44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ain taking up a very personal matter, — one on which men 

 differ as radically as they do in politics; but it is also one 

 in which everybody is deeply interested, and on the proper 

 decision of which depends, to a great extent, the success of 

 the plantation. In what I shall say I am not pretending to 

 dictate or even advise any one else, but am merely giving 

 my personal views and experiences, as I have in the other 

 matters discussed. 



I believe, first and foremost, as I have already suggested, 

 that varieties for setting here in New England ought to be 

 of high quality. I do not believe that we should set any- 

 thing poorer in quality than a Baldwin or a Greening, and 

 I wish that a great many trees might be set of varieties very 

 much better in quality. But in saying this I am quite well 

 aware that under present conditions, and with present meth- 

 ods of growing and handling apples, the Baldwin, and even 

 the Ben Davis, may be the most profitable varieties to grow ; 

 for a Mcintosh or a Spy will not stand the treatment that 

 the great bulk of the apples grown here receive. This is an 

 unfortunate condition of aft"airs, and ought to be remedied, 

 but at present I believe the statement accurately depicts the 

 situation. 



As to the number of varieties which a man should set, that 

 depends very largely on the type of market for which he is 

 working. If for the general market, then the fewer varieties 

 he has, the better. Two or three, say Baldwin, Greening 

 and Hubbardston, would be the limit; and many men think 

 that they make more money out of a single variety, especially 

 if that variety is Baldwin. I am inclined to believe, how- 

 ever, that for the sake of cross-pollination there should be at 

 least a few rows in the orchard of some other varieties, even 

 in orchards which are catering to the general market ; by 

 which is meant, of course, where the owner sells his crop 

 at the orchard to a buyer, or ships it to a commission man. 



On the other hand, if a man is working for a special or 

 personal market, — that is, if he is supplying regular cus- 

 tomers, either directly or through some retail fruit dealer, — 

 then it is perfectly legitimate for him to grow a much longer 

 list of varieties ; in fact, it is necessary for him to do so, for 



