JO 



>8 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



a little inclined to be seedy. It is a variety 

 worthy of trial. Saunders is very much 

 like Williams, but somewhat later, and 

 holds its size better throughout the season. 

 Irene is a late, strong growing pistillate 

 variety, bearing large crops of medium 



sized, firm, bright scarlet, sub-acid berries. 

 Irene promises to be one of the best late 

 berries, as it ripens after the glut of the 

 market is over. 

 O. A. C. H. S. Peart. 



THE BEN DAVIS APPLE 



ASK a man who is a commercial 

 grower of apples, who grows and 

 ships his own, and who has a good 

 paying orchard, what variety has been the 

 n:ost profitable, and he will be almost sure 

 to tell you the Ben Davis. Probably nine- 

 teen out of twenty growers will tell you the 

 same thing. If this apple had the spicy 

 flavor and c|uality of the Spy, it would be 

 about as near the ideal apple as we could 

 hope to attain. The good points about it 

 are its early, regular and abundant bearing, 

 and its good shipping and keeping qualities. 

 Its greatest fault is its lack of quality, but 

 it has some minor ones. Like all trees that 

 bear early and heavily, it does not attain a 

 large size, and in many localities is short- 

 lived. It is subect to sun-scald and decay 

 of the trunk. It cannot be classed as a 

 strictly hardy tree ; it may be classed as only 

 half hardy in the northern sections. It has 

 been planted more extensively during the 

 last ten years than any other variety, and it 

 is now a question whether it has not been 

 overdone. No doubt the chief reason for 

 its popularity in the past has been its splen- 

 did keeping and shipping qualities, making 

 it most profitable for export to the British 

 markets. It nearly always lands in good 

 condition, and the buyer knows it will keep 

 in good condition and will not spoil before 

 sold. But with improved methods of 

 handling and transport of our best quality 

 of apples, so that they can be laid down in 

 distant markets in perfect condition, the 

 Ben Davis must inevitably be discounted on 

 ?!CCount of its lack of flavor and cualitv. 



• There is now another claimant for pub- 

 lic favor, the Gano, closely akin to the Ben 

 Davis, said to be a seedling of it. Being a 

 comparatively new variety, it has not been 

 extensively grown as yet. The tree closely 

 resembles the Ben Davis ,in habit of growth 

 and earl ybearing. but it is decidedly a bet- 

 ter apple. It has also the keeping quality, 

 in which it excels, and its qualities so r 

 would indicate it as a safer one to plant 

 than the Ben Davis. It would be well for 

 intending planters to not plant heavily of 

 the Ben Davis, or of apples of its class at 

 present, but rather plant mostly some hardy 

 sort for purposes of top grafting, and if 

 after a few years it is found that the Ben 

 Davis still retains its place as a paying com- 

 mercial variety, it can be top-grafted on the 

 hardy stock, and that is decidedly the best 

 way of growing it. But it is not with ap- 

 ples of this class that our reputation as an 

 apple-growing country is to be acquired and 

 maintained. We must aim to produce 

 something that has high quality to com- 

 mend it, for it is quality that counts in all 

 lines, and we have the soil and climatic con- 

 ditions to do this, and we can do it ; we can 

 excel all other countries if we go about it 

 in. the right way. A reputation for high 

 quality is, undoubtedly, the surest way to 

 success, but whatever may be in the future 

 of the industry, it cannot be denied that in 

 the past the Ben Davis has been the most 

 profitable commercial apple grown in this 

 country. — Farmers Advocate. 



