BETTER FRUIT 



AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTEREST OF MODERN. PROGRESSIVE FRUIT GROWING AND MARKETING 



Size, Color and Quality in Fruit 



By Professor U. P. Hedrick, Stale Experiment Station, Geneva, Ne\v York 



APPRECIATION of fruits conies 

 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. This leaves taste 

 and sight as the senses by \vhich fruits 

 are judged. We grow fruit to eat, and 

 it would seem therefore that taste 

 should set the seal of approval. Con- 

 noisseurs do judge fruit by the sense of 

 taste, but the public, in this as in many 

 other matters, does not march with the 

 connoisseurs, 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 judg- 

 ment conies 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 dis- 

 cursive consideration of how these at- 

 tributes may be moditied by culture. 



\\Tien the nurseryman sets his net, in 

 the shape of an illustrated catalog, for 

 the fruitgrower, he baits it with gor- 

 geous illustrations showing fruits of 

 heroic proportions. The most frequent 

 descriptive phrase accompanying this 

 alluring bait is "of largest size." In his 

 turn the fruitgrower 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 big- 

 ger 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'? 



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 

 a|)ple, a mammoth peach for canning, 

 nor large jilums for preserving. But 

 for all dessert puiposes the medium- 

 sized fruit should be preferred and the 

 Kameuse 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 varie- 

 ties of their kinds. Certainly no one 



wants to make two bites at a cherry, 

 strawberry or any of the small fruits. 

 Large size in fruit is often poor econ- 

 omy, whether on the fruit sand, in the 

 hotel or for the home, for a small or 

 medium fruit frequently answers the 

 same purpose that a larger one would. 

 Not alvi'ays, but often, undue size in 

 any variety is accompanied by inferior 

 quality. This is especialy true if size 

 has been brought about by much water, 

 in which case the fruit may actually be 

 said to be bloated. The highly-flavored 

 solids of the normally-grown fruit are 



Features of this Issue 



SIZE. COLOR AND QUALITY OF 

 FRUIT 



MARKETS FOR OUR CANNED AND 



DRIED FRUITS AND OTHER 



BY-PRODUCTS 



THE PRESENT STATLTS OF THE 



DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF 



WALNUTS 



COLLEGIATE WORK IN 

 HORTICUTLTURE 



FRUIT AS FOOD AND MEDICINE 



COLD STORAGE OF APPLES 



diluted or adulterated with water. So, 

 too, extra large specimens of tree or 

 small fruits in which size is attained 

 by high feeding or by such abnormal 

 practices as ringing, usually lack in 

 quality. From all this we must con- 

 clude that while a good large fruit may 

 be better than a good small fruit, yet if 

 in the large fruit there is a falling olT 

 in quality it at once loses value. It is 

 true, however, that some of the varie- 

 ties of our tree fruits might be in- 

 creased in size to advantage, and the 

 value of many grapes and small fruits 

 would be much enhanced by greater 

 size. Thus it becomes a matter of im- 

 portance to know how to increase the 

 size of fruits, should we so desire. The 

 task is not dillicult. Generally speak- 

 ing, whatever increases tree growth 

 .gives greater size in the product. To 

 be specific, the application of nitro- 

 genous fertilizers, plowing under legu- 

 minuous cover crops, frequent and 

 lon.g-continued cultivation, these acting 

 singly or associalively will increase 

 the size of friiils. Another way of at- 

 taining greater size is by restricting the 

 top of the i)lant by heavy i)riining, thus 

 getting greater growth in the |),irts thai 



remain. Lastly, most commonly and 

 best means of all, the size of almost all 

 fruits can be greatly increased by ju- 

 dicious thinning, an orchard operation 

 so generally used that it needs no fur- 

 ther discussion here. 



The comparative value of color and 

 quality in fruits is a subject of never- 

 ending discussion. We can all agree 

 that both are necessary in tirst-class 

 market fruits, but often a choice must 

 be made between the two. Which then? 

 To my mind there .should be no ques- 

 tion about the supremacy of quality 

 over color, but consumers discriminate 

 in favor of bright colors. Thus, red 

 apples are preferred to yellow, green 

 and russet varieties — the latter, side by 

 side with red storts no better in quality, 

 go begging for buyers. Fruit is bought 

 to eat. What a paradox to buy that 

 which is hardl.v tit to eat because it is 

 brilliantly colored. This unjust dis- 

 crimination conies about because red is 

 more attractive to the eye of most 

 people and because of a very general 

 misconception that color is correlated 

 with quality. Red apples have thus be- 

 come the fashion with consumers and 

 must, therefore, be produced by grow- 

 ers. Are brilliantly-colored apples of 

 better quality than those of subdued 

 hues? 



Some say that high quality goes with 

 high color — that is, with bright reds, 

 crimsons or scarlets, or in patterns 

 striped with these colors; others say 

 "handsome but poor," indicating a be- 

 lief in a correlation of high quality and 

 low color. But a consideration of vari- 

 eties shows at once that there are no 

 correlations between color and quality. 

 The hungry man who knows apples 

 will say grace with just as much 

 unction over a Green Newtown, a 

 Golden Russet or a Grimes Golden as 

 over a red Jonathan, a .Spltzenber.g or 

 a McInto.sh. Coming to individuals in 

 a variety, it is found that apjjles grown 

 in sod are brilliantly colored; those 

 grown under tillage are of more sombre 

 hues. Nine out of ten people will 

 choose the highly-colored sod-.grown 

 fruit as the best flavored, but It needs 

 onl.v a taste to convince to the contrary. 

 The tilled fruit is crisiier, juicier and 

 richer. On the other hand, poorly 

 colored apples in the center of a tree 

 are often less well flavored than the 

 brighter fruits exposed to the sun. 

 There are many just such seeming cor- 

 relations between color and (luallty, 

 but a careful study of all shows that 

 there are no real relations between 

 coloi' and quality. 



.lust now the fashion is for red 

 :ipples. But fashions In colors of fruits 



