96 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



when fruit can be grown at one-fourth the cost of the old 

 expensive methods, loaded into plain ventilated cars and 

 shipped across the continent and back without a single case 

 of rot ! And here I will call attention to the government 

 investigation now being conducted in California by Professor 

 Harold Powell, who has been vainly endeavoring to locate 

 the cause of rot in oranges during transit to the east, the 

 loss being estimated at over half a million dollars annually, 

 which he attributes altogether to physical cuts or other dam- 

 age in picking, though it would not have been one cent had 

 the fruit been grown n a close-mowed sod. 



This could easily be demonstrated with fruit from any 

 city lawn ; but the professors will not do it, for that would 

 mean a loss of their fat jobs and an endorsement of the New 

 Horticulture, though this professor is plainly squinting that 

 way from the closing remarks in his recent report on the 

 subject, where he says: "The conditions under which the 

 fruit is grown, such as the character of the soil, the age of 

 the trees, the method of orchard management, undoubtedly 

 exert a wide influence on the shipping and keeping qualities 

 of the fruit. On this branch of the subject there is little defi- 

 nite information. We know that the texture and the quality 

 of the fruit are influenced widely by the cultural conditions, 

 and it is probable that the susceptibility to decay, the 

 rapidity of ripening and other factors that influence keeping 

 quality, are likewise modified. The Bureau is carrying on 

 investigations along this line." 



Now Professor Powell was in or near Los Angeles at the 

 time the Fruit World of that city received my Elbertas 

 alluded to, when I also wrote the editor fully, telling him all 

 about my theory as to the immunity of sod-grown fruit to 

 brown rot and of the other experimental shipments made to 

 demonstrate its truth, and, being then engaged on the same 

 subject, it is very evident from the Professor's remarks above 

 that he read my letter. I will now close this discussion of 

 cultivation as affecting the keeping qualities of fruits by cit- 

 ing a remarkable instance of its effect on the apple. I have 

 a young bearing Terry Winter tree, a favorite Georgia apple, 



