ON INEDIBLE FRUITS 



shades of crimson, rarely changing to yellow. The 

 flavor of the fruit is far from inviting. After one 

 has tasted five or six of the berries, one is scarcely 

 able to describe the flavor or to decide whether 

 others have any desirable quality. 



The astringency of the fruit is so great as 

 nearly to obliterate one's sense of taste after two 

 or three have been tested. 



Perhaps it should be noted that the tasting of 

 fruit for the purpose of testing its quality becomes 

 a rather unwelcome task for the fruit developer 

 even when the fruits under consideration are 

 plums or peaches or other orchard fruits of the 

 finest quality. 



Visitors have often assured m^ Ihat they would 

 consider it a very great privilege to test different 

 fruits by the hour. 



But such an offer only showed their inexperi- 

 ence. No one cares for fruit after he has eaten a 

 certain quantity, and the necessity of tasting one 

 kind after another becomes for the fruit developer 

 who operates on a large scale a highly distasteful 

 task. If this is true when fruits of fine quality are 

 in question, it must obviously be doubly true of 

 undeveloped fruits like the Goumi Berry, the eat- 

 ing of which gives nothing but discomfort from 

 the outset. 



But it is equally obvious that no progress can 



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