STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 53 



that is something T never should want to do myself. As to the 

 gentleman's question, if he is catering to the local market he is 

 all right, he wants an apple of good quality, but if you are con- 

 templating a commercial orchard you don't want any apples of 

 good quality. You can't mention an apple of good quality that 

 is a first class commercial apple. The one that comes nearest 

 to it perhaps is the Northern Spy. There are so many objections 

 to the Northern Spy that I will not mention but one or two. In 

 the first place they are too long coming to bearing. You want to 

 plant something that will come to bearing before a great while. 

 If you are planting Northern Spies, you are planting for pos- 

 terity, and posterity never did me any good and I don't owe 

 posterity anything ; they must look out for themselves, — I did. 

 To be sure, when I pass away I shall leave my Ben Davis trees, 

 and I shan't regret the apples very much if I do, and you won't 

 find anybody that will. But this matter of the Ben Davis, this 

 scare if you may call it so about the Ben Davis, it seems to me 

 is all nonsense. We don't come into competition with the west- 

 ern Ben Davis. There has been so much talk about the western 

 Ben Davis, they raise so many out there ; and their heads are 

 level in doing it, that is the way they make money, but the season 

 of the western Ben Davis is fall and early winter unless it is in. 

 cold storage. In Kentucky the Ben Davis is a fall apple, while 

 ours keep, as you know, till spring ; and no matter how much of 

 a glut there may be in the market, — and we are face to face with 

 a condition very much like that of i8q6 now this minute, — if 

 you have your cellar full of Ben Davis you needn't worry about 

 that condition. — you may forget you have them and let them stay 

 there until this glut, this overstocked market has all gone by, 

 and then sell your Ben Davis for a good price. In 1896 you 

 remember we had such a condition, and worse perhaps than it 

 is now. and apples were not practically worth anything; the 

 first two carloads I shipped in 1896 didn't bring me anything, I 

 lost work, apples, barrels and everything, the freight just about 

 offset what they brought in Liverpool. But I had some Ben 

 Davis, and they sold when it came time to ship Ben Davis for 

 seventeen shillings, more than $4. and netted back about $3. 

 That is a good deal better. Your Ben Davis will bring you 

 good money if you keep, them, as you can. Your Baldwins 

 won't quite keep past the glut. They do very well, it is a grand 



