 

 posted, and that they would not use Ben Davis. 



