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The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE NEW YORK STATE FAIR. SOME NEW FRUITS. 



AVING had the privilege of judging the fruits at the 

 New York State fair, and also some of our own fairs, 

 I thought perhaps a few notes of ^comparison and a 

 description of how our neighbors do things, might be 

 of interest to your readers. Taking quantity, the New 

 York State Fair was ahead of anything I have seen 

 outside of the World's Fair. The Society had offered 

 $200 for the best collection of fruits exhibited by any 

 individual or association, and there was a strong com- 

 petition between the Western New York and the Central 

 New York Horticultural Societies. The prize being won 

 by the Western, which had over 1,000 plates of fruit on 

 exhibition. The total of fruit as exhibited was 400 plates 

 of grapes, 1,300 of pears, 5,500 of apples, 900 plums, 250 peaches, besides sam- 

 ples of currants, berries, etc., and you can see they want nothing small of a man 

 over there, when they asked one man to judge it all. The arrangement of this 

 fruit, owing to the want of proper buildings, was anything but artistic or conve- 

 nient for inspection or judging. The building which had been constructed for 

 horticultural exhibits, was largely taken up with plants and flowers — which were 

 very fine — and a large portion of the fruit had to be shown under canvas, two 

 large tents being erected for this purpose. In point of quality, none of the 

 fruits, excepting plums and pears, would excell the fruits exhibited at our 'town- 

 ship and county fairs, and these would not exceed or equil our display at the 

 Industrial Exhibition, only in the number of varieties. Ellwanger & Barry, of 

 Rochester, showed 125 varieties of pears, besides a large exhibit of plums and 

 grapes. S. D. Willard, of Geneva, showed a fine display of plums, many of 

 them new varieties ; among them were the Burbank, Black Diamond, Archduke, 

 Monarch, Prince of Wales, Field, and others. There was, among other new 

 things exhibited, a plum called Palmer's favorite, which attracted my attention. 

 It was similar in shape to Pond's Seedling, though not quite as large, a dull red 

 or pink, but peculiarly mottled, and the quality was excellent. I hope we may, 

 ere long, get it to test at our Ontario Experiment Stations. There was a large 

 new white currant shown by a Mr. Marvin, large as the White Grape and consid- 

 erably later. The State Experimental Station showed a very fine and instructive 

 exhibit of fruit and vegetables, nicely arranged and named, which was well 

 worth studying, though I had not time to inspect and take notes of it. But 

 just here I would like to suggest that an exhibit from our Experiment Stations 

 should be arranged at Toronto and some others of our important fairs, another 

 year, and properly labeled, so people could learn to know the different varieties 

 of fruits when they see them, for I find a deplorable ignorance in this respect, 



