150 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



because I did'nt want to. Those fine apples you have been eat- 

 ing and discouragiug are Ben Davis." (Laughter.) 



Mr. Pollard: It is all w^ell enough to have a little fun and 

 sport over the Ben Davis, but my experience in St. Louis was 

 that people did'nt ask for Ben Davis, but came over and asked for 

 Yellow Bell Flower, Jonathan or Grimes Golden. Now I am up 

 against this question from the practical side, and I know that 

 the Ben Davis causes more trouble than all the others put to- 

 gether. I know when we come to Lincoln or Omaha and go in- 

 to the fancy grocery stores, we cannot sell the Ben Davis at all. 

 Now, why is it? The people who know what good fruit is don't 

 buy the Ben Davis. The people are becoming educated along 

 horticultural lines and are finding out what good varieties are, 

 and I believe we as horticulturists ought to help disseminate 

 this information and encourage the people to plant varieties 

 that they know are good. I believe we should strive to raise 

 the standard of fruit instead of dragging it down. When you 

 have a good thing, let them have it. I don't believe in panning 

 a Ben Davis apple off on a man when he wants a good apple. 

 (Applause.) Speaking seriously, I think the time has come 

 wh«n we ought to encourage the planting of other apples. Now 

 the Winesap has caused trouble too. It has been practically 

 worthless from a commercial point of view. Yet I can show 

 you some Winesaps that I challenge any body in the United 

 States to surpass for Winesaps. So I say we should encourage 

 the planting of these better varieties we have, and discourage 

 the planting of the Ben Davis. 



Mr. Yager: Speaking about the Ben Davis, — I don't like to 

 see it condemned at this stage of the fruit business in Nebraska. 

 And there is one thing I would like to call attention to. The 

 one thing we saw and observed at St. Louis was that most peo- 

 ple do not know many good varieties of apples we are raising 

 here in Nebraska today. We don't realize how many good 

 varieties we have here. The people would come along there 

 past the Nebraska fruit and say, "Why, where did you get all 

 this, fruit?" They were very much surprised at such a show- 

 ing of fruit as Nebraska had there. I think Mr. Pollard is 

 right in the main, but I do not believe in condemning the Ben 



