STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ©5 



variations in this case are due more to climate than to soil. The 

 wide distribution of this variety furnishes conditions which pro- 

 duce types of almost every conceivable size, form, color and 

 quality as well. It will be sufficient merely to call attention to 

 the contrast between the relatively small and insipid "Ben 

 Davis" of Maine to the large, beautiful fruit of this variety from 

 almost any section in the West or the South, and there is as much 

 difference in the flavor as there is in other ways. But in the 

 sections of the country where this variety is so much more at 

 home than it is in the North, it presents many interesting varia- 

 tions in all of its characteristics. But perhaps I ought to add, 

 by way of apolog}% that in no section does it ever acquire much 

 that is good in the way of quality, though I have eaten "Ben 

 Davis" when I would have thought it was a pretty fair apple if 

 I could have shut my eyes to the fact that it was this variety that 

 1 was eating. 



In this way one might go on almost indefinitely, reciting the 

 peculiar and special requirements of different varieties as to soil, 

 climate, elevation, etc., in order for them to develop to their high- 

 est degree of perfection or in order to make them fill some partic- 

 ular place in our scheme of fruit growing, but enough has been 

 said to emphasize the fact that an apple tree is a thing of life, 

 sensitive to its environment, to which it responds by making a 

 variety one thing in one place and quite a different thing in some 

 other place. 



In the foregoing dissertation, I have attempted to call 

 attention to some of the fundamental agencies which should be 

 carefully considered when the behavior of any variety of fruit is 

 at issue and, in a disconnected way, to show the effect in certain 

 instances of these agencies. But I should feel that I had omitted 

 a very essential factor if I did not refer in this same connection 

 to the orchardist himself as a most important factor in the case, 

 when the behavior of varieties is the thing in question. Verily, 

 man is the greatest disturbing element in all the universe ! In 

 my study of the adaptability of varieties I am impressed more 

 and more each year with the fact that the individuality of the 

 fruit grower is one of the most potent factors in shaping results, 

 and I find that in order to interpret correctly the behavior of any 

 variety in any place, it is just as necessarv to study the man in 



