FIRST FRO ITS. 



173 



"All berries or other fruit, whether fresh, dried or pre- 

 served, when sold or offered for sale in packages within 

 the city of Chicago, shall be of equal quality through- 

 out the package. 



"Every person who shall be convicted of a violation 

 of any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be fined 

 not less than five nor more than twenty-five dollars for 

 each offense. " 



Improvement of Roads. — The New York and Con- 

 necticut Divisions of the League of American Wheel- 

 men have created committees to agitate the improve- 

 ment of country roads. The object is a commendable 

 one and their efforts ought to be crowned with success. 

 As a means to this end, these committees offer three 

 prizes, of $50, S30, $20, respectively, for the best collec- 

 tions of not less than three photographs showing the 

 "badness of bad roads." I. B. Potter, Potter Build- 

 ing, New York, and Chas. I^. Burdett, Hartford, Conn., 

 are chairmen of the committees. The following are 

 some of the things which are desired in the photographs ; 

 "Photographs showing the common spectacle of the 

 farmer's team and wagon, hub-deep and knee-deep in 

 the muddy road. Photographs showing rough, rutty 

 and muddy roads in their worst condition. ' Stuck in 

 the mud ' photographs, showing the farmer or merchant 

 with his loaded wagon vainly trying to drive his patient 

 team and load out of the inevitable mud-hole. Photo- 

 graphs, showing the every day breakdown caused by 

 rough or muddy roads or steep grades. Photographs 

 showing smooth, hard-surfaced roads and (if possible) 

 teams hauling loads over the same." 



Nebraska Horticulturists. — One of the most suc- 

 cessful meetings in the history of the Nebraska Horti- 

 cultural Society was held in Lincoln, on January 13 

 to 15. A fine display of apples was on exhibition. 



" Will the Ben Davis continue to be the leading mar- 

 ket apple ? " W. R. Harris thought it would continue 

 to lead all other varieties for years to come, as in nearly 

 all parts of Nebraska the Ben Davis is more profitable 

 at eighty cents a bushel than other varieties are at $1 to 

 $1.25. While the quality is not of the best, it is pass- 

 able, and the very showy appearance gives it an advan- 

 tage over many other apples whose appearance is not in 

 keeping with their quality. Its freedom from bitter-rot 

 gives it a decided advantage over Winesap. In the dis- 

 cussion following this paper a fruit buyer from Michi- 

 gan said he had bought and sold many car-loads of ap_ 

 pies, and he had noticed a tendency of late years which 

 caused him to think that the Ben Davis has about run 

 its race ; that the market frequently became overstocked 

 with it, and people are asking for better apples. He 

 spoke of Grimes' Golden, one of the finest yellow ap- 

 ples in existence, and predicted that in five years the 

 American people would be educated so much in the 

 matter of taste, that it would be hard work to give them 

 the worthless, tasteless, good-for-nothing Ben Davis. In 

 his opinion we should now turn our attention to produc- 



ing finer quality in our apples or shortly we could find 

 no market for them. Another fruit buyer said he had 

 more calls for Ben Davis than for all other varieties put 

 together ; and many of the members held this idea, that 

 no matter how well an apple is flavored if it has a poor 

 appearance it will not sell well, even if the people are 

 educated as to taste. From statistics given by several 

 members it appears that no other apple has paid so well 

 in Nebraska as the much-abused Ben Davis. W. J. 

 Hesser, of Plattsmouth, said he considered the follow- 

 ing as the best six apples for market, and that they had 

 been profitable for him in the order named : Janet, 

 Winesap, Ben Davis, Jonathan, Minkler and Duchess. 



Regarding profit in the orchard, R. N. Day, of Teka- 

 mah, read a very clear and concise paper showing what 

 has been done in his part of the State. Years ago, 

 when the country was new and fruit raising was con- 

 sidered one of the doubtful enterprises, some tree agents 

 came through Bert and Washington counties, and suc- 

 ceeded in selling a large number of trees to the settlers. 

 At that time it was not known what varieties would 

 succeed and what would not. The settlers having nearly 

 all come from the eastern States, they of course asked 

 for the varieties that were successful in those places. 

 The agents, being unscrupulous, promised any variety 

 asked for, and filled the orders with a few good winter 

 apples and the rest with summer varieties. Many of 

 these orchards now contain more than two-thirds sum- 

 mer apples, and of course, are not so profitable as they 

 would have been if a larger percentage had been winter 

 apples. Notwithstanding these serious drawbacks, there 

 are orchards of five to ten acres, that annually pay their 

 owners more than all the rest of the farm. His small 

 orchard brings him, in a year, from $400 to $800. W. 

 Marlatte, of Manhattan, Kansas, said that several years 

 ago he had an orchard of two and one-half acres that 

 paid him annually more than the farm products of 160 

 acres, and was equally as profitable as the receipts from 

 cattle pastured on 400 acres of grass land. 



In order to avoid as much as possible the substitu- 

 tion of worthless varieties by unscrupulous agents, C. 

 W. Gurney, of Concord, presented a resolution con- 

 demning the practice of nurserymen giving certificates 

 of agency to tree dealers who are in reality representing 

 only themselves. To prevent the other failure, viz., 

 procuring varieties that are not adapted to this climate, 

 the society has established nine experiment stations in 

 different parts of the State, under the direction of the 

 Regents of the State University, and connected with the 

 Hatch experiment station, to make such experiments 

 each year as the society may think best with the new 

 fruits, and the older ones that have not been tested in 

 the locality in which the station is located. We expect 

 these stations to prove a great good to the citizens of 

 our State, as they can test varieties better and in much 

 shorter time than the individual can. 



Peter Youngers, Jr., of Geneva, presented a very in- 

 structive paper on "Propagation and Cultivation of 

 Nursery Stock," which should be read by every person 



