INDIANA HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY 211 



in there to dig gold. One old man came from the East; he was a Yanliee. 

 He dug a while, but did^i't get muc4i. He saw an advertisement in a 

 paper that for so much money he would be told bow to get the gold. He 

 sent the money, came to the postoffice regularly every ^veeK to get his 

 recipe. One day it came. He took it out, opened it and cut oft one 

 paper, unrolled it, came to another paper, cut off and unrolled, and when 



he came to the center of it, it just had these three words: -'Dig like ." 



Now, then, my paper, upon this subject would be simply two words, eight 

 letters— Ben Davis. 



Mr. Kingsbury: We must know why. 



Mr. Waltman: Because it is the best apple raised, and it is the best 

 apple sold. There is more prejudice against the Ben Davis apple than 

 there is against Ben Davis himself. When I was picking my apples last 

 year, some of the neighbor boys came to my orchard and said: "Ma 

 sent me up to get, some apples, but don't send Ben Davis," but, the boy 

 says, "Send them; I will take them home and see what ma says." So 

 they got a sack full of the Ben Davis. They came back the next morn- 

 ing with a note thanking me for sending her the best apple she ever had. 

 They are good cookers, good lookers and good sellers, do fairly well to 

 eat in the winter. That's why I raise the Ben Davis. I have an orchard 

 of 5,000 trees. The nurseryman made a mistake in putting off a few on 

 me that were not Ben Davis. Buyers who come to my orchard take the 

 piles of Ben Davis first, and say, "You can put the others in if you want 

 to, but we don't care a cent whether you do or not." I would say to every 

 one who wants to set an orchard for commercial purposes, set Ben Davis 

 every time. 



Mr. Burton: I would rather have a Ben Davis than no apple at all. 

 Any man who has traveled over this western apple-growing country can 

 see for himself that the judgment of the people is for the Ben Davis for 

 a commercial apple. The bulk of their trees are Ben Davis. Every tree 

 yields piles of apples; they are higher colored than here. If a man goes 

 out there to buy a car of apples, he wants Ben Davis. Planters always 

 give their orders largely for Ben Davis when buying trees. The more 

 you ti-y to down it, the more* it is up. Like the Keiffer pear. A commer- 

 cial pear means Keiffer, and a commercial apple means Ben Davj-s. 



Mr. Hobbs: I would suggest three or four other varieties along with 

 your Ben Davis. A few Yellow Transparents, as Mr. Burton has well 

 suggested. The Red June has proven one of the very best commercial 

 and home apples. The Red Astrachan is a very reliable and good apple. 

 The Chenango for its beauty and attractiveness. The Duchess of Olden- 

 burg is a newer variety, and has not been so extensively planted over 

 the State m the^e old varieties mentioned. It has not failed since it came 



