186 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



COMMONPLACE NOTES. 

 By the Secretary and Superintendent. 



Market Fruits. 



It will surely by this time be admitted universally that, fruits and 

 vegetables being meant primarily to be eaten and only incidentally to be 

 looked at, the one quality of good flavour should be in unmistakable 

 evidence if any fruit or vegetable is to obtain recognition and award from 

 a society like ours, whose verdict carries so much weight, not only all 

 over the British Empire, but also in foreign countries. When any new 

 fruit or vegetable is pleading for recognition, if the judges judge of it in 

 the first instance by anything save by flavour, surely they are putting the 

 cart before the horse ? The elements of size and appearance no doubt 

 enter into the problem, but only in a second degree. The first question 

 with a judge of a fruit or a vegetable should surely be : " Does its flavour 

 entitle it to any award ? Does it hold a high place amongst its kind of 

 fruit or vegetable for the pleasure it gives to the palate ? " If the answer 

 be "No, it does not; its flavour is quite second-rate," then surely the 

 matter is ended — there should be no further appeal. " But look how big 

 it is ! " or " Look how pretty it is ! " — if it will not pass muster for flavour 

 it ought to be nonsuited at once. 



If, however, it do pass the test of flavour, then several other questions 

 arise. And the next to be asked with regard to a fruit or vegetable 

 intended for cooking should be " Will it cook well ? " Such an Apple as 

 1 New Hawthornden ' would on this point utterly fail, as there are no 

 two opinions but that an apple ought to cook soft. With some things it 

 is possible there may be distinct differences of taste. In Potatos, for 

 example, some like a Potato to be yellow and waxy like a new Potato all 

 the year round, and some like them to boil into lumps of white floury 

 starch. In such cases each side ought to be willing to allow the claims 

 of the other so long as the Potato answers the first test of all and is of 

 good flavour. 



After flavour and cooking quality comes crop. Does the variety bear 

 well ? for it may be of excellent flavour and cook to perfection ; but if you 

 only get a crop one year in ten the variety in question is of little practical 

 value. 



These three points, flavour, cooking, and crop, having been established, 

 then — but not till then — should come in the quite subsidiary questions of 

 size and appearance. Taking size first, it is quite possible for a fruit or a 

 vegetable of first-class flavour, excellent cooking quality, and a good cropper 

 to fail in the matter of size. A cooking Apple, for instance, must have a 

 reasonable amount of flesh between the core and the rind, or it cuts to 

 such waste as to be practically worthless. The thicker, therefore, the 

 depth of the flesh, the more valuable for cooking the Apple will be. With 

 Potatos, it seems to us the position is in some respects exactly reversed. 



