THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
723 
VARIETIES 
Too Many Propagated by Nurserymen 
Read at Denver Meeting by E. S. OSBORNE, Rochester 
The question of varieties is one that can be discussed 
from several points of view. The point that I wish to draw 
to your attention is the number of varieties that are 
catalogued by the different firms who issue catalogues. 
It seems to me that we are all inclined to catalogue alto¬ 
gether too many varieties of almost every class of stock. 
Take apples for instance—you can take a dozen dif¬ 
ferent catalogues, count up the number of varieties cata¬ 
logued and you will find all the way from sixty to two 
hundred. It seems to me that even sixty is altogether 
too many. How much better it would 
be for all of us if we could confine 
ourselves to say thirty or forty of the 
very best sorts and eliminate all of the 
balance. It would make it a great deal 
easier for everyone connected with the 
business. It would reduce their chances 
for errors in both budding and grafting, 
also the errors that occur in filling the 
orders. 
I appreciate the fact that it would 
be impossible to make a uniform list 
of apples of thirty or forty varieties 
that would fit every section of the 
country. I am also aware of the fact 
that our Western brethren grow and 
sell in large quantities a number of var¬ 
ieties that are very seldom sold in the 
East, while we in the East grow and sell 
a number that are never sold in the 
West. This, however, should not deter 
us from striving to reduce the number 
of varieties which we publish in our 
catalogues as we can confine ourselves 
to the leading varieties sold for com¬ 
mercial purposes in the sections of our 
country where we do business. 
I am of the opinion that this would be a step in the 
right direction and I hope you will consider the matter 
when compiling your next catalogue. In compiling our 
latest catalogue I kept this idea in mind and reduced the 
number of apples from seventy-eight to seventy varieties 
and I also realize that we could have cut it considerably 
more without injuring the value of the catalogue in any 
way and it is my intention, in our next issue, to cut it 
even further. 
The same thing holds good with pears, cherries, plums, 
and especially peaches. On referring to a stock catalogue, 
I find one hundred twenty-four varieties of apples. We 
all know that it is almost impossible to get together every 
season such a large number of different varieties of apples 
and especially where a whole season’s orders mean about 
twenty-five to fifty varieties that are sold only from one up 
to a dozen of these odd kinds. 
I think the time has come when the people want quality 
not only in the stock itself, but in the varieties that are 
offered for sale by the nurserymen and there is no question 
in my mind but that there are a large number of varieties 
that have very little if any merit, that are sold every year 
simply because some firm catalogues them in order to 
have a catalogue that might lead the customer to believe 
that the nursery is an exceptionally 
large one on account of the long list 
of varieties of different classes of stock. 
Take the grand total of trees that are 
sold for commercial purposes and I 
think that you will find that seventy- 
five percent of the trees used will be 
confined to from fifteen to twenty var¬ 
ieties. I am speaking now of apples. 
If this be true, then the big majority 
of the long list of varieties that I am 
sure we all sell, are sold in small quan¬ 
tities of from one to five or six trees 
and in a great many instances the pur¬ 
chaser does not know the variety and 
could not tell it if he saw the fruit. The 
only reason he buys it is on account of 
the glowing description seen in some 
catalogue or some variety his grand¬ 
father had when he was a boy. I am 
sure we would be doing an endless 
amount of good not only for ourselves 
but to future generations if we would 
strive to eliminate from our catalogues 
and cease growing, all varieties which 
do not have a commercial or some 
distinctive value. 
I find on referring to our Spring stock book, that we sold 
one hundred sixteen varieties of apples. Not because we 
catalogued that many, but because our customers from 
one source or another, had heard of the varieties asked for 
and insisted on having them. We can educate our sales¬ 
men to confine their sales almost exclusively to the varieties 
catalogued by us and if we will all make an effort to reduce 
the number of varieties that we publish in our catalogues, 
the growing and handling of fruit trees in the future will 
be considerably easier than it is at the present time and 
has been in the past. 
I have prepared a table showing just how the one 
hundred sixteen varieties of apples sold by us were pro¬ 
portioned in the total sale of apples. I find that the 
