114 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURALr SOCIETY. 



Northwest, for however skilful one may be in cajoling the assessor, the 

 taxes are still high enough; and as for land values — well, the less said, 

 the better; say from $2,000 to $3,000 per acre for a well-kept orchard at 

 ten years old, which will be considered a conservative valuation by any 

 one who knows the Northwest."* 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON VARIETY SELECTION. 



It was formerly said that the Northwest could beat the world on its 

 wide range of varieties of apples which could be grown commercially at 

 a profit. Like other uninformed folk I believed it. I don't any longer, 

 since I have been talking with the men who know. 



I attended the National Apple Show at Spokane last November. In- 

 cidentally it was a show much inferior to the first one four years ago, 

 but there were many reasons) for this which, it is unnecessary to recite 

 here. About six carloads of last year's apples were brought from cold 

 storage to fill up the show. The fact that there were six carloads of 

 apples in cold storage in Spokane does not signify so much, possibly; but 

 it does look a trifle odd that they should be there after this year's crop 

 was on the market. My visit to the Apple Show was purely to gather in- 

 formation; hence I kept my eyes and ears open for the little confidences 

 spoken in an undertone, which give one an idea of how things are really 

 going at a big show. You understand this, you old exhibitors. We always 

 put up a good front to the uninformed who come to see our show, but 

 in strict confidence and quite between ourselves we unburden our mutual 

 (griefs for the somewhat uncertain solaces which comes from exchange 

 of troubles. Knowing this from personal experience, I found out a lot of 

 things at Spokane. I am not going to tell you all of them, but here are a 

 few: 



You have heard a lot about the commercial qualities of the Winter 

 Banana, the Delicious, the Jonathan, the Northern Spy, etc., among the 

 famous apples of the Northwest. Let us get down to brass tacks on this 

 proposition of varieties. 



At the first National Apple Show, I saw something over three hundred 

 plates of Northern Spy apples to my untutored eye there were as many 

 varieties of apples as there were plates. I asked the judges to show me 

 a standard plate so I could identify a Spy for myself, but got little satis- 

 faction. This year I heard several people asking the experts about the 

 Winter Banana. The invariable' reply was that "they are good to look 

 at, but not much good for anything else." I heard one of the oldtimers 

 answer an inquirer who wanted to know something about the "Delicious" 

 with the reply, that "It's the best advertised fake that ever grew on a 

 tree." And there you are. 



This process of elimination brings us down to where we must soon 

 consider the merits of our old friend the Jonathan, than which in my 

 judgment no better apple ever grew. What about the Jonathan in the 



*Travel stories in the Nebraska Farmer, 1911, by Frank G. Odell. 



