THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 355 



young, vigorous and all working at their btst. Defoliation at this 

 time is always serious and may well make us more alert in our efforts 

 to stay the mischief at its inception. Of course, the conspicuous tents 

 make it easy to locate the foe. The hairy caterpillars in this case of 

 the tent caterpillars are distasteful to most birds. In ]\richigan the 

 cuckoos, the black billed and the yellow billed, feed on these hairy larvae 

 with a keen relish. Can anyone report any California bird that is 

 not balked by the numerous coarse hairs that are the usual protection 

 of these caterpillars? — A. J. Cook. 



SIZE, COLOR AND QUALITY IN FRUIT. 



By U. P. Hedrick, Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 

 Address before the State Fruit Growers' Convention, Davis, Cal., June 1-6, 1914. 



Appreciation of fruits comes through three of the five senses — taste, 

 sight and smell, though the last is of little importance being so in- 

 timately connected with taste as to be almost a part of it. Tliis leaves 

 taste and sight as the senses by which fruits are judged. We grow fruit 

 to eat and it would seem, therefore, that taste should set the seal of 

 approval. Connoisseurs do judge fruit by the sense of taste, but the 

 public, in this as in many other matters, does not march with the 

 connoisseur, and the average person, personification of the public, uses 

 the eye more than the tongue in measuring the merits of fruits. This 

 difference between professional and popular judgment comes about 

 because of a very general misconception of the relative values of size, 

 color and quality in fruit — a misconception which furnishes my excuse 

 for calling your attention, in a popular way. to what I conceive to 

 be the comparative value of size, color, and quality in fruit and for a 

 very discursive consideration of how these attributes may be modified 

 by culture. 



When the nurseryman sets his net, in the shape of an illustrated 

 catalog, for the fruit grower, he baits it with gorgeous illustrations 

 showing fruits of heroic proportions. The most frequent descriptive 

 phra.se accompanying this alluring bait is, "of largest size." In his 

 turn the fruit grower usually makes an exhibit, or a sale of his wares, 

 with the apologetic yarn that he kept the largest for his own use, or 

 he had larger last year, or he could grow bigger ones if he were so 

 disposed. All this shows a craving after size — a craving that has been 

 bred and is now stimulated by competitive exhibitions in which size 

 is usually given first place. This has gone on for so long that now 

 size is generally esteemed about the highest quality a fruit may 

 possess. This feeling finds expression many times and in many ways 

 at every fruit exhibit to which the public has access. What are the 

 true merits of size in fruits 1 



In fruits for the kitchen, fair or large size is distinctly meritorious, 

 saving waste in paring and coring or pitting, though even here there 

 are exceptions for one does not want a huge baked apple, a mammoth 

 peach for canning, nor large plums for preserving. But for all dessert 

 purposes the medium sized fruit should be preferred and the Fameuse 

 or the little Lady apple, a Seckel or Doyenne pear, a Crawford peach 

 and a Green Gage plum are, or should be, as acceptable as any 



