THE APPLE. 185 



strawberry, in large measure also to a cherry, But to find a new 

 and great variety of winter apple would be worth nothing, because 

 there would be no demand for it ; as witness the amazing inconsider- 

 ation with which the South treated the Shannon apple, that wonder 

 of Arkansas, which took the premium over all competitors at the 

 Cotton Centennial here in New Orleans, 1884-85. I remember well 

 with what exultation I hailed the victory, and said : "Now, we shall 

 have a new era in apples. We shall soon see the Shannon on sale 

 here in New Orleans, and measurably disuse this wretched but pop- 

 ular Ben Davis, and such.'' And yet I don't suppose you could find 

 a barrel of Shannons on sale anywhere in any city of the South ; 

 and I doubt if one southern nurseryman in a hundred propagates it, 

 or if he does, sells any but the fewest number of the trees. And 

 another illustration of the comparative disregard is the Johnson, a 

 seedling originating in Mississippi, with which Dr. H. E. McKay, of 

 Madison Station, Miss, (the Strawberry King, as he is designated), 

 took the premium as the best new fall apple at the same great exposi- 

 tion just mentioned, where the Shannon took its premium. Had two 

 such apples been discovered North or West, the whole horticultural 

 world would have been agog, and millions of trees would have been 

 sold in a very few years. I remember, in Delaware, we horticultur- 

 ists thought we were getting the Hale's Early peach very cheap at 

 one dollar a tree, one year old. Look, too, at the Idaho pear, dis- 

 covered a few years ago, and its price. 



I have mentioned the Shannon and Johnson apples only by way 

 of illustration. Doubtless there are many others very good. I would 

 undertake to find on the southern branch of the Illinois Central Rail- 

 road, in Mississippi and Tennesse, and in Northwest Louisiana, at 

 least half a dozen new varieties of fall and winter apples seedlings 

 that constitute great accessions to the really large list of these apples 

 that are hardly known to anyone, unpropagated and unappreciated; 

 I hardly ever fail to discover something new in any trip I make, 

 because I keep my eyes open. Only a few years ago I discovered 

 two seedling pears in Louisiana, both fine, one of which, if propa- 

 gated, would be the greatest accession to the varieties of that fruit 

 within the last twenty-five years. But I was not situated to push it, 

 and did not care to " give it away." Why the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture does not see his way clear to put some one in the field to discover 

 new varieties of fruit South is a mystery. Not but that something 

 has been done, but there is such a broad, rich field totally unex- 

 plored. The South, for illustration, among her most foreknowing 

 horticulturists, is yearning to propagate the cherry. And I have been 

 hunting it for twenty-five years, and have found much which I hope 

 to give to the readers of the Southern States. But why should this be 

 left in such a disregarded condition ? 



Undoubtedly the South at large could add scores, if not hundreds, 

 of varieties of choice fall and winter apples to the list in propagation, 

 if there were a demand. The question is, Will there ever be a de- 

 mand ? or, rather, the question is, Will the South ever meet the 

 demand ? For the South consumes really an immense quantity of 



