Apple

a well known fruit. The apple tree is a member of the rose family to which plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, and pears also belong. Bailey says we have 1,000 varieties on the American market, and a British authority names 2,000 varieties. Our apples are all derived from wild crabs. Most kinds came originally from Asia Minor and adjacent parts of Europe, but other varieties have been obtained from the Siberian crab.

Seeds from the same apple tree produce different varieties. An apple grower lately exhibited over two hundred varieties, all grown from seeds of the same apple tree, yet differing in size, color, shape, and taste. The only way to get a certain kind of fruit is by grafting or budding. The nurseryman plants apple seeds, and, when the seedling is a year or two old, he cuts it off within a few inches of the ground and splices on a young twig from a tree now yielding the kind of fruit desired. If he wants a russet, he uses russet twigs, and the young tree will grow up a russet-producing tree. About all the care needed in grafting is to bring the fresh surface of the graft against a fresh surface of the stock grafted. A clean cut, so that the inner bark of the two may meet and allow the passage of sap, is the main idea. The joint may be protected by a ball of clay till the union is complete. Instead of grafting near the ground the stock may be allowed to grow, and twigs may be grafted on its branches. Grafts from different trees may be used so that one branch of a tree may bear one kind of apple and another branch bear apples of another sort entirely. An apple raised from seed without grafting is called a seedling. Seedlings are usually inferior, but it is by means of seedlings that improved varieties are obtained.

Among the American apples most widely grown are the pippin, golden russet, blue pearmain, northern spy, spitzenberg, willow twig, duchess of Oldenburg, Rhode Island greening, gilliflower, wealthy, maiden's blush, winesap, and king. The Baldwin and the Ben Davis are put on the market in the greatest quantities. In point of color, flavor, and keeping qualities the Jonathan is unexcelled.

In an apple orchard the trees should be about forty feet apart to secure the best results. It requires ten years of thorough cultivation to bring an orchard into profitable bearing, but it should continue to do well for thirty years. All orchards should be on elevated ground to afford cold air drainage. Cold air is heavy and will drain off into a hollow and cause a frost there, freeing the orchard from the latest and earliest frosts. The worst enemies of an orchard are the grubs of the codlin moth and the apple scab, Both may be met by spraying with arsenical poisons.

Only those who have seen an apple orchard in full bloom have an adequate idea of what floral beauty and fragrance are. Cutting an apple crosswise gives the best view of skin, pulp, star-like core, and seeds. We are apt to speak of a red apple, but apples are of many colors, red, yellow, and green.

Owing to the fact that apple trees bloom late, thus escaping late frost, they are cultivated farther north (65 degree N.) than any other fruit of the sort. Apples are raised very generally throughout Europe, northern India, China, Japan, southern Siberia, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Cape Colony, Canada, and the United States. The finest apple-producing region in the world runs from Lake Michigan east and northeast, taking in both shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, to Nova Scotia. Other important regions in the United States are the foothills of Virginia and the mountain valleys of adjacent states, the Ozark and Arkansas region, the plains region, and the Pacific coast. Eastern apple growers prefer round apples. They ship to market in barrels or in bulk loose in box cars. Pacific growers favor an apple ribbed and pointed at the smaller end. They ship in wooden crates holding about a bushel.

The United States apple crop varies greatly. Forty-five million barrels may be regarded as a large crop. New York usually leads with an occasional crop of 20,000,000 bushels. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Virginia, and Illinois follow in the order named. The following statistics of apples grown in the United States are taken from the Government records:

Of late the irrigated valleys of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon have won a reputation for beautiful crops of fruit. In 1908 there were said to be 16,000,000 apple trees in the orchards of the states named. Of these nearly 7,000,000 trees were old enough to bear, and produced fruit to the value of possibly $15,000,000. A remarkably fine apple show was held at Spokane in the fall of 1908.

See Pear; Peach; Orchard; Washington; Burbank