PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 



By WILLIAM A. TAYLOR, Chief of Bureau, and H. P. GOULD, Pomologist in 

 Charge of Fruit-Production Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE conditions under which fruit is grown and marketed 

 are slowly though constantly changing. Standards of 

 excellence in different particulars are being raised. Con- 

 sumers are gradually acquiring a better knowledge of what 

 constitutes good fruit. Too many varieties are poor in some 

 particular, though perhaps possessing much merit in all other 

 important respects. Practically no varieties are altogether 

 good. 



A variety may be productive, an excellent shipping fruit, 

 and attractive in appearance, but poor in flavor; another 

 may have every desirable quality except productiveness; or 

 a variety well-nigh perfect in other respects is very suscepti- 

 ble to some disease difficult to control. But there is no inher- 

 ent incompatibility in the various characteristics of fruits to 

 prevent the existence of the ideally perfect variety for a partic- 

 ular purpose the one without fault for its season of ripening. 



Consciously or otherwise, the search for the ideal in fruit 

 varieties goes on. Each year sees new varieties brought to 

 light and introduced to the trade. A few of these persist 

 and in time become important in the fruit industry, but the 

 great majority are never widely known, because in reality 

 they do not meet any special need. A new variety in order 

 to attain enduring importance in the fruit industry must 

 represent a high standard of excellence in all particulars, and 

 in at least one particular it must surpass in some region or 

 regions other sorts already in cultivation. And as a rule 

 its merits must even then be persistently and extensively 

 advertised; else its dissemination will be very slow. 



It is exceedingly difficult for a new variety, even of the 

 highest merit, to crowd out a mediocre variety that has been 

 extensively planted by many fruit growers. For this reason 

 a variety may be old, as measured by the age of a man, 

 before it becomes generally known. The Stayman Winesap 

 apple, for instance originated nearly half a century ago, 



109 



