A PLEA FOE QUALITY OF FEU IT 



IN an address at the recent annual meet- 

 ing of the American Pomolog^cal So- 

 siety, held at Boston, Mr. G. Harold 

 Powell gave some excellent advice in regard 

 to growing fruit of first class quality. Many 

 of the points which he brought out were 

 noted with approval by Mr. W. A. McKin- 

 non, chief of the Dominion Fruit Division, 

 and are given here for the benefit of Cana- 

 dian fruit growers. Mr. Powell recom- 

 mended as summer apples for the United 

 States, Red Astrachan, Sweet Bough and 

 Williams; as autumn apples, Gravenstem 

 and Alexander; for winter, the Greening, 

 the Newton Pippin, which he stated had 

 sometimes sold as high as $20 a barrel, the 

 King, the Spitzenburg, Baldwin, Spy and 

 Mcintosh Red. He recommended top 

 grafting the King on two-year-old Sp'ys, 

 stating that in this way a vigorous tree bear- 

 ing good crops would be obtained. 



Regarding the Ben Davis, Mr. Powell 

 made a very cutting criticism, declaring it 

 had only one quality to recommend it, name- 

 ly, its color ; and stating that no fruit would 

 take a prominent place in our markets or 

 would continue to be a profitable one for 

 growers which depends upon a single virtue 

 for its sale. 



The Champion grape received a similar 

 castigation. Its only virtue is its earliness, 

 and this Mr. Powell thinks has made it one 

 of the worst enemies of the grape grower, 

 inasmuch as the price of the Champions, at 

 first very high, drops almost to nothing. 

 The last price of the Champion, or what the 

 public are willing to pay after they have be- 

 come acquainted with its wretched quality, 

 fixes the price for all other grapes which fol- 

 low, though they are infinitely superior in 

 quality to the Champion. In other words, 

 rock bottom prices having been once fixed, 

 it is impossible to get back to normal prices. 



Mr. Powell spoke rather more kindly of 

 the Elberta peach, but is of the opinion that 

 it also is not an unmixed blessing to the fruit 

 growers. It is a splendid shipper, but has 

 no quality. 



The conclusion to be drawn from Mr. 

 Powell's remarks is that whatever transient 

 advantages may be obtained by the grower 

 from the production of inferior varieties, it 

 is to his permanent advantage, and it is his 

 only wise policy to produce the highest 

 quality in each sort of fruit which he places 

 on the market. 



Striking testimony to the value of such 

 advice is furnished by some reports of fruit 

 sales just received by the Fruit division from 

 London, England. On October 7th there 

 were sold a large number of half cases of 

 California and other American pears, includ- 

 ing about a dozen varieties. The Seckel, 

 which is generally regarded as a pear of the 

 highest quality, though small in size, sold for 

 i2s. ; the Glout Morceau for 13s. 6d; the 

 Calabash (similar to our Bosc) for lis; the 

 Cornice (one of the varieties recommended 

 by the Fruit Division) for lis. to 12s. If 

 we contrast these prices with those for fruit 

 of inferior quality we must conclude that the 

 Englishman wants only the best fruit and 

 that he is prepared to pay for it. Bartletts, 

 which are certainly above medium quality, 

 fetched 6s. to 7s. ; Anjou, 9s. ; Clairgeau, 7s. 

 to 7s. 6d. ; Duchess, 3s. pd. to 4s. ; Hardy, 

 2s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. ; and Keiffers, which it is 

 only fair to mention were " wet," only lod. 

 to IS. a cask. Large quantities of Cana- 

 dian apples, sold on the same day, brought 

 all the way from los. to 25s. per barrel (the 

 latter figure being for Ribstones), with the 

 great majority at 15s. to i6s. On October 

 12 half cases of Comice pears were sold by 

 the same firm for lis. 66., while the Duch- 

 ess variety fetched only 4s. 3d., these being 



