480 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



mercial orchardists, who, finding that appearance rather than quality secures 

 leady sales in the market, are prone to select and plant productive varieties, 

 which are also good handlers and richly colored, with little regard for quality, 

 insisting that educating the market to an appreciation of fine flavor or deli- 

 cate texture is a too tardy process and, therefore, unprofitable ; oblivious of 

 the unquestionable fact that very many such varieties lack but slightly in 

 productiveness or generat profitableness, while the absence of the desired and 

 anticipated qualities can only result in a more or less diminished demand on 

 the part of the consumer, as well as an inevitable depression of prices. 



But the unfortunate results of these falacious ideas exert still another 

 objectionable influence. The commercial orchardist, from the extent or 

 prominence of his operations, comes to be accepted, at least by persons not 

 well informed, as a pomologist; and, as such, his counsel is often sought and 

 trusted, by the planters of farm orchards, and even of village and city gar- 

 dens, as to the varieties to be planted for these purposes. 



Reasoning from his accustomed standpoint, and if not, in fact, ignorant, 

 at least thoughtless, of the diverse purposes for which such planting is 

 intended, his lists are quite likely to be made up of sorts suited rather to 

 the kitchen than to the dessert; if not in fact too indifferent for either. 



As the natural, if not, indeed, the inevitable result of such methods, there 

 occur, in the cases of but too many of the mainly commercial horticultural 

 organizations, various and grave occasions to doubt whether their 

 influence does not tend rather to lower than to elevate the standard of 

 horticultural merit, if not practice also, and even, indirectly, to beget dis- 

 honesty and fraud in the details of the handling and marketing of fruits ; 

 such as the employment of tarlatan for the heightening of color, the short 

 capacity and the facing of packages, the shipping of peaches diseased with 

 yellows, in defiance of the law, and various other practices of similar ten- 

 dency ; the frequency of which has already rendered the honesty of commer- 

 cial fruit culturists the byword of purchasers and consumers. 



Another fruitful cause of the unwise selection of varieties to be planted is 

 the general ignorance of varieties, among planters, and their ready accept- 

 ance of the advice of the nurseryman or of his agents ; whose predilections 

 are very likely to be for the vigorous, and therefore easily grown varieties, 

 rather than for those of superior quality but of objectionable habit. 



Notwithstanding the general assumption that societies as well as individuals 

 are primarily amenable to the influence of the " money consideration," and 

 although the efforts of this society, through its officers and members, at the 

 annual State fairs, for more than a decade now past, have been given for a 

 money consideration ; we do not by any means admit that, in the performance 

 of such labor, this has been the chief or most influential consideration. 

 Although we cannot assume to speak for all who have been aided in this 

 work, we can confidently state that at least many of them have done so, 

 mainly for the reason that such arrangement opened a broader field, and a 

 more effective opportunity for the improvement of the horticulture, and 

 especially the pomology of the State, and of saving to its fruit planters 

 some portion of the enormous waste consequent upon faulty selection of varie- 

 ties and bad management of orchards, as well as upon the several other 

 causes already referred to. As evidence that these efforts have been in a good 

 degree successful, we may point to many palpable results already achieved ; 

 as well as to the high reputation of our State in such matters, in which its 

 standing is "known and read of all men." 



