224 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^ 



everywhere else. The pretty but insipid Ben 

 Davis apple is craftily sold under half a 

 dozen names all over the United States. I 

 saw a ray of hope last summer when I read 

 a poster in a village post office in Maine offer- 

 ing prizes up to two hundred dollars to farmers 

 starting young orchards, any variety being 

 allowed — ''except Ben Davis." The Ben Davis 

 has become an outcast simply because it has no 

 flavor.^ 



The peach market also has its Ben Davis. 

 Its name is Elberta. A few dense fruit-stand 

 men still have the audacity to label their 

 peaches Elbertas, as if that were something to 

 boast of. Most of them, however, just placard 

 them as "free-stone peaches." I asked one of 

 them, "What are these?" 



"Peaches," he answered. 



"Yes, I know, but what kind of peaches?" 



"Free-stone," he answered; and that was 

 all I could get out of him without subjecting 

 him to the third degree. 



Another man, after a moment's hesitation, 

 said, "Elbertas," and when I moved away 

 saying I didn't want any Elbertas he muttered 

 an oath to himself. Perhaps he will realize some 

 day that he would make a great deal more 



^ Please call your fruitman's attention to this eloquent fact. For 

 many other equally striking facts that will help to convince him 

 see the chapter on the "Commercial Value of Flavor" in my book 

 Food and Flavor (The Century Co.). 



