New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 Part 23

The fruit was displayed upon tables of varying lengths and from three to four feet in width. In the center of this s.p.a.ce was the office of the Superintendent. Sections 40 and 41 were within the zone in which low installation was required by the Exposition authorities, so that no facade was erected in these sections, the name of the State being shown upon handsome ornamental gilt signs, placed upon the tables and suspended over the exhibit. The entire installation was of white enamel, kept spotlessly clean. The plates used were of special design. The center was white, with the monogram in green letters, "L. P. E., 1904,"

and a wide green border, with a gold band. The white and green furnished a most appropriate background for the varicolored fruit and the effect was most pleasing as the eye swept over the whole exhibit.

A WORD OF COMMENDATION

On the opening day of the Fair, April thirtieth, New York's exhibit of fruit was complete in every detail. In fact of the thirty-five States, Canada and Mexico represented, New York was the only State to have its exhibit installed and ready for exhibition when the doors of the Palace of Horticulture were thrown open to the public, which called forth a special word of commendation from the Chief of the Department of Horticulture, Honorable F. W. Taylor. Owing to the fact that at that time the other States were not prepared to make a display, it was deemed inadvisable to exhibit a large number of varieties, so that while the entire s.p.a.ce was covered with fruit, the exhibit consisted of but thirty-one varieties of apples, ten of pears and three of grapes, as follows:

Apples: Fallawater, Swarr, Golden Russet, Snow, Belleflower, Sweet Russet, Cline's Red, Red Rock, Holland Pippin, Hubbardston Nonesuch, Deacon Jones, Judson, Sklanka Bog, Peach, Sutton Beauty, Flower of Genesee, Baldwin, Lady, Kirkland Pippin, Greening, Spitzenburg, Northern Spy, Walbridge, Seek-no-Further, McIntosh, Grimes' Golden, Wagener, Mann, Roxbury, Russet, King, Canada Red Pears: Kieffer, d.u.c.h.ess, Vergalieu, Josephine, Diel, Beurre d'Anjou, Beurre Bosc, Lawrence, Mt. Vernon, Beurre Clairgeau Grapes: Virgennes, Diana, Catawba

A HIGH STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE

From the opening to the close of the Fair, December first, New York's exhibit of fruit was maintained at a uniformly high standard of excellence. The total number of varieties of fruit exhibited was as follows:

Apples ......... 424 varieties Cherries ....... 31 "

Currants ....... 4 "

Gooseberries ... 1 "

Grapes ......... 150 "

Pears .......... 152 "

Plums .......... 129 "

Quinces ........ 8 "

Peaches ........ 14 "

Strawberries ... 1 "

The Empire State far outstripped her sister States as to number of varieties of fruit, displaying twice as many varieties of apples, pears and plums, and more than three times as many varieties of grapes as her nearest compet.i.tor, and this be it said, in a display of fruits never before equaled either in size, variety or quality.

RECORD OF ENTRIES

Over 2,000 individual entries of fruit were made during the season, and as all of the fruit was entered twice, once for the general collection of the State and again for the grower, the total number of entries was nearly five thousand. An accurate record was kept of all entries, the following information being carefully tabulated: The name and address of the exhibitor.

Date of removal from cold storage.

Date placed upon the table.

Date of removal from the table.

Remarks concerning its condition.

FRUIT of 1904

The new fruit of the fall of 1904, while free from rust and of good color, was somewhat smaller in size than the fruit of 1903; nevertheless it made a grand display, and from the opening to the close of the Fair from 2,000 to 2,500 plates of fruit, including never less than 150 varieties of apples, were admired by the thousands of visitors.

APPLES

The apples placed in cold storage at St. Louis in December of 1903 were found to be in almost perfect condition when opened in April, and, with a few exceptions, continued so throughout the season. Most of the apples were wrapped first in tissue and then in oiled paper and firmly packed in barrels well lined with corrugated paper, with excelsior cus.h.i.+ons in each end.

Owing to the fact that so much depends upon the condition of fruit when picked, and the necessity of placing it in cold storage as soon as picked, it was a difficult matter to make a comparative test of the keeping qualities of the different varieties. For instance, of two different collections of Baldwins (one of the best keepers), placed on the tables at the same time, one lot held up in perfect condition for several weeks while the other went down in as many days.

The varieties showing the best keeping qualities were Baldwin, Spitzenberg, Russet, Northern Spy and Canada Red. These varieties were kept in cold storage and placed on the tables as late in the season as November fifteenth, when they were found to have retained their color, firmness and flavor.

Some of the fall varieties, which are ordinarily supposed to be poor keepers, came out of cold storage in perfect condition and kept remarkably well after being placed on the tables. Among these the Alexander, Fallawater, Holland Pippin, McIntosh and Rome Beauty were the best.

A collection of Fallawaters from W.R. Fitch, of Rushville, N.Y., were placed on the tables April twenty-ninth, when they attracted considerable attention on account of their unusual size and fine color, and remained in splendid condition for weeks. While somewhat shriveled and dried up, they showed no signs of decay when removed from the tables July twentieth. The same is true of a collection of Holland Pippins and McIntoshes placed on exhibition at the same time.

A collection of Alexanders from J.B. Collamer, of Hilton, will serve as an ill.u.s.tration of the advantages of picking at the proper time, handling with care and placing in cold storage immediately. These apples were exhibited for a week at the State Fair held at Syracuse in September of 1903. They were then wrapped, packed and sent to St. Louis, where they were kept in cold storage until June twenty-sixth, when they were placed on exhibition until after the visit of Governor Odell, June twenty-ninth. On June thirtieth they were rewrapped and repacked and sent back to cold storage until a few days before the State Fair at Syracuse in September of 1904, when they were s.h.i.+pped to Syracuse and again exhibited for a week. At the close of the State Fair they were again returned to St. Louis and exhibited for two weeks.

The Newtown Pippin is another variety which showed excellent keeping qualities. On August twelfth a collection of forty-six plates from Henry D. Lewis, of Annandale, was taken out of cold storage and placed on exhibition. They held up in good condition until the thirtieth of August, during the hottest weather of the season.

The Greenings, while large in size, of fine color, and apparently in perfect condition when packed, invariably came out of cold storage badly scalded and discolored. In fact, there were only three or four lots which were entirely free from scald.

In September, large additions of new fruit were made to the exhibit from individual growers, and also from the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva.

George W. Anderson, Charles N. Baker, Samuel J. Wells and T.H. King are among the exhibitors who deserve special mention for the quality and extent of their exhibits.

A complete list of the 424 varieties of apples exhibited appears following the list of exhibitors.

GRAPES

The grape industry of New York had adequate and successful representation at the St. Louis Exposition, as a department of the general Horticultural Exhibit. This industry in New York is one of large and steadily increasing importance. The State ranks second only to California in the production of grapes, and the showing made in the Horticulture building was a revelation to thousands of visitors who there obtained their first knowledge of the extent of the viticulture industry in New York.

This sign was conspicuously displayed over the exhibit of grapes:

"NEW YORK LEADS IN TABLE GRAPES

"600,000 acres; 30,000,000 vines; crop worth $2,763,711 annually."

These figures are from census reports, and represent an advance of 198 per cent in the industry over its condition as represented at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. There is scarcely another such record of increase in the whole range of industries of the United States.

No attempt was made to show viticulture in any other way than by its product, but an almost continuous display of grapes was kept on the tables from the opening of the Exposition to its close. This in itself was a noteworthy achievement, for it included a display of cold storage grapes from the crop of 1903 up to the second week of July, 1904, something never before attempted. A display of forced fruit and early varieties began shortly after that date.

A collection of hot-house grapes grown by Mr. David M. Dunning, of Auburn, was an interesting feature of the grape exhibit and amazed crowds of visitors on account of their size and handsome appearance. The varieties were Barbarossa and Muscat Hamburg. One cl.u.s.ter of the latter variety weighed nine pounds and measured seventeen inches in length, exclusive of stem. This collection of grapes far surpa.s.sed anything of the kind shown in the Horticulture building, not even excepting California specimens.

The varieties in cold storage were as follows: Catawba, Diana, Iona, Isabella, Niagara, Salem and Virgennes. Of these varieties, the Catawba and Virgennes kept the longest. They were taken from cold storage July third and placed upon exhibition for a week, at the end of which time they were found to have retained their color and flavor perfectly. This was fully one month later than grapes were preserved at the Pan-American Exposition, notwithstanding the difference in distance between Buffalo and St. Louis from the vineyards. The Diana and Iona were close seconds in keeping qualities, while the Isabella rattled badly and the Niagara showed discoloration, though both retained fairly good flavor.

The display proper of the 1904 crop began early in September. This display was entirely made up of fruit contributed by the growers of the Chautauqua and Keuka Lake districts. These two districts were represented about in proportion to their acreages and products.

The grapes were well wrapped in paper and packed in a new style paper grape basket, furnished by Mullen Bros. Paper Company, of St. Joseph, Michigan. These baskets were packed in spring crates, and the grapes, with a very few exceptions, carried in perfect condition.

The grape exhibit was made adjacent to the rest of the New York exhibit.

The tables afforded room for about 2,000 plates. The display was made up largely of Concord, Catawba, Niagara, Virgennes, Campbell Early and other commercial varieties.

The rarer varieties, however, were not neglected, as will be seen from the list of one hundred and fifty varieties appearing elsewhere.

PEARS

In October of 1903, fifty-five bushel boxes of pears were placed in cold storage to be used for the Exposition. Of this number, twenty-five boxes were purchased from David K. Bell, of Brighton, and the balance came in single bushels from some of the best growers of the State. The pears, like the apples, were wrapped first in heavy tissue paper and then in oiled paper.

The following is a list of the varieties kept in cold storage: Beurre d'Anjou, Beurre Bosc, Beurre Clairgeau, Beurre Diel, Angouleme, Columbia, d.u.c.h.ess, Howell, Josephine of Malines, Kieffer, Lawrence, Mt.