STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 127 



Mr. Pope. The first question which I have been asked to pro- 

 pound for discussion is, what is the coming apple for shipment from 

 Maine? 



Mr. Atherton. I should say that in about five hundred and fifty 

 years it might possibly be the Ben Davis. 



Mr. True. I have some thirty-five young trees of the Ben Davis. 

 The}^ bore some this year and the apples were some of the hand- 

 somest that I raised. The trees appear to be very hardy and to grow 

 very rapidl}'. It seems to me that if we can grow a handsome apple 

 with the keeping qualities of the Ben Davis we have got an apple 

 that will bring us some money and that is what we are looking after. 



Sec. Gilbert. The chair raises the question whether the extreme 

 late keeping quality of fruit carries with it as much of money value 

 as it did years ago ; whether the demand for apples that keep 

 extremely late, well down into the summer, is not passing away 

 under the new order of things, and whether we might not conclude, 

 therefore, that the quality of keeping extreraeh' late would not give 

 a great money value to the fruit. 



Mr. Merrill. I shipped some Ben Davis apples a year ago with 

 my last shipment, and they arrived in much better condition than 

 any other variety. I shipped as late as the fifth of May from Port- 

 land to Liverpool. I shipped thirty-eight barrels of the Ben Davis 

 of my own raising on the twenty-ninth of April, and I shipped some 

 on the week following. I saw them after they arrived and they 

 looked just as well as when they came out of my cellar ; and the}^ 

 sold better than any other variety at that time in that market. They 

 do not claim that the Ben Davis there is as desirable fruit as some 

 others, but they will pay a better price for fruit which is sound, than 

 for that which is partlj^ deca3'ed. Late in the season the Baldwin 

 matures verj^ fast in transit, while the Ben Davis makes no percepti- 

 ble change. The Russet looks ver^' well after it arrives in Liverpool, 

 but it is not the apple that it is when it leaves here, at that time of 

 year, in April or May. As to the future of the Ben Davis we are 

 unable to say, but we judge as to the profit of any business in the 

 future from the past. We well know that the Ben Davis has been 

 the best paying apple that we have raised when we have kept them 

 late. 



I know most everybody says the Ben Davis is worthless, but I 

 notice our local trade is very good for that variety in May and June. 



