yO STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Now for a total. A good many have asked me how we stood 

 as to the amount of fruit carried. Maine had 588 boxes, New 

 Hampshire 54, X'ermont 16, Massachusetts 74, Rhode Island 

 22, Connecticut 132. In other words, we had over 500 boxes 

 more than Massachusetts, and almost 500 more than any other 

 state. We had 28 barrels. New Hampshire 18, Vermont 5. 

 Massachusetts only led us by 3. Rhode Island had 24 and 

 Connecticut 25. So you see we led in barreled fruit all the 

 states except Massachusetts, which had three barrels more than 

 we did. 



I want to say one thing in regard to the scoring of some of 

 this fruit. We must get hold of the idea of getting our fruit in 

 a better condition — more perfect fruit. I am sorry to say that 

 some of the Maine fruit wasn't up to standard, and wasn't up 

 to what you would ordinarily expect in some of our grange fairs 

 or our state fairs or county fairs, and that was one thing that 

 scored against us heavily. Another thing which told against 

 us was the admission of the Ben Davis. I had to fight to get 

 this and I suppose I was too firm, and yet I know that the men 

 who are backing the interest here in Maine would have been 

 rather sore if the Ben Davis had been left out entirely. The 

 committee when I first mentioned the Ben Davis, laughed at 

 me. I fought to get it on the list and now I am sorry I did. I 

 did it for the interest of some of the leading fruit growers 

 of Maine. I wish you could have been there, some of you advo- 

 cates of the Ben Davis, with those judges for a few minutes. I 

 tell you, you would have certainly come home and top worked 

 your Ben Davis trees. Now you may think I am rather radical 

 and using too forceful language against the Ben Davis. It is a 

 handsome looking apple, and sells well in some of the markets. 

 But do we want to advocate a poor quality of apple just because 

 it sells in the market today? How will it be ten years from 

 now? "Yes, but," a man tells me, "it has been in the market 

 twenty or thirty years. We have sold it across the water and 

 we are going to right along." Possibly you are. But I tell 

 you I would rather run the risk of the good old Baldwin, the 

 king of apples, than to depend upon the Ben Davis much longer. 

 They make nice trees to top work, and I would do it at once. 



Every time those judges, where there was any competition, 

 (of course in our state exhibits in Maine they had to count it) 

 ruled out the Ben Davis. They may not have been right in doing 



