THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
103 
VALUE OF NEW VARIETIES. 
Charles Wright, of Delaware, writing to the Rural 
New - Yorker, says : Last year a reader said that he was 
trying the Koonce pear, and Triumph peach, and that the 
nurseryman fills his pocket with our cash, for the exorbi¬ 
tant prices charged for these new fruits, while the grow¬ 
ers wait for years to realize whether they are of any value 
or not. Does he realize that some toiling originator or 
experimenter has, prior to this, spent years of hard work 
and study, and considerable money, in many instances, to 
produce these fruits, and that failure more often than suc¬ 
cess, has been his reward? Mr. Husted,the originator of 
the Triumph peach, has, for years, tried to produce a 
yellow free-stone peach as early as Amsden or Alex¬ 
ander, and after numerous crosses, and waiting for years 
to see the result of his labor, it has come. Now, does 
any fair-minded fruit grower believe that it would be fair 
for Mr. Husted to grow and sell the Triumph trees for 
five or six cents, the price usually paid for peach trees? 
If so, what is to pay him for his time, trouble and cash 
expended in producing what must become one of the 
most valuable varieties of peaches yet introduced ? The 
nurserymen who bought this variety from him for propa¬ 
gation, had to pay $1 per tree, and take a certain number 
besides Can they afford to grow and sell these trees at 
the same price they get for standard varieties ? Besides, 
they must advertise it, and must have many trees left 
unsold, because it is a new thing, hence the price must 
cover all these contingencies. 
It is but a few years since Crawford’s Early was our 
earliest yellow variety ; but now the St. John comes ahead 
of it, and here is the Triumph still earlier. Whether it 
will succeed generally, is yet to be decided; but wherever 
Alexander is a success, it is likely to be. My opinion is 
that originators and introducers have been poorly paid 
for what they 1 have done for American horticulture. E. 
W. Bull, the originator of the Concord grape, died a poor 
old man, as R. N. Y. readers know, when the discovery of 
this valuable variety, which made grape growing what it 
is to-day in this country, should have given him a com¬ 
fortable fortune at least. Luther Burbank has expended, 
in five years, $25,000 in his experiments to produce new 
and valuable varieties ; and is it any wonder that he asks 
from $500 to $2,500 for a single tree of them? Or is it 
any wonder that a nurseryman buying these fruits for 
introduction, is compelled to ask a big price in order to 
meet expenses ? 
The Wilson and Bubach strawberries, Elberta peach, 
and Ben Davis apple, were untried novelties a few years 
ago. The inventor of a harvesting machine or an electric 
motor dies a millionaire, while the originator of a new 
fruit can never obtain much more than a fair competency 
for what it has required just as much brains and labor to 
produce. An injustice is often done the tree planting 
public by uneducated and unprincipled tree agents who 
sell old varieties long after they have ceased to be novelties. 
Agents are still canvassing this country selling the Kieffer 
pear, Elberta and Globe peaches, and Abundance and 
Burbank plums, as new varieties, at big prices, when any 
of these may be bought from the average nurseryman for 
a fair price. Riding out a few days ago I saw a row of 
apple trees, and asked the man what they were. He said, 
“ I bought them of Mr. H. for Red Astrachan, but they 
turned out Yellow Transparent.” He had set some pear 
trees, and I asked what he paid for them, “ Fifty cents 
apiece.” he said. “I got them from an agent.” He is 
within two or three miles of two first class nurseries, where 
he could have seen the trees growing, advised with the 
nurseryman, and got the same trees for ten or twelve 
cents. Such cases are common, and many of these are 
the men who get taken in on new varieties, and say they 
don’t amount to anything. 
Every fruit grower should certainly test such new 
varieties as he thinks might suit his conditions, and if he 
find some of them good, he can tell then how many to 
plant. If he neglect to do this, some years after, he will 
be told by some one that he ought to plant such and such 
a variety, and may go into it on a big scale only to find 
it is not suited to his needs, when, if he had tested a few 
trees in the beginning, even at an “ exorbitant price,” he 
he would have saved many dollars later on by knowing 
that it is really worthless. 
There are those who believe that fruit growing is not 
beyond the point where our forefathers found it These 
are pessimists of the worst sort, and they constantly con¬ 
tend that it is overdone and can never pay in the future. 
There is, and always will be, an overproduction of a com¬ 
mon quality, and of those sorts that are easily produced 
by the careless grower. Of the finer varieties that it 
requires some skill to produce, there is hardly ever over¬ 
production, but often a lack of proper distribution. With 
the enormous apple crop this season, good apples sell 
readily in our local market for 35 to 40 cents for a f- 
bushel basket, and I am told that the Olden Fruit Co., of 
Missouri, had recently 20,000 barrels of fine Ben Davis 
for which they had refused $2 per barrel. This doesn’t 
look much like overproduction. 
HOW WHOLESALE LISTS ARE STARTED. 
Austin, Tex., August 14. — I notice that the ruinous 
policy of sending wholesale lists to retail buyers was dis¬ 
cussed at Chicago. I have seen a few such cases and 
have had one of the causes for such actions brought to 
my attention. 
Jones and Smith are retail growers and live fifty miles 
apart. They are competitors over several counties. One 
year Jones is short on some varieties and orders them from 
Smith, and when the trees arrive in his town they bear 
tags plainly marked “ From Smith. ’ The tattling idlers 
around the expiess office notice it and talk about it. 
Jones feels nettled and humiliated and declares he will 
buy no more trees from Smith. The next year Smith is 
short on some stock and orders from Jones, and requests 
