110 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Ben Davis on the market than all the others together, and when we got 

 clear down to Boston, where they had palates so educated to Boston 

 baked beans, and all those other high-toned things they still had Ben 

 Davis apples. Why, we just can not run them out of the market. One 

 of the leading nurserymen in the United States told me the other day 

 that he had more Ben Davis packed than any other tree, and he says that 

 he was going to back them. 



The packers of our crop were from Michigan and they had some Ben 

 Davis apples that they" were going to pack, and their barrels did not 

 come, so they did not have anything to pack them in, and we piled others 

 on top of them, and when we got down to them three weeks later the 

 packers did not know what they were. They brought a Gano to me, and 

 said, what have you mixed with the Ben Davis, and I looked at it and 

 said, it is a Gano, and he said it is not. Look here, he says, you can run 

 your finger through them, and they are in fact good to eat. And I looked 

 at it, and saw it was a sweat ripened Ben Davis. 



Those Michigan fellows said they never ate Ben Davis before that 

 they liked. 



Mr. Swan: About six years ago my first crop came on, and I had 

 been up through the Northwest, and there was not a person that wanted 

 our apples; they all seemed to think they must have Michigan or New 

 York apples. Later there was a gentleman came out from Chicago who 

 wanted to see our apples. I said, how are the other apples in comparison 

 with these? He told us that they were good. And we talked a long time 

 about prices and tried to agree on a price and finally he said, "I will take 

 two thousand barrels of these apples at a dollar and seventy-five cents 

 on board cars, and you can ship them to Chicago." I told him he could 

 have them, but I did not think there would be that many. I thought there 

 should be about 900 bushels. And so I shipped them to Chicago. 



Next February my son had occasion to be in Chicago, and I told him 

 before he left to step around to that commission house and find out how 

 those apples were selling. So my son went down to the commission 

 house, and said how are Winesaps selling, and the commission merchant 

 gave him a certain price, and then he asked him about the quality, and 

 he told him they were fine. He asked them where they were raised, and 

 they told him in Nebraska, and then he asked them if he could see them. 

 He said they can not raise any good apples in Nebraska, he told him he 

 was from the West and he knew what he was talking about, and that 

 they could not raise any good apples in Nebraska. ^ Well, they told him 

 to come and see them, and so my boy went to see them and he knew as 

 soon as he saw them that they were my apples, and he looked them all 

 over, and they were good. He then asked how much they was getting 

 for them, and they told him that they was getting' $6.50 a barrel. What 

 do you think of that? 



The Chairman: The next paper will be by Mr. Frank G. Odell of 

 Lincoln, on "Horticultural observations in the northwest." 



