232 THE SURVIVAL OP THE UNLIKE. [x. 



blackberries, four are included iu the select dessert 

 list. Fourteen cherries rate 9 and 10 for market, and 

 just half of them are in the select list. Of the ei{?lit 

 best market currants, however, only one is rated high 

 for dessert, but the currant has not been developed in 

 the direction of high quality. Of the four market 

 gooseberries, two are in the other list. Mr. Lyon 

 admits but six market grapes, of which one is a su- 

 perior table fruit. Of the market peaches, nearly one- 

 fourth are dessert fruits. One -fourth of the market 

 pears rank highest for dessert, while one -third of the 

 remainder rank as high as 8, which is the rating of 

 the Bartlett and Sheldon. One -seventh of the best 

 market plums are best for dessert, and nearly a third 

 rank 8, Of the dozen best market raspberries, one- 

 fourtli are best table sorts, while half of them rank 8. 

 Over a third of the market strawberries are dessert 

 varieties. All these facts show conclusively that high 

 quality is not incompatible with that combination of 

 qualities whi(di determines a market fruit, and they 

 show that a very large number of our mai-ket fruits 

 actually are dessert fruits. If we take the average 

 quality of all the fruits ranking 9 and 10 for market, 

 we find it to stand uniformly at 7 or above for dessert, 

 or higher than medium quality. Thus the average 

 table rating of all the high market apples is 7.1, or 

 over one point higher than the Baldwin. The average 

 of market blackberries is 8.5. This instance is par- 

 ticularly interesting because the bla(!kberry is prob- 

 ably the fruit oftenest cited as decreasing in quality 

 in proportion as it increases in size. Cherries average 

 7.3, and grapes 7.8. Peaches average 7.6, whicli i.s 

 higher than the rating of Late Crawford, Barnard and 



