Additional Papers. 135 



l)nt for southern grown, and Ozark and ^Missouri grown Ben Davis, 

 the accusation is not warranted. Well grown, picked at the proper 

 time and kept properl}^ the ^Missouri Ben Davis is a good apple. It 

 is the best apple to cook, to evaporate, to keep, to ship, and while not 

 equal to Jonathan by any means, it is really a good apple to eat, if the 

 above conditions have been met. We find it giving us apples when 

 others fail. We find it in demand, when we have no other friend to 

 call upon. The great trouble has been that it is also grown where it 

 is of very poor quality, and should never have been planted, and its 

 reputation has had to sufrer in consequence. 



The fact that the Ben Davis is not wanted as much as usual is 

 no argument against good Ben Davis. I have seen the time in ^Slich- 

 igan when Baldwin were not wanted, but no one would condemn it 

 on that account. 1 have seen the time here in Missouri when Wine 

 .^ap and Janet were not wanted by the buyers, and yet we all know 

 tliem to be good apples. Too many jump at conclusions and sa}' all 

 Ben Davis are alike, and then condemn them all alike, whereas if they 

 only looked into the matter more closely they would buy varieties 

 grown where they are adapted to the soil, location and climate, then 

 there would be no complaint forthcoming. We have only to cite the 

 utter failure of some of the eastern and northern varieties grown here 

 in Missouri ; for example, there is no comparison in the quality of the 

 "Snow" grown in the north and in Missouri, those of the north being 

 so far superior to those grown in the south. I have tested over and 

 over again the Ben Davis grown in Michigan and Wisconsin with 

 those grown in Missouri^ and the dififcrence was so perceptible that 

 no one would have called them the same, by the taste alone, but the 

 Missouri grown was so superior in quality to those from the north 

 that they could be called good apples. 



Buyers some years are shunning the Ben Davis because of the 

 indiscriminate use of those grown in all localities in previous years. 

 But even this was not an unmixed evil for that year, because there 

 were none others to be had, the evil eflfects came the next year, be- 

 cause all kinds of Ben Davis were put upon the market. The Ben 

 Davis is too profitable an apple, loo prolific a bearer, too good for 

 evaporating and making into butter or jelly, too large and handsome, 

 too good a shi]:)per. too good for cold storage, too good a keeper, too 

 good to cook, and there withal, too good to eat, to lightly be thrown 

 aside because a few buyers have blundered in their judgment of what, 

 where and when to buv them. 



