i08 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



consuming public to pay according- to quality will do good 

 missionary work, for he has to pay the bill, the consumers 

 won't do it. The average consumer will let you pay the 

 bill for encouraging the producing of high grade fruit. You 

 will have to pay the bills and they will be expensive bills, but 

 any kind of education is costly. 



I have been growing small fruits all my life, and a high 

 quality of berries. The Palmer, one of the earhest straw- 

 berries — a most delicious quality, but in no market will they 

 pay any more for it than the ordinary kind. Then there is 

 the Banquet strawberry, which has the real flavor of the 

 wild berry, and yet you can't get a retailer to handle it. as 

 not one customer out of a hundred would pay a cent or two 

 more a quart for it than the ordinary berry. So, with the 

 Antwerp raspberry. The red Antwerp is probably the choicest 

 of all that are grown, but it needs especial care in the winter, 

 and if the public desire the Antwerp they must pay the extra 

 •expense of raising them. I have never been able to get any 

 more money for the finest quality of raspberry than I got 

 for the Cuthbert, and the Cuthbert grows more freely and 

 bears more abundantly. Then there are the blackberries, the 

 Lucretia, a most delicious berry, not like the big, punky Law- 

 ton, and yet the public ask for the Lawton, and we are giving 

 the public what they will pay for. You will find a few 

 customers who will take the Crosby peach and Hill's Chili, 

 two of the most delicious peaches in America. Put a basket 

 of Elbertas, which are not much better than the Ben Davis 

 apple, and the consumer will say, "Give me the big ones." In 

 the general markets of this country the public will buy twice 

 as many Elbertas as Hill's Chilis or Crosbys. The same is 

 true of the old Morris White, one of the most delicious peach- 

 es that can be grown. Do you see many of them on the mar- 

 ket? The consumers don't want them. The Seckel pear is an 

 exception to this rule. More of that variety of pear is sold 

 for its quality than any fruit we grow. We can grow the 

 best quality of fruit, but the dear public don't want to pay 

 for it, and half the consumers will buy inferior fruit in pref- 

 erence to the best quality. 



