i6o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



pen to the Ben Davis when the people get enough of a really 

 good apple. 



A Member: And there is another thing we must remember 

 here, and that is, that the Ben Davis is not a long-lived tree. 

 It maintains a great product of fine looking red fruit, which 

 every one is fearful may shut out our fruit, but it is not a long- 

 lived tree. The life of the Ben Davis is not over ten years. 

 That ought to be a great comfort to some of our people here. 



Mr. Hale : The Lord is on our side there. 



Mr. Foster : Please do not misunderstand me about this. I 

 am not here to try to elevate the character of the Ben Davis apple, 

 but I am speaking from the standpoint of the man who dis- 

 tributes fruit, from a commercial standpoint entirely, and from 

 that point of view I say that the Ben Davis is a money-maker. 

 Now that fact cannot be belied, it is a money-maker because 

 there is a great demand for it in the markets, but I am not here 

 to advise you to plant it. It is not an apple that we should plant 

 in the East, because we can grow better varieties. Our Baldwin 

 of the East is a splendid fall apple. Our Baldwin of the East 

 is a standard apple which we can all bank on. But w^hat have 

 you people in the East been doing? What have you been doing 

 with many of the good varieties which you can grow and find 

 a good market for? You have allowed them to degenerate. 

 Take the Greening. You have allowed it to degenerate until 

 much of the crop is unsalable through careless methods of 

 culture. I think the scald can be sprayed out. I do not know, 

 but it appears to me as though care and attention would elimi- 

 nate this blight on the Greening. The demand for it even now 

 is increasing. It should be properly cared for. It is one of the 

 grandest apples you have got to market. There is no better 

 apple in the world than the Greening. 



A Member : There is no danger from that Western Ben 

 Davis apple. While it may be true that some of our Eastern 

 varieties have not been held up where they belong, yet that Ben 

 Davis has got to be renewed three times while your Eastern stock 

 is under generous production. 



Mr. Hoyt : The trouble is they have all been after red apples. 

 That is the reason why the Ben Davis has been so popular in 

 the market. Because it is a fair looking red apple. The Rhode 

 Island apple is a grand apple, but there has been no demand for 

 it. That makes the difference. 



