INDIANA HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 383 



I say, God bless Mr. Flick for believing in Indiana and in the Ben Davis. 

 I know be is wrong about the apple, but he is all right, nevertheless. 



Mr. Zion: Peach growers have found their greatest rivals in the mar- 

 ket to be the Ben Davis apple and the Keiffer pear. I have done business 

 with Mr. Keach of this city and I would like to hear from him. He has 

 had more experience than most men I have met. 



Mr. W. W. Stevens: If Mr. Keach is present we would like to hear 

 from him. 



Mr. James L. Keach, Indianapolis: Mr. President and Gentlemen— I 

 believe your good friend Mr. Hale overlooks one point in regard to the 

 Ben Davis apple. I recognize the work that Mr. Hale has done, and it 

 has given me great pleasure to have him attend this meeting. I have a 

 man who has had the experience of almost a lifetime, and he has nearly 

 made me poor this year traveling about and looking over the general sit- 

 uation and investigating the crop. He reported to me^ after having gone 

 over the situation pretty thoroughly, not excepting the good State of 

 Connecticut, as well as Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New 

 York, Pennsylvania and as far west as Kansas — in fact, all the principal 

 apple growing sections of the country. Now I am entirely disinterested 

 in what I am going to say, and I say that if Indiana did not raise apples 

 that interested the ti-ade I would not be interested in the work. My man, 

 after having gone over this territory, reported to me that the finest orchard 

 and the best fruit he saw in his travels was the orchard at Orleans, owned 

 by Mr. Burton. He said the fruit was perfect and the quality of the best. 



4 



I intended to keep an eye on those apples for the purpose of buying, but 

 even though I did not get them, I am willing to give Mr. Burton and Indi- 

 ana credit. As to the eastern varieties of apples. I agxee with Mr. Hale as 

 to the superior quality of some of them, but when he talks of a Snow, or 

 a Baldwin, or a Greening, I will say there are localities in our State 

 where those apples can not be produced for their commercial value. We 

 can raise a Baldwin in Indiana that would make Connecticut turn green 

 with envy; but our climate is so different from the Connecticut climate 

 that the Baldwins mature too early and have not the keeping qualities of 

 the eastern fruit. That hurts their commercial value. As to the Ben 

 Davis apple, I consider that it has been very much slandered. It has been 

 said here today, and rightly, that last year the Ben Davis was a very 

 popular apple. We don't always have a crop of apples in the East, and 

 as a general thing when their crop is a failure, we have some apples in 

 the West. The Ben Davis, from a commercial point of view, has been 

 found a success, and especially is that true where the orchard has been 

 given the attention which Mr. Burton gives his. A great deal of damage 

 has been done to the market for the Ben Davis by the slip-shod manner 

 in which they have been marketed, and the little attention that has been 

 given them. The average Indiana grower, with a small orchard, brings 



