462 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



value. But, surely then, it must be bought for its taste ? Hardly so, 

 if the commercial men know their business. As a matter of trade 

 experience they know that the consumer gives almost as much weight 

 to the combined testimony of the senses of sight and touch, and some- 

 times smell, as he does to the sense of taste. This will appear upon 

 examining the butter score of excellence in use by the New York 

 Mercantile Exchange and generally in use by dairymen. 



Flavor, appealing to the gustatory nerves, has a weight of 45 

 points; the grain, body, or texture, which is perceived by the nerves 

 of touch in the mouth, particularly those of the tongue, has a weight 

 of 25 points; the salting, 10 points; the color of the butter, 15 points; 

 and the style of the package, 5 points altogether making 100 points, 

 indicating perfect butter upon full scoring. 



The nerves of taste influence the choice of the purchaser to the 

 extent of only 55 per cent; to the nerves of touch hi the mouth is 

 granted an importance of 25 per cent; so that butter appeals to the 

 mouth to the extent of 80 per cent of its attractions, the remaining 

 20 being offers to the favor of the eye. 



For commercial purposes that is, for the purposes of attracting 

 and pleasing consumers only 45 per cent of the perfection of cheese 

 is regarded as appealing to the taste. Almost one-third of the total 

 of excellence, or 30 per cent, is perceived by touch in the mouth, and 

 25 per cent, or one-fourth, is purely an appeal to the eye. 



Horticulturists have been saying for years that in the so-called 

 improvement of fruits we have generally failed to improve the quality. 

 The most productive of cultivated blackberries are large and beautiful, 

 but, as found in the market, are inferior in flavor when compared with 

 the wild ones found along the roadside. As Professor Bailey has 

 said, "the best market fruits are cultivated for a variety of features, 

 as size and color of fruit, vigor, hardiness, and productiveness of the 



tree; quality is usually not considered Quality and other 



characters of cultivated fruits appear independently of each other, 

 and there is no true correlation between these characters." 



Place a farmer and a city-bred man in the presence of a large 

 variety of apples, and the farmer, very likely, will select for his eating 

 such apples as a Rhode Island Greening, a Northern Spy, a Grimes' 

 Golden, or a Jonathan, and the city man, governed in his choice by 

 different sets of nerves, may select a Ben Davis, Baldwin, Stark, or 

 Missouri Pippin. Taste is the fruit grower's principal test of an 

 apple, if he has to eat it himself, but very different attributes are of 



