SELECTING VARIETIES OF FRUIT. 19 



in quality, and which ones keep the longest. It is not 

 necessary that experienced orchardists live in the neigh- 

 borhood in order that this information may be secured. 

 Select several of the most promising varieties grown by 

 the neighbors, and as an additional guide write to the 

 leading dealers of the market to which you will ship, 

 asking what ones of your list will best meet the demand 

 in the market. Experienced dealers' judgments are in- 

 valuable in this matter, but they do not, of course, cover 

 the subjects of hardiness and productiveness. What 

 dealers can sell best is not always what growers can raise 

 best. Some apples are nearly cosmopolitan. Such, for 

 instance, is the Baldwin, which is a superior variety from 

 Maine to Michigan. 



The varieties once decided upon, plant enoiigli of each 

 variety to pay for the handling and hauling. Fifty bar- 

 rels of Gravensteins are worth as much as seventy-five 

 barrels of mixed apples of similar size. Plant each vari- 

 ety by itself. It is a most exasperating operation to be 

 obliged to pi-k Baldwins first in one corner of the orchard 

 and then in another. An orchard of five hundred trees, 

 if set fur profit, should not contain more than five or six 

 varieties, ;?.nd, on an average, four of them should be 

 winter apples. Three varieties are preferable to ten, I 

 recall a story of a prominent poniologist, who, when 

 asked what varieties he would plant in an apple orchard 

 of one thousand trees, replied, "Nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine Baldwins." When asked what the other 

 tree would be, he replied, "I should make that a Bald- 

 win, too." 



Hardiness is preeminently a relative term. The same 



