QUAUTY AND THE MARKET. 



219 



ty and a good shipper," I always question 

 the real, intrinsic value of his new produc- 

 tion. " Fair quality " in an advertisement 

 of this kind usually means poor quality. It 

 is a notch lower than any of the three de- 

 scriptions given by Downing to fruits worthy 

 of mention, namely, good, very good, best. 

 A fruit that does not come up to Downing's 

 lowest is not worthy of dissemination, and 

 there are a good many of the newer candi- 

 dates advertised and foisted upon the inno- 

 cent public with great emphasis placed upon 

 their shipping qualities which are unworthy 

 of any place in our catalogues, simply be- 

 cause they are not good enough to eat. 



We are constantly expressing our disap- 

 pointment because our northern fruits take 

 second place whenever some tropical species 

 cbmes into the market. We regret that 

 people eat oranges, bananas and breadfruit, 

 neglecting our beautiful northern apples, 

 and still, in the face of our discomfiture, we 

 magnify the attributes of such apples as the 

 Baldwin and the Ben Davis because they 

 can bfe shipped long distances and not be 

 materially injured or bruised by severe 

 handling. Then we expect people to like 

 this class of fruit when placed alongside of 

 the most delicate southern varieties that are 

 shipped to us with the utmost care in pack- 

 ing. People eat Baldwin apples and then 

 say they are not very particularly fond of 

 apples anyway, when, if their tastes could 

 be satisfied by presenting fruit of the quali- 

 ty of the Jonathan or of the Melon, there 

 would be an increased demand for the ap- 

 ple. We flood the market with plums and 

 expect people to buy them, expressing our 

 wonder that so many people should say, 

 ''Well, we do not care so very much for 

 plums. Somehow our people have lost their 

 taste for them." The responsibility for this 

 lack of demand lies in the fact that the quali- 

 ty of the fruit is too poor to be attractive to 

 people. There will always be a demand for 

 the finer classes of plums if they can be 

 found upon the market. 



If we expect people to like peaches we 

 must not fill them up at the beginning of 

 the season with varieties so entirely lacking 

 in quality as the Alexander class. You 

 must so satisfy the palate as to compel peo- 

 ple to increase their wants because you 

 have whetted their appetites. 



It is eminently desirable, from the stand- 

 point of the grower, that the people should 

 eat and use more pears, and we say to them, 

 "The pear is an excellent fruit, a healthful 

 fruit, and you ought to consume large quan- 

 tities of it," and after saying this we hunt 

 through the catalogue to find some variety 

 that we can grow the cheapest and that we 

 can ship the longest distance, and then 

 furnish the people with this kind of stock, 

 at the same time suggesting to them that 

 they ought to eat more pears. We cannot 

 expect an increased demand for pears when 

 we try to satisfy it with the Angouleme and 

 Kieffer. I am willing to be classed as senti- 

 mental with regard to some things because 

 I think sentiment has a very high value, but 

 in this contention it is purely a matter of 

 business. If we expect people to increase 

 the consumption of our fruits we must furn- 

 ish them the quality and the product that 

 will be attractive to them. We must not 

 only do this, but we must educate people so 

 far as we can in their tastes so that they 

 shall demand the best. This is in the inter- 

 est of higher living and progressive agricul- 

 ture. It will not do to be constantly excus- 

 ing ourselves tor not furnishing the highest 

 quality of fruits or trying to make poor 

 fruits seem pretty good. A single instance; 

 The Ben Davis apple is not of such quality 

 as to be. attractive to one who has a keen 

 discernment of quality in the apple family, 

 and it does not make the matter any better 

 to say to people that the Ben Davis in some 

 localities is not so very bad a fruit and that 

 it is pretty good when you cannot get any- 

 thing else. It is not a very good advertise- 

 ment for an apple to have it called for by a 

 hotel man, for the reason that it remains on 



