30 VARIETIES AND NURSERY STOCK 



and change to a dull, unattractive red rather quickly, while the 

 Mclntosh will hold its bright, handsome color almost indefinitely. 



8. Ships Well. This is imperative in the general market at 

 present, but is less important in the special market because we 

 wrap apples for that market and put them in smaller packages 

 and do various other things to make them carry better. The 

 relative importance of this point is also likely to decline in both 

 general and special markets as we still further improve on our 

 methods of handling and transporting our fruit. When ex- 

 pressmen are no longer allowed to handle boxes of apples as 

 they would pig iron it will not be so important that the fruit 

 should " stand up well." 



So much for the qualities of varieties as shown in the score 

 card. 



Number of Varieties. Another question of great impor- 

 tance is how many varieties to set. The usual recommendation 

 on this point is not to set many, to keep the number down to 

 two or three, or four at the outside. In general, this is prob- 

 ably good advice. There is no question but that most men who 

 set out orchards of any kind find, when the trees come into 

 bearing, that they have some varieties that they wish they 

 had not planted. That is almost inevitable if one branches out 

 at all. Usually the more enthusiastic and inexperienced a man 

 is the more varieties he will set. Enthusiasm plays a very 

 important part in this choice of varieties. A cold and calculat- 

 ing attitude is probably the proper one to take. Then it is usually 

 possible to keep the number down where it belongs. But as soon 

 as most men begin to get really interested, they find one variety 

 after another that they think they must try, until the list soon 

 reaches undue proportions. One grower confessed to the writer 

 privately that his first order of apple trees contained ninety- 

 three varieties; and that he would have bought more but that 

 was all the nurseryman carried! A fatal mistake so far as 

 profit is concerned and yet one for which the writer confesses 

 a great deal of lenience. 



The proper way to do is to separate absolutely the commercial 

 and the experimental ventures: Put in the former only those 



