Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1875 — Making Selections From Samples. [ARTICLE]

Making Selections From Samples.

In purchasing dry goods and other . manufactured articles it may answer well enough for the purchaser to make his selections from samples, but with re- . spect to agricultural and horticultural products a man may be very easily led i astray. For instance, a man attending ; an exhibition of fruits may examine the various kinds’and decide from appearances (we have seen many do so), and thereby be very much deceived in the quality. But suppose he has also an opportunity of testing quality; he has then only gamed a knowledge of the fruit itself, while its adaptation to soil and locality, which are usually matters of the greatest importance, must still be determined. Fruits exhibited in Virginia may have been produced in Central New York, and be of no more value for culture in the former State than an orange or a fig. This making selections from samples exhibited at fairs has led thousands astray, simply for the want of a proper consideration of the circumstances under which the fruits were produced. We have known enthusiasts in horticulture who would visit exhibitions of fruits from various States, and with note-book and pencil in hand pass from one table to another, taking down the name of every handsome variety, and thus make out their orders for plants without once considering the question of adaptation. Many persons have pursued a similar course by making selections from the plates in agents’ “picture-books,” gotten up for the purpose of showing their customers what beautiful things in the way of fruits and flowers thSy had for sale. With such shortsightedness on the part of purchasers it is no wonder that so many make failures where success would have crowned their efforts if proper selections had been made. The fairs, as well as the colored plates of

fruits and plants, are usually of a character from which beneficial results might come, but the knowledge intended to be conveyed is frequently misapplied. It is this want of proper discrimination and consideration of the value of an article offered for sale by samples which gives the dishonest dealer an opportunity of swindling his customers. Thousands of rooted cuttings of the old charter oak grape have been sold at prices ranging from one to three dollars each, simply because it is of large size, and the seller exhibited samples of the fruit preserved in alcohol, which, although attractive in appearance, were otherwise worthless. The best varieties, either in appearance or flavor, may be valuable in one locality and worthless in another; hence the necessity of knowing something beyond the fruit itself. /

The same rules hold good in the selection of farm animals. The fattest or fastest may not be the best under all circumstances. The merino may be the most profitable breed of sheep for one locality and the Southdowns for another. In some instances the market for the fleece would be the principal thing to be considered, while in other localities this might be ofless importance than the value of the carcass in the butcher’s stall. Then again certain breeds thrive much better in a particular region of country than another, and this point requires close and careful investigation, in order to insure the best results. We may admire the appearance of a breed of cattle as exhibited at a fair, but admiration must notbe carried so far as to make us overlook adaptation to actual wants or circumstances. The light, nimble-footed breeds of cattle are better suited to a rocky, hilly country than those of an opposite type. Those breeds which are most profitable for the dairy are the least so for beef, and this principle must be considered in all the various branches of agriculture. We have frequently seen it stated that a certain number of pounds of corn fed to a hog would give a certain amount of pork, which may be true with one breed of hogs and not with another. The production of fat or flesh in animals is not carried on with such a strict mechanical uniformity as to allow of no difference in the processes of growth or laying on of flesh beyond that of quantity or quality of food given. It may do very well for the raisers of fancy breeds of chickens to say that a certain amount of food can be turned into so many dozen of eggs and so much meat; but the rules given do not always work well in practice. The exhibition of samples is certainly the first step toward obtaining specific information in regard to the article, but it should always be considered only that and nothing more.— New York Sun.