298 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Piil). Doc. 



so generally found in full possession of our best fruit stores. And 

 almost without exception, when our eastern apples were as well grown 

 and had been as carefully handled, — which I am sorry to be obliged 

 to admit was not always the case, — almost without exception I have 

 had no hesitation in saying that the advantage in quality lay strongly 

 on the side of our home apples. Prof. John Craig of Cornell, one of the 

 highest authorities on such matters, one of the judges at Oregon's 

 "National Apple Show" last year, and a man who has had frequent 

 opportunities of testing this matter, has repeatedly expressed the 

 opinion, both publicly and privately, that for quality eastern apples 

 were in the lead. The late Charles Downing held the same view. He 

 received apples from all over this continent where they were grown in 

 his day, and expressed the opinion that the mountain regions of 

 Virginia and North Carolina and the orchard sections of higher latitude 

 — Nova Scotia, New England, etc. — produced apples of the highest 

 excellence of any that he received. And the same opinion has been 

 expressed to the writer on many occasions by those who have taken 

 the pains to test the comparative merits of our New England apples 

 and those of Oregon, Colorado and other western sections. Now, if 

 this is so, the importance of this one fact more than outweighs all other 

 possible advantages that the west can have over us. "Quality" ought 

 to be our motto, to be kept constantly before the attention of our 

 growers, from the time they select their varieties till the ripe fruit is 

 put in the hands of the consumer in absolutely perfect condition as to 

 growing and handling. It ought to be dinged into the ears of the 

 customer and in every way possible brought to the attention of the 

 other senses, — particularly his sense of taste, — until to call for New 

 England apples would be not the last but the first thing that he would 

 think of doing. 



A third factor which certainly ought to stand in favor of the New 

 England orchardist is the matter of markets. If he is competing on 

 anything like equal terms with his western competitors in other 

 respects, it would certainly seem that the fact that he is right in the 

 midst of the best markets in the world, while his competitors are three 

 thousand miles away from them, ought to give him the difference in 

 the cost of freight and express rates as a margin of profit, or a handicap 

 on his competitors. The thing to do then is to make the terms equal, 

 to so adopt up-to-date methods, — whether they be western, northern, 

 southern or eastern, — that this market factor shall stand to our 

 credit. Unfortunately, this nearness to markets has in the past worked 

 as much, if not more, against as for New England fruit; for, while the 

 grower of good fruit finds it easier to get his product in the hands of 

 the consumer, so does the man with wormy or windfall apples for sale, 

 and as at present the old, worn-out orchards of New England are 

 producing an unfortunately large amount of this class of fruit, the 

 customer is led to believe that this is about all we grow here. While 



