388 State Horticultural Society. 



"You think I'm dead," 



A soft voice said, 

 "Because not a branch or root I own. 



I never have died, 



But close I hide 

 In a plumy seed that the wind has sown. 

 Patient I wait through the long Winter hours. 



You will see me again, 



I shall laugh at you then 

 Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers." 



— Kdith M. Thomas. Rural New Yorker. 



TESTING NEW FRUITS. 



(By Edwin H. Riehl.) 



The testing of new fruits, while expensive, whether done pri- 

 vately or by some organization, is an absolute necessity. Why do 

 we say it is expensive? Because, in the first place, nine-tenths of 

 the varieties offered are not as good as the average variety on the 

 market, or, I dare say, the best. It is getting so nowadays that 

 many who know a little about how fruits originate and more who 

 do not, are aware of the fact that there is a chance to pick up a few 

 dollars by advertising and offering something as a new variety with 

 a high-sounding name attached. Those sometimes consist of old 

 sorts renamed, but most generally are inferior seedlings which, 

 compared with the average variety on the market, are mere trash. 

 J think I do not miss my guess very far when I say that there are 

 some people in the country who make it a point to send out a num- 

 ber of new sorts each season just for what they expect to get out of 

 it by the various state and other experiment stations. This I dare 

 say is one of the worst impositions that could possibly come to pass 

 in more ways than one. The idea is, you see, that it is just as im- 

 portant to test and expose poor varieties as it is to discover and 

 recommend desirable ones. Thus the man who does not value his 

 reputation will offer a variety as something remarkably fine when 

 he knows quite well that it is not worthy of introduction. Again, 

 there are those who impose upon the public in this manner inno- 

 cently, through ignorance. They know that they have a seedling, 

 and a good one, but not being well posted on varieties generally, 

 they do not know that there is another variety (though it may be 

 an old one) that in every way is better than the one they have. 

 New varieties, whether of any value or not, are usually sold at a 

 high price, yet when you come to think of it, what does the original 

 price paid for trees, etc., which prove undesirable, amount to com- 



