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THE APPLE-TREE

THE OPEN COUNTRY BOOKS

A continuing company of genial little books
about the out-of-doors
Under the editorship of
L. H. BAILEY
1. The Apple-Tree . . . . L.H. Bailey

2. AHome Vegetable Garden-Ella M.Freeman
3. The Cow . . Jared Van Wagenen, Jr.

Others about weather and the sky, scenery,
camps, recreation, quadrupeds, fishes, birds,
insects, reptiles, plants, and the places in the
open.

The Open Country Books—No. 1

THE APPLE-TREE

BY

L. H. BAILEY

Nem York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1922

All rights reserved

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CopyricuHT, 1922,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1922.
si ae
QQ) 2

FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY
NEW YORK

CHAPTER

CONTENTS

. Where There is no Apple-Tree.

. The Apple-Tree in the Landscape

. The Buds on the Twigs ‘
. The Weeks Between the Flower and the

Fruit . o 8
The Brush Pile . . .

. The Pruning of the Apple-Tree .
. Maintaining the Health and Energy of the

Apple-Tree 7

. How anApple-Treeis Made. .

. The Dwarf Apple-Tree

. Whence Comes the Apple-Tree?

. The Varieties of Apple

. The Pleasant Art of Grafting .

. The Mending of the Apple-Tree .

. Citizens of the Apple-Tree. . . .
. The Apple-Tree Regions . . . .
. The Harvest of the Apple-Tree. .

. The Appraisal of the Apple-Tree . .

1. The home apple-tree

THE APPLE-TREE

I
WHERE THERE IS NO APPLE-TREE

The wind is snapping in the bamboos, knocking to-
gether the resonant canes and weaving the myriad flexile
wreaths above them. The palm heads rustle with a brisk
crinkling music. Great ferns stand in the edge of the
forest, and giant arums cling their arms about the trunks
of trees and rear their dim jacks-in-the-pulpit far in the
branches; and in the greater distance I know that green
parrots are flying in twos from tree to tree. The plant
‘forms are strange and various, making mosaic of con-
trasting range of leaf-size and leaf-shape, palm and grass
and fern, epiphyte and liana and clumpy mistletoe, of
grace and clumsiness and even misproportion, a tall thick
landscape all mingled into a symmetry of disorder that
charms the attention and fascinates the eye.

It is a soft and delicious air wherein I sit. A torrid
‘ drowse is in the receding landscape. The people move
leisurely, as befits the world where there is no prepara-
tion for frost and no urgent need of laborious apparel.
There are tardy bullock-carts, unconscious donkeys, and
men pushing vehicles. There are odd products and un-
accustomed cakes and cookies on little stands by the
roadside, where the turbaned vendor sits on the ground
unconcernedly.

7

8 THE APPLE-TREE

There are strange fruits in the carts, on the donkeys
that move down the hillsides from distant plantations in
the heart of the jungle, on the trees by winding road and
thatched cottage, in the great crowded markets in the
city. I recognize coconuts and mangoes, star-apples and
custard-apples and cherimoyas, papayas, guavas, ma-
mones, pomegranates, figs, christophines, and the varied
range of citrus fruits. There are also great polished
apples in the markets, coming from cooler regions, tied
by their stems, good to look at but impossible to relish ;
and I understand how these people of the tropics think
the apple an inferior fruit, so successfully do the poor
varieties stop the desire for more. There are vegetables
I have never seen before. :

I am conscious of a slowly moving landscape with
people and birds and beasts of burden and windy vegeta-
tion, of prospects in which there are no broad smooth
farm fields with fences dividing them, of scenery full of
herbage, in which every lineament and action incite me
and stimulate my desire for more, of days that end sud-
denly in the blackness of night.

Yet, somehow, I look forward to the time when I may
go to a more accustomed place. Either from long asso-
ciation with other scenes or because of some inexpres-
sible deficiency in this tropic splendor, I am not satisfied
even though I am exuberantly entertained. Something
I miss. For weeks I wondered what single element I
missed most. Out of the numberless associations of
childhood and youth and eager manhood it is difficult to
choose one that is missed more than another. Yet one
day it came over me startlingly that I missed the apple-
tree,—the apple-tree, the sheep, and the milch cattle!

WHERE THERE IS NO APPLE-TREE 9

The farm home with its commodious house, its
greensward, its great barn and soft fields and distant
woods, and the apple-tree by the wood-shed; the good
home at the end of the village with its sward and shrub-
bery, and apple roof-tree; the orchard, well kept, trim
and apple-green, yielding its wagon-loads of fruits; the
old tree on the hillside, in the pasture where genera-
tions of men have come and gone and where houses have
fallen to decay; the odor of the apples in the cellar in
the cold winter night; the feasts around the fireside,—I
think all these pictures conjure themselves in my mind
to tantalize me of home.

And often in my wanderings I promise myself that
when I reach home I shall see the apple-tree as I had
never seen it before. Even its bark and its gnarly trunk
will hold converse with me, and its first tiny leaves of
the budding spring will herald me a welcome. Once
again I shall be a youth with the apple-tree, but feeling
more than the turbulent affection of transient youth can
understand. Life does not seem regular and established
when there is no apple-tree in the yard and about the
buildings, no orchards blooming in the May and laden
in the September, no baskets heaped with the crisp
smooth fruits; without all these I am still a foreigner,
sojourning in a strange land.

II
THE APPLE-TREE IN THE LANDSCAPE

The April sun is soft on the broad open fenced fields,
waking them gently from the long deep sleep of winter.
Little rills are running full. The grass is newly coolly
green. Fresh sprouts are in the sod. By copse and high-
way the shad-bushes salute with their handkerchiefs.
Apple-trees show tips of verdure. It is good to see the
early greens of changing spring. It is good to look
abroad on an apple-tree landscape.

As to its vegetation, the landscape is low and flat, not
tall. There is a vast uniformity in plant forms, a sub-
dued and constrained humility. A month later the leaf-
age will be in glory, but that also will have an aspect of
sameness and moderation. Perhaps the actual variety
of species will be greater than in many parts of the
abounding tropics, and to the careful observer the lux-
uriance will be as great, although not so big; but as I
look abroad I am impressed with the economy of the
prospect. It comes nearer to my powers of assimilation,
quiets me with a deep satisfaction ; the contrasts are sub-
dued, the processes grade into each other imperceptibly
in thé land of the lingering twilight.

In this prospect are maples and elms and apple-trees.
The maples and elms are of the fields and roadsides. The

10

IN THE LANDSCAPE 11

apple-trees are of human habitations and human labor;
they cluster about the buildings, or stand guard. at a
gate; they are in plantations made by hands. As I see
them again, I wonder whether any other plant is so char-
acteristically a home-tree.

So is the apple-tree, even when full grown, within the
reach of children. It can be climbed. Little swings are
hung from the branches. Its shade is low and familiar.
It bestows its fruit liberally to all alike.

The apple is a sturdy tree. Short of trunk and short
of continuous limb, it is yet a stout and rugged object,
the indirectness of its branching branches adding to its
picturesque quality. It is a tree of good structure. Al-
though its limbs eventually arch to the ground, if left
to themselves, they yet have great strength. The angul-
arity of the branching, the frequent forking, the big heal-
ing or hollow knots with rounding callus-lips, give the
‘tree character. Anywhere it would be a marked tree,
unlike any other.

The bark on the older surface sheds in short oblong
irregular scales or plates that detach perhaps at both ends
and often at the sides, clinging by the middle until the
curl loosens them and they fall to the ground. These
plates or chips are more or less rowed up and down the
trunk and on the larger branches, yet the apple bark is
not ridged and furrowed as on the elm. The bark is not
checked in squares as on old pear-trees nor peeling as
on cherries. In dry weather, the loose old bark is dark
brown-gray, often supporting gray lichens, but in rain
it is soft and nearly black, yielding pleasantly to the
touch. In the forks, the bark is not so readily cast and
there the chips may lie in heaps. On the young limbs

12 THE APPLE-TREE

and small trunks the bark is tight and close, not splitting
into seams or furrows with the expansion of the cylinder
but stretching and throwing off detached flakes and chips.
Under the chips various insects hide or make some of
their transformations. There the codlin-moth pupates.
The old remains of scale insects may be found on the ex-
terior. In the furrows about the dormant buds the eggs
of plant-lice pass the winter.

To destroy these breeding and hiding places, many
careful apple-growers scrape away the loose bark, being
careful not to expose the quick living tissue; and on the
younger wood the eggs of aphis and other pests, as well
as cocoons and nymphs, are destroyed by vigorous winter
spraying. The regular spraying of apple-trees, in the
different seasons, more or less sterilizes the bark. Many
forms of canker, due to fungi and bacteria, invade the
bark, making sunken areas and scars, often so serious
as to destroy the tree. All these features are discoverable
in the apple-tree.

The trunk of the apple-tree is short and stout, usually
not perfectly cylindrical and not prominently buttressed
at the base. In old trees it is usually ribbed or ridged,
sometimes tortuous with spiral-like grooves, often show-
ing the bulge where the graft was set. The wood is fine-
grained and of good color, and lends itself well to certain
kinds of cabinet work and to the turning-lathe for house-
hold objects; it should be better known.

If left to itself, the tree branches near the ground,
making many strong secondary scaffold trunks; but the
plant does not habitually have more than one bole, even
though it may branch from the very base; it is a real tree,
even though small, and not a huge shrub. In the natural

A
BS

es heh

2. The apple-tree in the landscape

IN THE LANDSCAPE 13

condition, the trunk often rises only a foot or two before
it is lost in the branches; at other times it may be four
or six feet high. Under cultivation, the lowest branches
are usually removed when the tree begins to grow, and
an evident clean trunk is produced. In Europe and the
Eastern States, it has been the practice to trim the trunk
clean to the height of four or six feet; but in hotter and
drier regions the trunk is kept short to insure against
sun-scald; and with the better tillage implements of the
present day it may not be necessary to train the heads so
high.

In old hill pastures, in many parts of the North, one
sees curious umbrella forms and other shapes of apple-
trees, due to browsing by cattle. A little tree gets a start
in the pasture. When cattle are turned in, they browse
the tender terminal growth. The plant spreads at the
base, in a horizontal direction. With the repeated brows-
ing on top, the tree becomes a dense conical mound.
Eventually, the leader may get a strong headway, and
grows beyond the reach of the browsers. As it rises out
of grasp, it sends off its side shoots, forming a head. The
cattle browse the under side of this head, as far as they
are able to reach, causing the tree to assume a grotesque
hour-glass shape, flat on the under part of the head, with
a cone of green herbage at the ground. Sometimes pas-
tures are full of little hummocks of trees that have not
yet been able to overtop the grazers.

The winter apple-tree in the free is a reassuring object.
It has none of the sleekness of many horticultural forms,
nor the fragility of peaches, sour cherries and plums. It
stands boldly against the sky, with its elbows at all angles
and its scaly bark holding the snow, Against evergreens

14 THE APPLE-TREE

it shows its ruggedness specially well. It presents forms
to attract the artist. Even when gnarly and broken, it
does not convey an impression of decrepitude and decay
but rather of a hardy old character bearing his burdens.
In every winter landscape I look instinctively for the
apple-tree.

Weare so accustomed to the apple-tree as a part of an
orchard, where it is trimmed into shape and its bolder
irregularities controlled, that we do not think it has
beauty when left to itself to grow as it will. An apple-
tree that takes its own course, as does a pine-tree or an
oak, is looked on as unkempt and unprofitable and as a
sorry object in the landscape, advertizing the neglect of.
the owner. Yet if the apple-tree had never borne good
fruit, we should plant it for its bloom and its pictur-
esqueness as we plant a hawthorn or a locust-tree.

In winter and in summer, and in the months between,
my apple-tree is a great fact. It is a character in the
population of my scenery, standing for certain human
emotions. The tree is a living thing, not merely a some-
thing that bears apples,

II
THE BUDS ON THE TWIGS

Now the buds begin to break. The firm winter-buds
swell. Their scales part. Tips of green appear. Tiny
leaves come forth, neatly rolled inward, growing as they
expand, the stalks lengthening. Resurrection is astir in
the tree.

Several leaves issue from every bud. From some buds
arise only leaves; from others a flower-cluster emerges
from the leaf-rosette, showing faint color even before it

.expands. Very close together and tight these unopened
little flowers are packed as they emerge; if we had looked
at them with a lens as they lay in the bud in the long
winter we should understand why; now they escape their
bonds and rapidly grow as they are delivered, yet at first
pressed together by head and stem in their soft gray
wool.

Thus are there two kinds of buds on the twig of the
bearing apple-tree,—the leaf-buds (sending forth leaves
only), and the flower-buds (bearing both leaves and
flowers). And if we wish to analyze more closely, we
discover two kinds of leaf-buds,—those that send forth
a rapidly growing shoot bearing the leaves, and those.
from which the leaf-cluster remains practically sessile
on the branch. These latter, or the strongest and best of

15

16 THE APPLE-TREE

them, will probably give rise to short fruiting spurs and
the others to elongated leafy branches.

Before me as I write is an apple limb more than three
feet long. It has been a vigorous grower, for it is only
three years old. The years can be readily made out;
there are two sets of “rings” separating them. You may
see these rings on all young apple limbs. They represent
the scars of the scales of the past terminal buds.

Three years ago my shoot was sent off from its parent
branch; that year it grew but four inches, bearing leaves
on its sides, in the axils of which developed buds for the
winter and at the end a larger terminal bud. Let us call
this shoot 1918. Two years ago (1919), whilst I was in
a distant land, the terminal bud gave rise to a shoot nine-
teen inches long; two buds near the end of the 1918 shoot
pushed out clusters of leaves and made spurs about one-
half inch long; all the other buds, five in number, re-
mained dormant, and now they are dead and are rapidly
becoming mere scars. Last year (1920) the terminal bud
of 1919 gave rise to a shoot fifteen inches long; three
buds at the base of this two-year (1919) shoot remained
dormant; fourteen buds produced spurs. It is now the
spring of 1921; the 1920 shoot has four dormant buds at
its base, ten rosettes of leaves from the other buds, and
a pushing terminal shoot.

On my branch this year, therefore, are 5 plus 3 plus 4,
or 12 dormant buds of all the years; 2 plus 14 plus 10, or
26 spurs; 1 terminal bud continuing the onward growth.

It is evident that the last two years were good ones
for my apple limb, for the growths were long (19 and
15 inches) and most of the buds produced spurs. The
result is evidenced also in the fact that the limb is this

Missing Page

THE BUDS ON THE TWIGS 17

year laden with potential bloom. On 1918 the two spurs
bear flowers, one of them only a single bloom and the
other five blooms. On 1919 twelve of the fourteen spurs
are bearing flowers in the following numbers: 5 flowers,
5, 5, 7, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5=63 flowers. On 1920 are no
spurs bearing flowers, but the terminal bud (as is
frequent on vigorous young trees) bears five flowers.
Here, therefore, on this yard of three-year-old twig are
seventy-four blossoms.

But there will not be seventy-four fruits; some of the
flowers are small and weak; others, as the petals fall,
show unmistakable signs of failing. A few of them show
the plump form of an embryo apple: I think there are
a score of such promises. But I know that others will
fail later from physiological causes, and others probably
from onslaught of insects or disease or from accidents.
If six fair fruits mature on a branch like this, the crop
will be good; and probably the branch would not have
vigor enough to set as many fruit-buds the following
year or to bear as many fruits.

It is good to watch the opening of the apple bloom:
pink buds swelling and puffing out each day, the woolly
stems elongating, the five overlapping incurving petals
spreading and growing big, the stamens, about twenty,
straightening up and lengthening their filaments that are
attached on the flower-rim; the big light yellow anthers
shedding pollen; the five green styles in the center. In
some flowers the styles do not develop, and wc have one
reason why many flowers are sterile.

The flower-clusters differ much among themselves,
in size of parts, number of flowers, color; on some trees
the flowers appear in advance of most of the leafage, but

18 THE APPLE-TREE

usually they are coincident with the leaves. Sometimes
the flower-stems or peduncles are branched, bearing two
or three flowers, and in that case there may be a small
green leaf or bract where the fork arises. The placing
of the petals in the bud at the epoch of expansion may
differ in two flowers on the same tree. One petal may
stand guard outside the others and free from them, both
edges uncovered, while the remaining petals are spiral
with one edge under and one edge over; or there may
be two guard petals, one on either side; or sometimes
all the petals may be spiral, one margin out, one margin
in; in some cases all the petals stand free as the flower
is expanding, with no margin interlapping. Sometimes
one petal is missing, and again the petals may be six.

This infinite variety within the bonds of so great
regularity lends a subtle charm to natural objects, that
is wholly absent in man’s perfected machine-work. Man
aims at uniformity, two and two alike; nature aims at
endless difference, every object or even every member
of an object having its own character. Much of man’s
energy is expended in trying to overcome the diverseness
of nature.

Gradually and slowly the flower balloons enlarge and
puff themselves up, the petals standing together at their
tips; all the variety is united into a harmony of exub-
erance, color and form; then one day there is a shower
of genial rain, a warm sun, birds in the air, bees released,
grasses soft and lush, and behold! the apple-tree is in
bloom,—a great heavenly mound of white and pink ex-
haling a faint delicious breath. Then the pulses stir,
the dogs bark at the edges of the wood, the fields call,
the scented winds lead on forever.

IV

THE WEEKS BETWEEN
THE FLOWER AND THE FRUIT

The petals expand broadly, usually losing most of
their pink. The blade is oblong and rounded at the end,
at first cupped and then nearly flat, three-fourths of an
inch long, narrowed at the base into a short stem-like
part and usually hairy there, the edges perhaps wavy
but entire. The expanse of the flower may be one and
one-half to two inches. The brush of stamens, erect in
the center, sheds its pollen and the anthers collapse.

Then the petals fall, like flakes of snow, borne often
by the wind. There remain the stout woolly flower-
stems an inch or more long and bearing minute dry
bracts, with the young fruit at the summit topped by
the five recurving woolly sepals and the pencil of stamens
and styles. The bloom being gone, the flowering system
of the apple is thenceforth little observed. Not until the
fruit begins to color do we come back to the apple-tree
to look at it closely ; yet in these intervening weeks some
of the most interesting transformations take place, and
on the exact observance of them depends to a large
extent one’s success in the rearing and saving of a good
crop of apples.

Here is the flower of the apple-tree (Fig. 3). It is a

19

20 THE APPLE-TREE

comely blossom, fragrant and pinky white, flatly spread
to the sky, carrying the spirit of the cool of the spring.
What concerns us now, however, is the cluster of stamens
and pistils in the center, for these organs are directly
concerned in the production of the fruit. The petals soon
fall, but the remains of these interior organs persist,
even unto the ripening of the fruit.

The anther is attached at the back of its base or
middle to the top of the filament in the suture separating
the two large cells. These anther-cells split along the
outer margins, releasing the pollen-grains.

In the center of the ring of stamens are the five style-
branches, which are united at the base into a short hairy
column; the column is borne on the ovary, which is
sunken deep into the receptacle or
stem (Fig. 4). It is down these
style-branches that the pollen-tube
passes on its way to the ovules or
embryo seeds. The top of the style
is expanded into a cupped stigma
on which are many glutinous points.
One can observe the browning and
ripening of the stigma after pollen
has been deposited by wind, bees

4. Longitudinal or other agencies. When the ovules

section of the flower. are fertilized, the forming fruit en-
larges regularly unless it meets with misfortune or is
crowded out for lack of room and nourishment.

If one cuts across the ovary or embryo fruit below
the recurving sepals, one will see under a lens that it is

THE FLOWER AND THE FRUIT 21

neatly five-celled (Fig. 5). In each cell
are two ovules; these, if all goes well,
will ripen into ten seeds. These five
cells comprise most of the diameter in
: the cross-section; but as the ovary en-

5. Cross-section of ;
dhewvary. larges and the young fruit grows, one
may see that the inner part comprising
the cells begins to have a character of its own and to be

differentiated from the surrounding flesh.

The “blossom” falls. In reality only the petals fall.
What is left is well shown in Fig. 6. ‘Here remain the
upstanding stamens with the empty anthers, and in the
center one could see the five styles if the specimen were
in hand. Here also are the calyx-lobes, widely spreading
and even recurved. The photograph for Fig. 6 was taken
May 3. On May 17 another cluster was photographed
from the same tree (Fig. 7). Three of the flowers have
‘produced sturdy young apples. The stems or pedicels
have become stouter, and they begin to spread. Note
that the calyx now is closed, the old stamens protruding,
a circumstance that will have special significance when
we become acquainted with the codlin-moth. Note’ also
that one flower has failed, and remains as it was two
weeks earlier; it will soon fall. The young apples begin
to take shape. They show a glow of red on the cheek.
They are fuzzy all over. One of them is already injured
on one side, having been stung by a curculio or other
insect: there are keen senses about the apple-tree.

Two weeks later (May 31) still another cluster was
taken from the same tree (Fig. 8). Here are three fruits
erect on their stems; one of them is more than an inch

22 THE APPLE-TREE

in diameter either way, sturdy and unblemished ; another
shows deformity due to insect puncture; the third re-
mains small and presently will drop. A scar in the leaf-
axil marks the failure of another flower. Four blossoms
were in this cluster, but only one fruit now has a chance
to come to uninjured maturity, and two have already
failed. The big apple has now lost most of its fuzziness
and begins to assume a delicate “bloom” on its surface;
the smallest one—the one that soon will perish—still
holds some of its fuzz. A section of this smallest fruit
discloses empty cells; apparently it was not fertilized.
Another two weeks have passed. It is June 14th.
From the same tree is taken the photograph, Fig. 9.
Here is a big apple, 1% inch in diameter; and there is a’
dead shrivelled fruit that dropped when I touched it. Of
the several flowers in the cluster, all have failed but one.
This one fruit has now passed the danger of the blossom-
end infection by the codlin-moth and it has no blemishes.
The many whitish spots characteristic of the variety are
now conspicuous all over the surface. The ribs begin to
show. There is a faint blush on the upper side. The
fuzz has disappeared and the bloom is becoming evident.
The calyx is tightly closed, although the tips of the sepals
are spread widely. The stem is stout. The weight of
the apple inclines it nearly to the horizontal. Yet this
good apple is not symmetrical; one side is larger than
the other. I cut it crosswise and find two cells on the
larger side developing two strong seeds each, whilst
those on the smaller side have a single seed each and-
one of these seeds is small and perhaps would not have
matured. The fleshy part of the apple, outside the core,
now occupies about as much of the diameter as the core

THE FLOWER AND THE FRUIT 23

itself and much more than one-half the bulk of the iruit.
Already my apple, now half grown, shows many of its
distinctive characteristics.

Yet another fortnight has come and gone, and it is
June 28th. It has been good “growing weather.” Sum-
mer is here, full-orbed, regal, bringing the abundance of
the earth. Here are two stout apples hanging on their
stems (Fig. 10), for they are now too heavy to be held
erect. The larger fruit is a trifle more than two
inches in diameter. The feature spots are now still more
prominent on these apples, the ribs more pronounced,
the blush against the sun more warm. Both these fruits,
from one spur, will mature; but the smaller one will be
blemished, for the apple-scab fungus has established it-
self on the crown and about the calyx. Already the
growth is checked in that area, and the apple looks
flattened. There is no evidence in either apple of codlin-

.moth invasion. The adjoining spur, not clearly shown in
the photograph, is barren; it gave no flowers this year,
and it shows no indication of a blossom-bud for next
year. The leaves are thick and vigorous, yet they bear
marks of insect injury and one of them has been ex-
tensively skeletonized. On the whole, however, the fruits
have the mastery, and they now make a brave show.

July has passed this way. Tomorrow it will be
August. The odor of apples is now in my tree. There
are big striped apples on the ground, plucked by the
wind, the hold loosened by bugs for they too have felt
the fullness of July. Three apples, one of them three
inches through and two and one-half inches high, and
the others nearly as big, hang at the level of my eyes.
You may see them in Fig. 11. Here rises again my boy-

24 THE APPLE-TREE

hood spent in an orchard now passed away, as father
and mother have passed, as playmates have fallen one
by one, the old place holding only memories. Here is
my boyhood because the earth is always young and
repeats her miracles for the children by my side as it did
for me so many many years ago. Yet the miracles are
greater now than they were then. They have more
meaning. Now are they part of some great order. They
are not separate. Without moving my feet, I lay my
hands on apples, Virginia creeper, asparagus, marigold,
sweet sultan, oxalis, plantain, crab-grass, white clover,
all growing securely in one place, and everyone like unto
itself alone. Here is the everlasting miracle before my
eyes, and all miracles are mysteries. Once I thought I
should understand such things when I was “grown up,”
but I find myself still a boy.

These three apples on the last of the days of July
look fair and sound, partly hiddeh in the leaves, the deep
red colors covering them in broad splashed stripes and
relieved by light dots. Yet when I raise the leaves or
when I lift the apples apart, I find the burrows of insects.
They know that these apples are good. It is astonishing
how nature covers up the wounds, how she conceals the
sore places, and how fair she makes everything look.
Were it not that she covers the depredations of man, the
earth would not long remain habitable by him.

Summer is ended. Today the sun is on the equator,
and we are at the equinox when nights are equal to the
days, as the word testifies. The harvest is over. The
apples are no more. Yet the tree still is active and pre-
paring for another year (Fig. 12). The spurs are now
thick and stout, bearing sturdy hard leaves. The bud in

THE FLOWER AND THE FRUIT 25

the center is a big one, already recognized as a fruit-bud:
here is the promise of speckled, furrowed, striped apples
next August. Thereby I learn that it is not enough to
be good to the tree in the year in which I desire its fruit:
I must begin the year before, and the year before that,
and even back at the time when the tree is planted; and
if the tree at planting-time is not a good tree, it will be
at a disadvantage perhaps all its life long.

Finally the apple is ripe and ready. At the stem end
is the “cavity,” a depression, deep or shallow, according
to variety, in which the stem is set. At the blossom end
is the “basin,” also with the characteristics of the variety
as to depth and width and contour, in which the calyx-
lobes persist, and inside the calyx are the remains of
the dead stamens and styles; the calyx may be “closed”
or “open,” the character being a mark of the particular
variety.

Cut the apple through the center lengthwise (Fig. 13) ;
note the curved outline of the core (the pistil) extending
half or more across the fruit /if you do not see this out-
line, cut an apple until you do; carefully open the five
cells or compartments and within the parchment walls
find the two seeds attached by their points which are
directed toward the stem end; perhaps one of the seeds
has failed, but probably a cavity marks its place; perhaps
both seeds have failed; perhaps the cell has more than
two seeds.

Cut an apple cross-wise: note the five radiating cells
of the core, the number and attachment of the seeds;
note the ten points, imbedded in the flesh, marking the
outline of the core. Cut an apple cross-wise above the
core and beneath it; note where these points vanish

26 THE APPLE-TREE

and try to harmonize them with the core-outline as seen
in the lengthwise section; probably you will discover
why you may not see the core-outline in all the length-
wise sections you make. Before you leave the fruit, note
whether single seeds in a cell are the same shape as the
two seeds in a cell.

The flesh outside the core-outline is interpreted to be
stem structure rather than pistil structure. Sometimes
an apple bears a scale-like leaf on its exterior, suggesting
that the outer part of the fruit is stem. The older morphol-
ogists interpreted the apple flower to comprise a hol-
lowed calyx (calyx-tube) inside which is the pistil and
on the rim of which are the petals and stamens. The
structure now is regarded as a hollowed receptacle or
stem (hypanthium), with the pistil inside, the petals and
stamens on its rim. We noted in the flower that the
ovary part of the pistil is solidly imbedded in this re-
ceptacle, but that the five styles are free. The pear and
quince are of similar structure, but the peach, plum and
cherry are simple ripened pistils.

Here, in this chapter, we have discovered some of the
epochs in the life of the apple. Usually we let the imagi-
nation run only to the mature fruit, thinking of the har-
vest, but in all the weeks before the harvest the apple
has been growing and taking form. As these weeks
have not been blank to the apple-tree, so shall they not
be blank to me.

Vv

THE BRUSH PILE

Today I visited the brush pile back of the orchard.
Here the trimmings of the winter are placed, waiting to
be burned when dry. How many are the archives that
will be destroyed! Here are histories in every bud and
twig and scar, of the seasons, of the accidents and deaths,
the records of the tree as there are records of families.

These records are not written in numbers or in let-
ters, nor yet in hieroglyphs; yet are they understandable.
Alphabet is not needed, and the key is simple.

From the brush pile of records I took one. I must
describe it in part by a picture (Fig. 14). On the living
trees at this writing the petals mostly have fallen and the
leaves are nearly full grown. This branch was cut in
winter. It has lain in the snow and rain, putting forth
no flowers or leaves. Yet we can read it.

It is May, 1921. The terminal shoot is obviously of
1920; we shall name it No. 1. It is a foot long, smooth
and glossy, terminating at the base (0) in a “ring” and at
a short stub or branchlet. If we count the buds on all
sides of the shoot and at the tip we find them to be 13.
The largest one is at the tip, and they are mostly suc-
cessively smaller toward the base. Apparently the
growth-energy was expended in the upper parts of the

27

28 THE APPLE-TREE

twig, making large full buds. In fact, the three or four
lowermost buds are scarcely developed and would not
grow unless the limb were broken off above them; they
are dormant buds.

gi ae pt ..

—

|
NO.4

=r
——

14. A three-year record.—In a leisure hour, trace the history of
these parts; it will open your eyes,

THE BRUSH PILE 29

Looking along the shoot, I find that every six buds
stand in the same line: the sixth bud is over the first,
seventh over the second, eighth over the third. If I
were to fasten a string to bud No. 1 and wind it around
the stem to my left, passing over every bud until I had
reached the sixth, I should find that it had made two cir-
cuits of the stem (passed twice around it) and had passed
over five spaces between buds. This is the leaf-arrange-
ment or phyllotaxy of the apple-tree, expressed by the
fraction 2/5. The space between two buds is two-fifths
of a diameter, and two circuits (ten-fifths) must be
passed before a bud comes over the one from which we
started. The 2/5 leaf-arrangement obtains on cherry,
peach, apricot, pear, raspberry and many others; but a
very different order is that of the linden, grape, currant,
lilies, elm, maple.

We cannot understand this simple unbranched ter-
minal twig (No. 1) until we know what took place last
year. A year ago, in the spring of 1920, a terminal bud
that had formed in 1919 expanded and gave rise to this
rapidly growing shoot. By the end of May or early June
this shoot had grown to twelve inches long, for the
growth in length on the twigs of trees is usually com-
pleted that early. This shoot bore leaves on the 2/5 ar-
rangement; in the axil of every leaf was a bud, the
strongest buds being with the strongest leaves at the
middle and top of the shoot; in the autumn of 1920 these
leaves fell, but the buds remained, persisted the winter,
and were ready to “grow” in the early spring of 1921.
We see them on No. 1 (Fig. 14).

In 1921 these buds on No. 1, then, would have grown.
New leaves would have come from the bud itself; in fact,

30 THE APPLE-TREE

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THE BRUSH PILE 31

the winter buds of the apple are packed with miniature
leaves and sometimes with flowers as well. The shoot com-
ing out of the bud may remain very short, constituting a
“spur,” or grow with long internodes, making a slender twig.
Fig. 15 shows a branch with new elongated growth, b to a,
and a shoot or spur (c) arising from a bud of the previous
year. Note the “ring,” or division beyond b, marking the
turn of the year.

It will be noted in Fig. 14 that the buds are of two
shapes and sizes, such as a, a, a, representing one kind and
b, b, the other kind. The former, small and pointed, are
leaf-buds ; from them will arise a shoot bearing only leaves.
The latter, b, large and rounded and usually more fuzzy,
are flower-buds (fruit-buds) : from them will arise a short
shoot bearing leaves and a cluster of flowers; and we hope
‘that at least one of the flowers will set fruit.

We are now ready to resume our lesson with the branch
before us. We have identified the slender terminal part,
No. 1, as the growth of 1920. We are now to account for
all the remaining buds and branchlets.

If No. 1 grew in 1920, then the main shoot of No. 2
grew in 1919, from the point 00. It is also one foot long.
Near its base are four small buds that remained dormant in
1920. There are nine branches (d) of various lengths be-
sides the terminal shoot No. 1, all of which grew in 1920,
for they are naturally a year younger than the main axis
from which they arise; these branches are the same age as
No. 1, with buds that would have produced shoots in 1921.
But the terminal buds of eight of these lateral shoots (all
but the lowermost) bear blossom-buds at the end; note
their size and shape. Had not the branch been cut, these
buds would have bloomed in 1921; the eight of them

>

32 THE APPLE-TREE

would have produced probably forty to fifty flowers; per-
haps two or three good fruits would have resulted. Note
that two of the lateral branches or spurs are short and
weak: these would soon perish. The No. 2 branch has a
dead end (e) ; in some way the terminal bud was destroyed,
and No. 1 sprang from a lateral bud beneath it, changing
the direction of growth.

If No. 2 grew in 1919, then No. 3 grew in 1918. It
also grew about one foot in length, showing that the condi-
tions in the three years must have been very uniform. There
are remains of five dormant buds at its base. There are
seven side branches. As the main axis is three years old, so
these lateral shoots are two years old; they are the same
age as the axis No. 2. The lower one (s) grew less than.
an inch in 1919, and made a fruit-bud; in 1920 it blossomed
and one fruit set as is shown by the square scar at the end;
as the scar is small and the twig weak, we are safe in
assuming that the apple was very small or else did not
mature. A bud formed at the side of s to continue the
growth of the spur next year (1921), but it is a leaf-bud;
apparently there was not sufficient energy to bear flowers
and to make a fruit-bud; so there would have been no more
fruit on this spur earlier than 1922: thus do we see that the
alternate bearing of the apple-tree may have some of its
origin in the fruit-spur.

The side spur f produced a terminal blossom-bud in 1919.
In 1920 six flowers opened,—I could count the scars. One of

the flowers produced a fruit, as I tell by the square scar at’
the end; the thickened stem also indicates fruit-bearing.

The side bud in this case is a fruit-bud, but it is small and
weak and is probably incapable of producing a fruit. There
are no strong leaf-buds to take up the work, and this

THE BRUSH PILE 33

spur (f) would probably soon have died, as also would
spur s.

The side shoot g grew to h in 1919 and made a flower-
bud. In 1920 this bud gave blossoms and one fruit resulted ;
the scar is prominent and there is an enlargement of the
tissue indicating that the fruit probably attained good size;
in 1920 also, two side spurs were formed each with weak
blossom-buds, also a terminal shoot (beyond /) with leaf-
bud at the end.

The other shoots have similar histories: the long shoot
4 bore a fruit-bud at & in 1919 and a fruit in 1920; in 1920 it
also made three lateral shoots and a terminal shoot, with
flower-buds terminating two of them. Shoot / bore flowers
at its point in 1920 but did not carry the fruit to maturity ;
it also made two side growths and one terminal growth, all
terminated by flower-buds, to be blown in 1921. The shoot
m is a short spur that made a flower-bud in 1919 and in 1920
carried three little fruits for a time and made a flower-bud
in 1920. Shoot » remained very short in 1919, making a
terminal leaf-bud; in 1920 it grew two inches and made a
weak flower-bud.

If shoot No. 3 grew in 1918, then No. 4 grew in 1917;
but the branch is severed and I cannot trace the record
farther. We could trace the family history many years if
we had the unpruned tree before us.

Here, then, in my yard-long manuscript are forty bud-
records on the main axis, counting the terminals on No. 2
and No. 3. I can find record of 144 buds on the side shoots.
This makes a grand total of 184 buds. There is a total
growth in length of 108 inches, or 9 feet. Each of the buds
that has already “grown” has produced an average of prob-
ably ten leaves, or say 340 leaves in total. If there were an

34 THE APPLE-TREE

average of five flowers to the cluster, then about 150 flowers
would have been carried on my branch, with the potential-
ity of 150 fruits; but in fact not more than three or four
maturing fruits would have been produced in these years:
and I should think this a good proportion as blossoms and
apples go. Certainly the branch has done its part. There
have been three eventful years.

I would not have my reader to suppose that one may
always distinguish leaf-buds and fruit-buds at a glance. I
may be mistaken in some of the above determinations, but
they are essentially correct for I have the twig before
me. In some varieties of apples the differences between
the two kinds of buds are less marked. The certain way
is to dissect the bud: one may then see what it contains.

It now remains to determine how the branch was placed
in the tree. It must have been upright or very nearly so,
for the main axis is essentially straight and the branchlets
are about equally developed on all sides; moreover, there
is no indication in the bark that one exposure was the
“weather side.” The big twig 4 apparently found a light
and unoccupied space into which to develop, but its exten-
sion is not greatly out of proportion. I suppose, however,
that my branch was not topmost in the tree; there is no in-
dication in very long growth or strong upward tendency of
the branchlets to mark the branch as a “leader.”

Years ago I became fascinated with the study of knots
and knot-holes in the timber of wood-piles. They are ex-
cellent records of the events in the life of trees. In print
T have tried to show what they mean. I also worked out
the life-histories of twigs and published them in nature-
study leaflets and elsewhere. Hundreds of children were
interested in the twigs and buds, finding them unusual, every

THE BRUSH PILE 35

one of them a different story, and yet not difficult to read.
These lessons gave meaning to trees and seasons. Such
observations have always meant much to me, even when
made in the most casual way in the midst of constraining
activities. And now in this later day I come back to a bare
twig with all the joy of youth. The records of the years
are in these piles of brush,

vi
THE PRUNING OF THE APPLE-TREE

We have found that not all the buds grow. We also
know that some of the spurs and shoots perish, not alone
from accident but from defeat in the struggle to live.
The chances of success are relatively few. The pruning
process begins early in the life of the tree, and it con--
tinues ceaselessly until the end.

To the apple-tree in the wild, strict pruning is the
assurance of success. No tree can reach maturity unless
more parts perish than are able to live. The young forest
tree has branchlets and leaves along its side and at the top.
All these perish as the trunk rises, often leaving marks
on the bark, curls in the wood, and knot-holes large and
small. Thousands of perished buds and branches are the
price of a straight bole and great clear sheets of boards.
Yet these perished parts bore their burden in their day and
time, and contributed to the ultimate success: there could
have been no tree without them.

Any tree-top discloses the pruning in action if one
looks intently. Part of it is recorded in the buds that
never put forth a leaf; more of it in little shoots left be-
hind ; and there are large and small limbs, dead and dying,
yellowing apparently before their time, hanging on till
the last hold is broken. Were it not for the benevolent

36

THE PRUNING OF THE APPLE-TREE 37

processes of decay, the ground would be strewn with the
fallen parts accumulating through the years.

In nature, the great result is to yield abundant quan-
tity of seeds, that the species may propagate itself after
its kind. Man may desire fruits relatively few, but large
of size and excellent of quality, without spot or blemish;
this means greater opportunity and care to the single
fruit. Pruning is essential, to converge the energy of the
plant into fewer branches, to give the fruits space and
light, to increase the efficiency of measures for the con-
trol of diseases and insects. Part of the pruning con-
sists in removing certain branches, and part of it in elim-
inating the fruits themselves by the careful process of
thinning.

The pruning of nature is fortuitous. The tree has
the irregularity and abandon of the picturesque. The
pruning of man is for a different end, and it produces the
comely well-proportioned tree of the orchards. The tree
becomes a manipulated subject, comforting to the eye of
the thrifty pomologist.

Branch-pruning is essentially the removal of super-
fluous branches,—those that crowd, that cross each other,
that are so placed as to be profitless, that are in the way,
that are injured or diseased. For the most part, the
branches should be removed when they are small; but
it is not possible to foresee all that may be needed in the
training of the tree and, therefore, the frequent advice to
prune only with a hand-knife cannot be followed. One
needs a sharp pruning-saw and sometimes a chisel on a
long handle. Usually it is not necessary to remove
branches more than an inch or one and one-half inch in
diameter if pruning is carefully practiced every year; but

38 THE APPLE-TREE

sometimes even well-pruned trees must be shaped, cor-
rected and improved by the cutting of larger branches.

Pruning is usually best performed in early spring.
The branch should be cut close to the main limb or
trunk and parallel with it, leaving no stub; the healing
process is then likely to proceed more rapidly. The
wound should be smooth and clean, without breaks,
splinters or splits; the knot-holes in logs and trunks are
usually the consequence of long “stubs” and torn injured
parts. The tree is to be left shapely, with a uniform dis-
tribution of branches, plenty of fruit-bearing wood, easy
to spray and from which to pick the fruit, of the form
characteristic of the variety.

In all the usual customary pruning of the apple-tree,
dressing of the wounds is not necessary. It is much more
important to give the added attention to the proper mak-
ing of the wounds and the thoughtful choice of the parts
to be removed. Wounds two inches and more in diameter
may be protected with good paint, so that they will not
check and therefore not hold water, until the callus covers
them. Good judgment in pruning is more profitable than
recipes to repair damage.

Fruit-pruning, or thinning, is the removing of so much
fruit, when it is small, as will allow the remainder to
mature to its best and constitute a maximum yield; it
reduces the quantity of inferior fruit, lessens the number
of culls and the labor at packing time, conserves the
energy of the tree by preventing the maturity of great
numbers of seeds, diminishes diseases and pests. The
overloading of the tree not only imposes a heavy tax on
its vitality but is likely to break the limbs and to work
much physical damage.

7. May 17—When the young fruits begin to show

THE PRUNING OF THE APPLE-TREE 39

Thinning may consist in removing part of the fruit
in the cluster (in the case of varieties that tend to mature
more than one fruit from each flower-cluster), in pick-
ing all the fruits from certain clusters or pairs of clusters,
or in cutting away some of the fruit-spurs before blos-
soming time.

The removal of the fruit itself is usually performed
after the “June-drop,” when the extent of the crop is
evident. The fruits are pulled off by hand or cut with
thinning-shears, the latter practice being the better since
it is not so likely to break the fruit-spurs. The least
promising fruits are taken away and the remaining apples
are left at least five or six inches apart in most varieties.
The extent of thinning must be governed by the variety,
thrift of the tree, result desired, and other conditions.
To secure the best results, the apples should be thinned
when still small.

Thinning by early-spring removal of fruit-spurs is a
very special practice. It is employed on dwarf trees and
on those specially trained. It should be undertaken only
by a careful and experienced man. It is not to be inferred
that the fruit of the apple is all borne on spurs, for some
of it may be derived from terminal buds on the new axial
growths or even from lateral buds; but the spurs are
conspicuous and readily recognized. Of course the or-
dinary pruning of the tree removes fruit-bearing wood
and is therefore a thinning process.

Within sensible limits, therefore, pruning is an in-
vigorating process in the sense that it deflects the energy
to remaining parts of the tree. What is called too heavy
pruning, whereby the tree throws out abundance of
water-sprouts, is illustration of this fact: the tree is

40 THE APPLE-TREE

thrown into heavy growth of adventitious shoots. The
tree may not produce more pounds of substance, or even
more total feet in length, but new energy is developed in
certain parts.

In the restoration, or so-called renovation, of old
neglected trees, the two primary considerations are to
prune vigorously and to till and fertilize the land. Some-
times old trees must be mended as explained in Chapter
XIII. Of course they must be sprayed for what ails
them. If the variety is poor, the tree may be top-grafted
(Chapter XII). In some cases, it is hardly possible to
make neglected trees bear satisfactorily, for they were
never of value: there is nothing to restore. It may bea
question of soil and location, of lack of pollination, of
trees so weak or so misshapen that effort on them is
wasted. But tillage, pruning, spraying, should produce
worth-while results in most cases.

In the care of the fruit-tree there is no practice which
brings the grower into such intimate knowledge of the
plant as that of pruning and thinning. The operator sees
the tree as a whole, taking it all in; then he sees it in
small detail in all its parts, even to the spurs and buds.
With simple good tools, sharp and keen, and with a
practiced eye, he applies a deft and swift handicraft, cut-
ting true, making a fair clean wound, leaving the tree
comely and ready for its highest effort. The pride of
good workmanship may find expression. The operator
feels also the sense of mastery that is in him, whereby
he corrects the tree, removes the wayward parts, keeps
and encourages all that is best. To engage in this kind of
education requires that one approaches the work with due
preparation of mind and I think also with consecration
of heart.

VII

MAINTAINING THE HEALTH AND ENERGY
OF THE APPLE-TREE

The apple-tree starts life fresh and vigorous. It
grows rapidly. The shoots are long and straight. The
wood is smooth and fair and supple. The leaves are
usually large. It is good to see the young trees acquire
size and take shape.

Room in the ground and in the air is ample with the
young apple-tree. It is free to grow. Probably the
ground was newly prepared and tilled when the tree was
planted; at least, a hole was dug and fine good earth
was placed about the roots. Probably insects had not
found permanent encampment on the tree. It had been
well pruned, so that it carried the minimum of superfluous
and competing parts.

But in time the difficulties come. The tree probably
slows down. It becomes too thick of branches. The land
is not tilled. It is not manured. Insects and fungi
make headway. The tree overbears. As the years go
on, the tree is thrown into alternate bearing, one year a
crop too heavy, one year a crop too light. The tree be-
comes broken, diseased, gnarly, unshapely.

We have seen that the fruit-spur in bearing is likely
to make a leaf-bud for the next year’s activities rather
than a flower-bud. It is assumed that the making of a

41

42 THE APPLE-TREE

flower-bud requires more energy than the making of a
plain leaf-bud; if this is true, there may not be energy
enough to carry a flower-cluster and to make a new
flower-bud at the same time. But if the tree is in proper
vigor, is well fed, protected from noxious organisms, not
allowed to overbear, it should have sufficient energy to
make a crop every year, frosts and accidents excepted.
It is assumed, of course, that self-sterile varieties have
good pollinizing varieties near them; it is always well
to plant two or more kinds near together. Whether the
continuity of bearing is exhibited on the same fruit-spurs
or whether there may be an alternation in the spurs on
the same tree, is of no moment in this discussion. It is
enough to say that there is no reason in the nature of the
case why an apple-tree should bear only every other
year; it is probably a question of nutrition.

The first essential to continued health and vigor is to
start with a strong unblemished tree. It is to be planted
before its vitality is lessened by exposure and hard usage.
The more direct the transfer from nursery to orchard, the
better. It is to be placed in good ground, well drained
and deeply spaded or plowed. The apple-tree thrives on
many kinds of land, but light sand, hard clay, and muck
are equally to be avoided. “Good corn land” is com-
monly considered to be good apple land. Certain soils
and regions are particularly adaptable to commercial
apple-growing, but the amateur may plant quite inde-
pendently of this fact. The observant man notes the
many conditions under which the apple-tree may be
grown with satisfaction.

If the land is not uniformly prepared, then the hole
dug for the tree should be larger than demanded by

THE HEALTH AND ENERGY OF THE TREE 43

spread of roots, and the earth fined in the bottom of it.
Trees should be planted when perfectly dormant, prefer-
ably in spring, at least in the northern parts.

The roots should be cut back to sound unsplintered
wood, and very long roots may well be shortened. The
reader is aware that roots have no regular order or
arrangement as do the buds from which branches arise.
It is not necessary to try to shape the root-system to
any formal regularity.

As a good part of the root-system is destroyed when
the tree is dug, so is the top reduced to insure something
like a balance. Half or more of the top, on a three-year-
old tree, is cut away, the long growths being shortened
to perhaps three or four good buds. If limbs are left to
form the framework of the future top, they should be
alternate with each other at some distance apart so that
weak crotches do not form.

The tree is planted snugly, the earth being filled
among the roots.so that no air-holes remain. The tree
is shaken up and down to settle the earth dénsely. Once
or twice in filling, the earth is packed with the feet. The
purpose is to keep the tree firm and stiff against winds,
and to give all its roots close contact with the earth.
Properly planted, so that it will not whip or dry out, the
tree gets a hold quickly and begins to grow strongly.
The first start-off of the tree is important.

Apple-trees are held in vigor by plenty of room. For
the standard varieties in regular orchards, the recom-
mended distance either way is 40 feet, or 35x40 feet.
Some varieties may go as close as 30 feet; and in regions
(as parts of central and western North America) in which
the trees are not expected to attain such great size as in

44 THE APPLE-TREE

the eastern country, the planting may be even less than
this of the upright-growing kinds. The spaces between
the trees may be utilized for a few years with other crops,
even with other fruits, as peaches or berries. Orchardists
sometimes plant smaller-growing and early-bearing vari-
eties of apples between the regular trees as “fillers,” tak-
ing them out as the room is needed. Of course all kinds
of double cropping require that extra attention be given
to the tilling and fertilizing of the plantation.

The general advice for the growing of strong apple-
trees is to give the land good tillage from the first and
to withhold other cropping after the trees come into
profitable bearing. Clean tillage for the first part of the
season and the raising of a cover-crop in the latter part;
to be plowed under, is a standard and dependable pro-
cedure. Trees live long in continuous sod and they may
thrive, but they may be expected to show gains under
tillage. Vast areas of apple plantings are in sod, but this
of itself does not demonstrate the desirability of the sod
practice. Allowing trees to remain in sod usually leads
to neglect.

There is a modification of sod-practice in some parts
of the country that gives excellent results, under certain
conditions. The grass is cut and allowed to lie, not being
removed for hay. Manure and fertilizer are added as top-
dressing, as needed. This method is known as the “sod
mulch system.” It is not a practice of partial neglect,
like the prevailing sod orchards, but a regular designed
method of producing results. Its application can hardly
be as widespread as clean tillage, on level lands.

It is a common opinion that hillsides and more or
less inaccessible slopes should be planted to apples. This

THE HEALTH AND ENERGY OF THE TREE 45

may be true in the sense that apples will grow on such
areas and that such plantations are better than fallow
land. In fact, many such lands are profitable in orchards.
When they do not allow of tillage, easy spraying, and
economy in harvesting, however, they cannot compete
with level orchards.

To maintain the health an1 energy of the apple-tree,
the land should be enriched. This may be accomplished
by the application of animal manures, chemical fertilizers,
or cover-crops, or preferably by a combination of these
means. Not many persons possess sufficient farm man-
ures to supply the general crops and the apple-orchard ;
but every application the orchard receives is all to the
good. Five to ten tons of good stable manure to the
acre annually is a good addition for an orchard in bear-
ing. This may be supplemented by cover-crops and bag
fertilizers in years in which the manure is not available.
‘Experiments are yet inconclusive on the fertilizing of
apple-trees, but it is fair to assume that on most lands,
particularly on old lands, the addition of chemical ferti-
lizer is advantageous. A bearing apple-tree may receive
two to eight pounds of nitrate of soda (depending on its
size and on soil) applied to the full feeding area of the
roots, five to nine pounds of acid phosphate, two or three
pounds of muriate of potash; always ask advice.

The pasturing of orchards is often defensibie and
sometimes even desirable. If the trees are growing too
rapidly, they may be “slowed down” by seeding to grass
for a time; and pasturing with hogs, and possibly with
sheep, may afford a way of keeping the area in condition
and of adding fertilizer. Sheep that do not have access
to drinking-water and salt gnaw the trees. Hogs root up

46 THE APPLE-TREE

the ground and thereby provide a rude kind of tillage. If
animals are fed other food in the orchard, the fertilizer
increment will be considerable.

In house-lot conditions, the apple-tree usually receives
sufficient food if the land is well enriched for garden pur-
poses; but trees in sod should have liberal top-dressings
of fertilizer every year and of stable manure every other
year.

The apple-tree should have a good supply of moisture.
Planted on banks and in hard places about buildings, it
may suffer in this respect. The land should be so graded
that the rainfall will not run off. In orchard conditions,
the moisture is conserved by the addition of humus to
the land, and by thorough judicious tillage; and in dry
regions it is supplied by irrigation.

The energy of the apple-tree, and its ability to pro-
duce, is conserved by holding all diseases and noxious
insects in check. The means at the command of the
apple-grower are now many. No longer is the man help-
less, nor does he need to appeal to the moon or to “at-
mospheric influences” for reasons. The natural histories
of fungi and insects, that do so much damage, are now
a part of common understandable knowledge. To acquire
at least a working understanding of the commonest of
these subjects is in itself a great satisfaction and gives
one a sense of dominion. The good books and bulletins
are sufficient to keep one well informed. All these or-
ganisms are tenants of the apple-tree, and from the
naturist’s point of view alone they are not to be over-
looked.

It is not to be inferred that all apple-trees will yield
equally well with equally good treatment. There is

THE HEALTH AND ENERGY OF THE TREE 47

difference in trees as there is in cows. We may not know
why. But even so, it is our part to do the best we can:
this is our privilege.

The tillage and care of plants lessen the struggle for
existence. So is the apple-tree protected from the crowds,
from contest for moisture and food, from insects, and
from the competition within itself. Thereby is it able
to express all its possibilities. Even the dormant poten-
tialities may be wakened, and the plant makes a wide
departure from its native state. This is not an original
state of sin, but a state of repression in which it is held
in a world that is full of so many things beside apple-
trees. I may till my orchard ever so well, manipulate the
trees ever so promptly, yet if the plantation then is al-
lowed to run to neglect the processes of depreciation gain
the mastery; the struggle for existence is restored.

To keep one’s apple-tree in the pink of perfection is
as joyful an enterprise as to do anything else well. It is
only the well-conditioned tree that yields its glorious
harvest year by year.

VIII
HOW AN APPLE-TREE IS MADE

If the seeds of a Baldwin or Winesap apple are
planted, we do not expect to get a Baldwin or Winesap;
we shall probably raise a very inferior fruit. The apple
has not been bred “true to seed” as has the cabbage and
sweet pea. To get the tree “true to name,” of the desired
variety and with no chance of failure (barring accident),
is one of the niceties of horticulture. This is accomplished
with great precision and despatch.

The apple-tree is started from the seed. It cannot be
grown freely by means of cuttings, as can the grape and
currant. In commercial practice the seeds are collected
mostly from cider mills or from pomace.. The seeds may
be washed from the pomace, allowed to dry, and then
mixed in sand, charcoal, sawdust or other material to
prevent dessication and kept until spring, when they are
sown. Or, if the land is not so wet in winter that the
seed will drown or be washed out, the seed in the pomace
(not separated) may be sown in autumn. The seeds are
sown in drills, after the manner of onions or turnips, one
to two or even three inches deep. They germinate readily
in the cool of spring, and the plants should reach a height
of twelve inches and more the first year.

If these plants were grown directly into bearing trees,

48

HOW AN APPLE-TREE IS MADE 49

it is probable that no two trees would produce the same
kind of fruit. Some of the fruit might be summer apples,
some of it winter apples, some red, yellow or striped,
some of it flat, oblong or spherical, most of it sour but
perhaps some of it sweet. Probably every kind would
be inferior to the parent stock or to standard varieties,
although there is a fair chance that a superior kind might
originate from a field of such plants.

_ Therefore, it is not the variety (that is, the top) that
is wanted in the raising of these numerous plants, but
merely the roots, on which desired varieties may be grown
by the clever art of graftage. Yet not even all the roots
may be wanted, for the growing plants may differ or
vary in their stature and vigor as well as in their fruit.
The discriminating grower, therefore, discards the weak
and puny treelings at the digging time; or if the weak
plants seem still to have promise, they may be allowed
to grow another year before they are dug for the grafting.

This digging time is the autumn of the first year, when
the plants have grown one season. They are then to be
used as “stocks” on which to graft Baldwin, Winesap or
other varieties. The growing of these apple stocks is a
business by itself. Formerly, most of the stocks used in
North America were imported from France, where special
skill has been developed in the growing of them and
where the requisite labor is available. But now the stocks
are grown also in deep rich bottom lands of the Middle
West, as in Kansas, where, in the long seasons, a large
growth may be attained.

The methods of graftage of the commercial apple-tree
are two—by cion-grafting whereby a bit of wood with two
or three buds is inserted on the stock, by bud-grafting

50

THE APPLE-TREE

(budding) whereby a single bud with a bit of bark at-
tached is inserted under the bark of the stock.

16. The
whip-graft be-
fore tying.

Cion-grafting is practiced in winter under
cover. The stock is cut off at the crown
and the cion spliced on it, or the root may
be cut in two or more pieces and each piece
receive a cion. The union is made by the
whip-graft method (Fig. 16). The cion is
tied securely, to keep it in place. The piece-
root method is allowable only when the root
is long and strong, so that a well-rooted
plant results the first year. The cion is a
cutting of the last year’s growth (as of No.
1, in Fig. 14). However accomplished, the
process is to supply the cion with roots; it
is planted in another plant instead of in the
ground.

The cion-grafts are now planted in the
nursery row.in spring. The cion starts
growth rapidly, only one shoot being allowed
to remain; this shoot forms the trunk or
bole of the future tree. At the end of the
first season, the little tree is said to be one

year old, although the root is at least two years old; at
the end of the second year it is two years old; the tree
is sometimes sold as a two-year old, but usually a year
later as a three-year-old having a four-year-old root. In
fact, however, the root and top may be considered, in a
way, to be of the same age, particularly if only a piece of
the root is employed, for the cion grew on its parent tree
the same year the root was growing in the nursery.
The tree grew from the seed but it is no longer a

HOW AN APPLE-TREE IS MADE 51

“seedling” or a “natural;” it is now a grafted tree, des-
tined to produce a named recognized variety of apple,
maybe York Imperial, maybe Jonathan. We find seed-
ling trees in old fields, in fence-rows, and in woods.
These have grown from scattered seeds and have come
to fruit without the arts of the propagator. They bear
their own tops or heads, rather than the heads that a
thrifty horticulturist would have put on them. Now and
then such a tree produces superior fruit; then a discrim-
inating pomologist discovers it, names it a new variety,
and propagates it as other varieties are propagated. Thus
have most of the prized varities originated, without
knowledge on the part of man of the ultimate processes.
But now with the accumulating knowledge of the plant-
breeder we hope to be able to foresee and probably to
produce varities of given qualities.

Bud-grafting is practiced in summer.
The young trees, obtained from the
grower of apple stocks, are planted regu-
larly in nursery rows in spring, the top
having been cut back to the crown so that
a strong vigorous shoot will arise. In
July and August or September, when this
shoot is the size of a lead pencil and
larger and the bark will peel (or separate
from the wood), a single bud is inserted
near the ground (Fig. 17). This bud is
deftly cut from the current year’s growth
of the desired variety ; it grows in the axil
of a leaf (Fig. 15). The leaf is removed
but a small part of the stalk or petiole is
retained with the bud to serve as a handle.

17. A“bud”
before tying.

52 THE APPLE-TREE

A boat-shaped or shield-shaped piece of bark is removed
with the bud. This piece, known technically as a “bud,”
is inserted in an incision on the stock, so that it slips
underneath the bark and next the wood, with only the
bud itself showing in the slit; it is then tied in place.

The stock on which the bud is inserted has a two-
year root, and the root is entire. For this reason, budded
trees are usually very large and strong for their age when
compared with piece-root trees grown under similar con-
ditions of climate, tillage and soil.

The bud does not grow the year it is inserted in the
stock; it is dormant until the following spring, as it
would have been had it remained on its parent branch;
but soon after it is inserted it attaches itself fast to the
stock: it is a bid implanted from one twig to another.
The following spring, if the operation is successful, the -
bud “grows,” sending up a strong shoot that makes the
trunk of the future tree. The top of the steck is cut
away; in the. merchantable tree, the bend or place may
be seen where the stock and cion meet.

As in the case of cion-grafting, we now have a top of a
known variety growing on the root of an unknown kind.
The tree is sold at two or three years, counting the age
of the top; and of course the tree is no’ longer called a
seedling, and it produces its implanted ‘variety as accu-
rately as does the cion-grafted tree. Equally good trees
are produced by both cion-grafting and bud-grafting.

' The apple-tree is now “propagated,” and is ready for
the planting. Great hopes will be built on it, and the
tree will probably do its part to justify them. Nobody
knows how a bud from a Baldwin tree holds the memory
of a Baldwin or from a Winesap tree the memory of a

‘

HOW AN APPLE-TREE IS MADE 53

Winesap. Neither does anyone know why of two seeds
that look alike one will unerringly produce a cabbage
and the other a cauliflower. So accustomed are we to
‘these results that we never challenge a twig of apple or
a seed of cabbage: we assume that the twig or the seed
“knows.” Nor have we yet approached this question in
our elaborate studies of plant-breeding. Here is one of
the mysteries that baffles the skill of the physiologist and
chemist, yet it is a mystery so very common that we
know it not, albeit the life on the planet would otherwise
be utter confusion.

IX
THE DWARF APPLE-TREE

We have learned that many kinds of apples and apple-
trees may come from a batch of seeds. Differences are
expressed in the tree as well as in the fruit. In fact,
stature is usually one ofthe characteristics of the variety.
Here I open Downing’s great book, “The Fruits and
Fruit-Trees of America,” and find the description of a
certain variety beginning: “Tree while young very slow
in its growth, but makes a compact well-formed head in
the orchard,” and another: “Tree vigorous, -upright
spreading, and productive.” We know the small stature
and early bearing of the Wagener (wherefore it is often
planted in the orchard as a filler), and the great wide-
spreading head of the Tompkins King with the apples
scattered through the tree.

Now it so happens that in the course of time certain
great races of the apple-tree have arisen, we do not know
just why or how. There is the race or family of the
russets and of the Fameuse. ‘So are there several races
very small in stature, remaining perhaps no larger than
bushes. If we were to propagate any of the ordinary
apples on such diminutive stocks, we should have a
“dwarf apple-tree.” .

The dwarf apple, then, is not a question of variety
54

THE DWARF APPLE-TREE 55

but of stock. Any variety may be grown as a dwarf by
grafting it on a plant that naturally remains small, al-
though some varieties are more adaptable than others to
the purpose.

If seeds of the natural diminutive apple-tree are sown,
a variety of trees and apples may be expected. The fruits
would probably be inferior. Probably the stature would
vary between different seedlings. If we are to get the ef-
fect of dwarfness, we must be sure that the stock is it-
self really. dwarf. Therefore, to eliminate variation and
also because seeds of natural dwarf apples may not be
had in sufficient quantity, the stocks are propagated by
layers rather than by seeds.

The diminutive tree, when well established, is cut
off near the ground. Sprouts arise. Some kinds sucker
very freely. If earth is mounded up around the sprouts,
roots form on them and the sprouts may be removed and
treated as if they were seedling stocks. Usually the
mounding is not performed until the shoots have made
one season’s growth. Gooseberries and some other plants
are often propagated by mound-layers. In the case of the
gooseberry, however, it is desired that the layer repro-
duce the parent—it may be Downing or Whitesmith—
and therefore it is planted without further manipulation.
But in the case of the apple, we do not want the layer
to reproduce the parent, for the parent would probably
bear an inferior fruit since it does not represent an “im-
proved” or recognized variety; therefore the layer is
grafted or budded with the particular variety we desire
to grow,as a dwarf tree.

Dwarf trees are grown in America, if at all, only in
gardens, where extra attention may be given them. Only

56 THE APPLE-TREE

high-class kinds should be attempted on dwarfs, for the
quantity-production of commercial apples must be ob-
tained by less intensive methods on cheaper lands.

Better fruits often are grown on dwarf than on stan-
dards, for two reasons: It is usual to propagate only the
best varieties on dwarf stock; the little tree must receive
extra care in pruning and in every other way. Its bushel
of apples must be choice, every one, to make the effort
of growing the tree worth the while. Under European
conditions where land is high-priced and labor has been
relatively cheap, it is possible (and common) to raise
apples on dwarfs for market, as it is profitable to terrace
the hillsides with human labor; but in North America
the conditions are practically the reverse and the dwarf
tree cannot compete with the standard orchard tree.

The growing of a dwarf tree is essentially a garden-
ing practice. It requires great skill. The spurs are pro-
duced and protected to a nicety. Every fruit may be the
separate product of handwork. The fertilizing, mulching,
watering, are carefully regulated for every tree. Often
the trees are trained on cordons, espaliers, trellises or
walls. The individual fruits may be tied up or bagged.
All this is very different from the raising of apples by
means of tractors and other machinery, gangs of pruners
and pickers, broadside extensive methods, with highly
organized systems of handling and marketing, in all of
which the money-measure is the chief consideration. It
is for all these reasons that the growing of a few dwarf
apple-trees may afford such intimate satisfaction to a
careful man who prizes the result of his skill.

The dwarfs are grown as little trees branching near
the ground, headed in at top and side and kept within

9. June 14—The one big apple

THE DWARF APPLE-TREE 57

shape and bounds. If they are of the dwarfest dwarfs
and not trained on trellis or wall (as they usually are
not in America), the fruit may be gathered by a man
standing on the ground, even from old trees. The dwarfs
are planted eight to ten feet apart when grown in regular
plantation.

Be it said that certain kinds of stocks produce trees
only semi-dwarf; and in all cases if the tree is planted
so deep that roots strike from the cion, the top will
probably outgrow the stock, being supplied in part or
even entirely by its own roots.

This brings us to a consideration of some of the kinds
of dwarf stocks, or dwarf races of the apple-tree. Be it
said, in understanding of the subject, that there are nat-
urally dwarf forms of many plants, and probably all
ordinary plants are capable of producing them. Thus
there are very compact condensed forms of arbor-vitae,
‘Norway spruce, peach-tree. These have originated as
seed sports and are multiplied by cuttings. So are there
dwarf tomatoes, dwarf China asters, dwarf sweet peas,
all coming more or less true from seeds, for these species
(of short generations) have been bred to reproduce their
variations. The inquirer must not suppose, therefore,
that the races of dwarf apple-trees are an anomally in
the vegetable kingdom.

It is customary to speak of two classes or races of
dwarf apple-trees, the Paradise and the Doucin. The
former kinds are the smaller, the trees on their own
roots sometimes reaching not more than four feet in
height at full bearing maturity. On the Paradise stocks,
the grafted apple-tree is very small; it is a true dwarf.
The Doucin trees are by nature larger, and apples

58 THE APPLE-TREE

grafted on them make semi-dwarf trees, midway in
stature between the real dwarfs and the common stan-
dard or “free” apple-trees.

The case is not so simple, however, as this brief state-
ment would make it appear. There are many kinds of
Paradise stock, as also of Doucin. If one were to bring
together living plants of all the kinds of natural dwarfs
and semi-dwarfs that could be found in nurseries and
growing collections, one would undoubtedly find a nearly
complete series, so far as stature of tree is concerned,
from the very dwarf to the full-sized standard tree. To
say that a person is growing grafted dwarf apple-trees
does not signify how large the trees may be expected to
grow, for one may not know the particular kind of stocks
on which the variety is grafted. In fact, it is considered
even in Europe, where dwarf apples are chiefly grown,
that the proper identification of dwarf stocks is still a
subject for careful investigation.

When the Paradise dwarfs first came into existence
is undetermined. They appear to have been known in
the Middle Ages. The many races, as the Dutch, French,
Metz, Nonsuch, Broad-leaved, indicate an ancient origin.
We cannot be too certain what apple-trees were meant
in the early references to the Paradise apple. The fruits
of the present natural Paradise apple-trees are not suffi-
ciently attractive to justify us in considering them the
“Tree of Paradise” or apple of the Garden of Eden, which
circumstance is supposed by some to account for the
name. “Paradise” was originally a park or pleasure
ground, applied also to the Garden of Eden, and later to
horticultural gardens. John Parkinson wrote his great
treatise on horticulture, 1629, under the title, “Paradisi

THE DWARF APPLE-TREE 59

in Sole Paradisus terrestris; or, a Choice Garden of all .
Sorts of Rarest Flowers, etc.” Now we use the word for
gardens of bliss.

The word Doucin, from the Italian, is supposed origi-
nally to have designated apples of sweet flavor, but it
now applies technically to a class or race of semi-dwarf
apple-trees.

For the purpose of this little book, however, the in-
terest in the dwarf apple centers not so much in the or-
igin of the stock as in the natural-history of the tree itself
and the good skill of hand and heart that one may ex-
pend in the growing of it. If one would come close to a
plant, knowing it intimately in every season, causing it
to respond to sympathetic treatment through a series of
years, then a garden collection of dwarf apples may
satisfy the desire. It is too bad that we do not have
time to cultivate the dwarfs often in the yards and gar-
- dens of North America. We are more familiar with the
raising of dwarf pears (which are grafted on quince
stocks since there is no similar race of natural dwarf pear-
tree), but we do not give them the thumb-and-finger care
that is demanded for the choicest results. The abundance
of apples in the market should only stimulate the desire
of the connoisseur to have trees and fruits that are wholly
personal. The market produce can never gratify the af-
fections.

x
WHENCE COMES THE APPLE-TREE?

If the dwarf apple-tree goes back to the Middle Ages
and perhaps farther, then whence comes the apple orig-
inally? No one can surely answer. Carbonized apples
are found in the remains of the prehistoric lake dwellings
of Switzerland. When recorded history begins, apples
were well known and widely distributed. The apple-
tree is wild in many parts of Europe, but it is ‘difficult
to determine whether, in a given region, it is indigenous
or has run wild from cultivation. Wild apple-trees are
common in North America, but no one supposes that. the
orchard apple is native here.

Expert opinion generally considers that the apple is
native in the region of the Caspian Sea and probably in
southeastern Europe. Perhaps it had spread westward
before the Aryan migrations. It had also probably spread
eastward, but it is not a cultivated fruit in China and
Japan except apparently as introduced in recent time.
The apple is essentially a fruit of central and northern
Europe, and of European migration and settlement.

It is a fertile retrospect to conceive-of the apple as an
attendant of the course of Western civilization. With-
out voice and leaving no record, it has nevertheless
followed man in his wanderings, encouraged his attain-

60

WHENCE COMES THE APPLE-TREE? 61

ment of permanent habitations, succored him in his emer-
gencies. What the apple has contributed to sustenance
can never be known, but we are aware that it yields its
fruit abundantly, that it thrives in widely unlike regions
and conditions, that the tree has the ruggedness to endure
severe climates and to provide food that can be stored and
transported. In the ages it must have stood guard at
many a rude camp and fireside. It would be fascinating
to know what the apple-tree has witnessed.

These early apples must have been very crude fruits
measured by the produce of the present day. But other
food was crude and man was crude. The North Amer-
ican Indians found the apple to be worth their effort;
remains of some of the so-called Indian orchards of the
Five Nations in New York persisted until the present
‘generation. These were seedling apple-trees, grown from
the stocks introduced by the white man. The French
missionaries are said to have carried the apple far into
the interior, and early settlers took seeds with them. The
legends and records of Johnny Appleseed, sowing the
seeds as he went, are still familiar. My father, like other
pioneers, took seeds from the old New England trees into
the wilderness of the West; the resulting trees were top-
grafted, some of them as late as my time; J can remember
the apples some of these seedling trees bore, the like of
which I have never seen again, probably poor apples if
we had them in this day but to a boy at the edge of the
forest the very essence of goodness. As early as 1639,
apples had been picked from trees planted on Governor’s
Island in Boston harbor. Governor John Endicott of
Massachusetts Colony had an apple-tree nursery in the
early day; in 1644 he says that five hundred of his trees

62 THE APPLE-TREE

were destroyed by fire. So the apple came early to be a
standby on the new continent.

The apples of the colonists were not all for eating,
but for drinking. The butts and barrels of cider put in
cellars in the early times seem to us most surprising.
Herein are suggestions of old social customs that might
lead us into interesting historical excursions. The oldest
book.I possess on the apple is ‘“Vinetum Britannicum: or,
a Treatise of Cider,’ published in London in 1676; it
treats also of other beverages made from fruits and of
“the newly-invented ingenio or mill, for the more expedi-
tious and better making of cider.” The gradual change
in customs, whereby the eating of the apple (rather than
the drinking of it) has come to be paramount, is a signi-.
ficant development; the use of apple-juice may now pro-
ceed on another basis, on the principle of preservation
and pasteurization rather than of fermentation.

It is the custom to call the apple Pyrus Malus. This is
the name given by the great Linnaeus, with whom the
modern accurate naming of plants and animals begins. The
nomenclature of plants starts with his “Species Plantarum,”
1753. Pyrus is the genus or group comprising the pears
and apples, and Linnaeus included the quince; Malus
is Latin for the apple-tree. Together the names represent
genus and species,—the malus Pyrus.

These statements are easy enough to make, but it is
impossible to demonstrate whether the common pomologi-
cal apples are derived from one original species or from
two or more. Many technical botanical names have been
given in the group, but we need not pause with them here.
It is enough for our purpose to know that the natural-his-
tory of the apple, as of anything else that runs to time

WHENCE COMES THE APPLE-TREE? 63

immemorial, passes at the end into obscurity. We seem
never to reach the ultimate origins or to find an end to our
quests.

There are other apples than the common pomological
orchard types. There are the crabs. In general usage, the
word “crab” designates an apple that is small, sour and
crabbed. Such apples are wildings or seedlings. They are
merely depreciated forms of Pyrus Malus, and probably
much like the first apples known to man. What are known
to horticulturists as crab-apples, however, are other species
of Pyrus, of different character and origin. We need not
pause with the discussion of them, except to say that the
commonest kinds are the little long-stemmed fruits of
Pyrus baccata (berry Pyrus), native in eastern Europe and
Siberia. These are the “Siberian crabs.” The leaves and
twigs are smooth, and the calyx falls away from the fruit,
leaving a bare blossom end. These little hard handsome
fruits are used in the making of conserves. Certain larger
crab-apples, in which the blossom end is not clean or bare,
as the Transcendent and Hyslop, are probably hybrids be-
tween the true crabs and the common apple; this class pro-
vides the main crab-apples of the markets.

When the settlers came to the country west and south
of New England, they found another kind of crab-apples
in the woods, truly native. The fruits were hard and sour,
but they could be buried to ripen. The trees are much like
a thorn-apple,—low, spreading, twiggy, thorny; but the
pink-white large fragrant flowers are very different. The
wild crab-apple was called Pyrus coronaria by Linnaeus,
the “garland Pyrus.” On the prairies is another species,
Pyrus ioensis; it yields a charming double-flowered form,
“Bechtel’s crab.” In the South are other species. In fact,

64 THE APPLE-TREE

P. coronaria itself may not be a single species. These wild
crabs run into many forms. In the northern Mississippi and
prairie country are native apples good enough to be intro-
duced into cultivation under varietal names. These are
Pyrus Soulardii, a species bearing the name of J. G. Soulard,
Illinois horticulturist. These crab-apples are probably nat-
ural hybrids between Pyrus Malus and the prairie crab, P..
ioensis. Had there been no European apple to be intro-
duced by colonists, it is probable that improved forms would
have been evolved from the native species. In that event,
North American pomology would have had a very different
character.

There remains a very different class of apple-trees,
grown only for ornament and usually known as “flowering
apples.” They are mostly native in China and Japan. They
are small trees, or even almost bushes, with profuse hand-
some flowers and some of them with very ornamental little
fruits. They have come to this country largely from Japan
where they are grown for decoration, as the cherries of
Japan are grown not for fruit but for their flowers, being
of very different species from the cherries of Europe and
America. The common apple itself yields varieties grown
only for ornament, as one with variegated leaves, one with
double flowers, and one with drooping branches. These are
known mostly in Europe; but these forms do not compare
in interest with the handsome species of the Far East.

All these differing species of the apple-tree multiply
the interest and hold the attention in many countries. They
make the apple-tree group one of the most widespread and
adaptable of temperate-region trees. It will be seen that
there are three families of them,—the Eurasian family,
from which come the pomological apples; the North Amer-

WHENCE COMES THE APPLE-TREE? 65

ican family, which has yielded little cultivated material ; the
East-Asian family, abundant in highly ornamental kinds.
There are no apple-trees native in the southern hemisphere.

The apple-tree, taken in its general sense, has a broad
meaning. What may be accomplished by breeding and
hybridizing is beyond imagination,

XI
THE VARIETIES OF APPLE

Every seedling of the pomological apples is a new
variety. Some of these seedlings are so good that they
are named and introduced into cultivation. They are
grafted on other stocks, and become part of the great
inheritance of desirable apples.

It is to be expected that in the long processes of time
in many countries the number of varieties will accumu-
late to high numbers. No one knows all the kinds that
have been named and propagated, but they run into many
thousands. No one book contains them all, although
some of the manuals are voluminous. Varieties drop out
of existence, being no longer propagated; new varieties
come in.

So the lists of varieties gradually change. A list of
one hundred years ago would contain many names
strange to us. Thus, of the sixty apples in “A Select List
of Fruit-Trees” by Bernard M’Mahon, published in “The
American Gardener’s Calendar,” in 1806, not more than
six or eight would be understandable to a planter of the
present day.

With the standardizing of practices in the commercial
growing of fruits, the tendency is to reduce the number
of varieties to small proportions; it is these varieties that

66

THE VARIETIES OF APPLE 67

the nurserymen propagate. Here and there over the
country are still trees of the extra-quality but uncommer-
cial varieties known to a former generation. If the
amateur now wants to grow these varieties, he must find
cions as best he can by patient correspondence, and graft
them on his own trees. When I planted an orchard
twenty-five years ago, I found cions of Jefferis here, of
Dyer there, of Mother, Swaar and Chenango in other
places.

In the enlarged edition of Downing’s “Fruits and
Fruit-Trees of America,” 1872, are descriptions of 1856
varieties, of which 1099 are American in origin, 585 for-
eign, 172 of origin unknown. The lists are not only
much smaller in these days, but the foreign element tends

the importation of foreign varieties practically ceased,
as it ceased also for the pears at an earlier date with the
introductions of Manning, Wilder and others. The epoch
of the “testing” of varieties passed away, and with it
has gone an appreciative attitude toward fruits and even
toward life that constitutes a sad lack in our day.
About thirty years ago (1892) I compiled an inven-
tory of all the varieties of apple-trees sold in North
America, as listed in the ninety-five nurserymen’s
catalogues that came to my hand. The inventory con-
tains 878 varieties. In the present year, however, per-
haps not more than 100 varieties are handled by nursery-
men in Eastern United States. Probably the dealer and
grower would consider even this small number much too
great. The highly developed standardized business of the
present day, aiming at quantity-production, naturally re-

68 THE APPLE-TREE

duces the variety of products, whether in manufacturing
or horticulture, and aims at uniformity. Under the in-
fluence of this leadership, we are losing many of the old
products, varieties of apples among the rest.

Why do we need so many kinds of apples? Because
there are so many folks. A person has a right to gratify
his legitimate tastes. If he wants twenty or forty kinds ¢
of.apples for his personal use, running from Early Har-
vest to Roxbury Russet, he should be accorded the priv-
ilege. Some place should be provided where he may
obtain trees or cions. There is merit in variety itself.
It provides more points of contact with life, and leads
away from uniformity and monotony.

The leading varieties of apples, that have become
dominant over wide regions, have been great benefactors
to man. The original tree should be carefully preserved
till the last, by historical or other societies; and then a
monument should be placed at the spot. Monuments
have been erected to the Baldwin, Northern Spy, Mc-
Intosh and other apples. We should never lose our
touch with the origins of men, events, notable achieve-
ments, outstanding products of nature.

I fear it is now a habit with many fruit-growers to
minimize the interest in varieties, placing the emphasis
on tillage, spraying and management of plantations. Yet,
the only reason why we expend all the labor is that
we may grow a given kind of apple; the variety is the
final purpose.

In this little book we cannot discuss varieties at
length. There are special books on this fascinating sub-
ject. But we may have before us a compiled list by way
of interesting suggestion. The list is sorted from the

10. June 28, and the apples have taken their form

THE VARIETIES OF APPLE 69

Catalogue of Fruits of the American Pomological Society,
1901, the last year in which the catalogue was published
with quality rated on a scale of 10. On such a scale,
Ben Davis ranks 4-5; Baldwin, 5-6; Wealthy and York
Imperial, 6-7; Rhode Island Greening, 7-8; Northern
Spy, 8-9; Yellow Newtown (Albermarle Pippin) 9-10.
There is no apple in the entire catalogue of 324 kinds
(not including crab-apples) rated wholly lower than 4
in quality except one alone and this is grown for cider
only, although several varieties of minor importance bear
the marks 3-4. Only two varieties are rated exclusively
10, the Garden Royal, a Massachusetts summer-fall apple,
little known to planters, and the familiar Esopus Spitzen-
berg. Of course judgments differ widely in these mat-
ters, as there are no inflexible criteria for the scoring of
quality; yet this extensive list is probably our soundest
approach to the subject.

The varieties in the catalogue of the American Po-
mological Society are starred if “known to succeed in
a given district” and double-starred “if highly success-
ful.’ North America is thrown into nineteen districts
for the purposes of this catalogue (which comprises
other fruits besides apples). For our purposes we may
combine them into six more or less indefinite great re-
gions: n. e., the northeastern part of the country, Dela-
ware and Pennsylvania to eastern Canada; s. e., the parts
south of this area and mostly east of the Mississippi;
n. c., north central, from Kansas and Missouri north;
s. w., Texas to Arizona; mt., the mountain states of the
Rockies west to the Sierras, including of course much
high plains country; pac., the Pacific slope, Washington
to southern California.

70 THE APPLE-TREE

Of the varieties starred and double-starred in these
various geographical regions there are 107; these are
listed herewith. Of course the intervening twenty years
might change the rating of some of these apples, other
varieties have come to the front, and certain ones of
these older worthies are receding still further into the
background ; but the exhibit is suggestive none the less.

Arkansas—n.e., s.¢., n.c., s.w., mt.
Bailey (Sweet)—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Baker—n.e.

Baldwin—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt., s.w., pac.
Beach—s.e.

Belle Bonne—n.e.

Ben Davis—n.e., s.e., n.c., 5.w., mt., pac.
Bietigheimer—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Bledsoe—s.e.

Blenheim—n.e., n.c.

Blue Pearmain—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Bough, Sweet—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Bryan—s.e., mt.

Buckingham—n.e., s.e., n.c.

Canada Reinette—n.e., n.c., mt.
Clayton—n.e., s.e. n.c., mt.

Clyde—n.e., n.c.

Cogswell—n.e.

Cooper—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Cracking—s.e., n.c.

Doyle—s.e.

Early Pennock—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Esopus (Spitzenburg)—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt., pac.
Ewalt—n.e., s.e., mt.

Fallawater—n.e., s.¢., m.c., mt.

Fall Harvey—n.e., mt.

Fall Jenneting—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.

Fall Orange—n.e., s.e., n.c.

Fall Pippin—n.e., s.e., n.c., s.w., mt.

THE VARIETIES OF APPLE

Fanny—n.e., s.¢., n.c., s.w.
Farrar—s.e.

Foundling—n.e.

Gano—n.e,, s.e., n.c., s.w., mt,
Gilbert—s.e.

Golding—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt,
Gravenstein—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt., s.w., pac.
Hagloe—n.e., s.e.

Hoover—-s.e., n.c., mt., pac.
Hopewell—n.c.

Horse—n.e,, s.e., n.c.
Hubbardston—n.e., s.e., n.c., s.w.
Hunge—s.e.

Huntsman—s.e., n.c., s.w., mt.
Isham (Sweet)—n.c.

Jacobs Sweet—n.e.

Kent—n.e., s.e., n.c.
Kernodle—s.e.

Lady Sweet—n.e., mt.
Lankford—n.e., s.e.
Lawver—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.

Lilly (of Kent)—n.e.
Lowe—s.e.

Lowell—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.

McA fee—n.e., s.e., mt.
McCuller—s.e.

McMahon—n.e., n.c., mt.
Magog—n.e.

Maverack—-s.e.

Milwaukee—n.c.

Minister—n.e., s.e., n.c.
Monmouth—s.e., n.c., mt.
Newell—n.c.

Nickajack—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Northern Spy—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt., pac.
Northwestern (Greening)—n.e., n.c., mt.
Oconee—n.e., S.e.

Ohio Nonpareil—n.e., s.e.

Ohio Pippin—n.e., s.e., n.c.

71

72

THE APPLE-TREE
Ortley—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Paragon—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Patten (Greening )—n.c.
Pease—n.e.
Peck (Pleasant)—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Peter—n.c.
Pewaukee—n.e.,. s.e., n.c., mt.
Porter—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Pumpkin Sweet—n.e., s.e., n.c.
Quince—n.e., n.c.
Ramsdell (Sweet)—n.e., s.e. n.c., mt.
Red Astrachan—n.e., s.e., n.c., s.w., mt., pac.
Rhode Island (Greening)—n.e., s.e., n.c., s.w., mt., pac.
Ridge (Pippin)—n.e.
Rolfe—n.e.
Rome—n.e., S.e., n.c., s.w., mt.
Stark—n.e., s.e., n.c., s.w., mt.
Starkey—n.e., s.e.
Stayman Winesap—n.e., s.e., n.c.
Sterling—n.e., n.c.
Summer King—n.e., s.e.
Swaar—n.e., n.c., mt., pac.
Taunton—s.e.
Titovka—n.e., mt.
Tompkins King—n.e., s.e., mt., pac.
Twenty Ounce—n.e,, s.e., s.w., mt.
Utter—n.c.
Vanhoy—n.e,, s.e.
Virginia Greening—s.e., mt.
Washington (Strawberry)—n.e., s.e., mt.
Watson—-s.e.
White Pippin—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt., pac.
‘Wine—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Wistal—s.e., s.w.
Wolf River—n.e., s.e., n.c., mt.
Yellow Bellflower—n.e., s.e., s.w., mt., pac.
Yellow Newtown—n.e., s.e., n.c., s.w., mt., pac.
Yopp—s.e.
York Imperial—n.e., s.e., n.c., s.w., mt.

THE VARIETIES OF APPLE 73

There are many odd varieties of apple not found in
any list but about which questions are likely to arise.
One of these is the Sweet-and-Sour. There is an old
ribbed variety of this name, the ribs having an acid flesh
and the furrows sweetish; it is little known and of no
special value. Apples are sometimes found that are
sweetish on one side and sourish on the other. The
reasons for this kind of variation are no more understood
than are those responsible for variance in color or shape
or durability. One yet sometimes hears the pleasant
fable that sweet-and-sour apples are produced by split-
ting the bud when the tree was propagated.

The Surprise is a small whitish apple with light
red flesh. It is indeed a surprise to bite into such
an apple, but it has little merit. It is an early winter
variety.

One is frequently asked about the Sheepnose apple,
particularly by older people who remember it from early
days and who deplore its infrequency in these latter
times. The sheepnose shape—long-conical—is an in-
frequent variation, as apples go, and apparently none of
these forms chances to have sufficient merit to keep it in.
the lists. The name is often applied to the Black Gilli-
flower, an old apple more than three inches long, dark
red, of light weight perhaps because of the large core,
ripening late in autumn to midwinter. It seems to be
specially prized by children, perhaps in part because of
its unusual shape and in part by its aromatic fragrance;
but it is not a high-class apple, and is now little seen.
With the Rambo, Vandevere, some of the russets, Early
Harvest, Jersey Sweet and other old worthies, it probably
will pass away unless rescued here and there by the amateur.
To the lover of choice fruit nothing is old; every succeed-

74 THE APPLE-TREE

ing crop is as choice and new as is the new year itself,
and one waits for it again and again.

One hears of seedless and no-core apples, as also of
pears. The core is present but greatly reduced in size,
and the seeds may be few and small. I have also raised
practically seedless tomatoes. All these are infrequent
variations that may be propagated by asexual parts (cut-
tings, cions), but as yet none of them has any outstand-
ing value.

The reader will now ask me about the water-core
apples, so much sought and prized by youngsters. The
water-core is not characteristic of a variety, although
occuring in some varieties more frequently than in others.
It is a physiological condition, supposed to be associated
with a relatively low transpiration (evaporation) so that
excess water is held in the fruit. In certain seasons this
condition is marked, and also in cloudy regions and often
on young trees that have an over-supply of moisture. Yet
such cores occur in old trees and sometimes with more
or less regularity. What the physiological inability may
be in such cases to dispose of excess moisture appears to
be undetermined.

Now and then one finds a double apple, with two fruits
grown solidly together, two blossom ends and a single
stem. A seedling tree I knew as a boy bore such apples
frequently, sometimes a score of them among the crop of
the year. This, of course, is a malformation or terato-
logical state. Apparently two flowers coalesce to form
these fruits. On the tree of which I speak, the two fruits
were about equal in size, making a large, widened, edible
apple, but I have known of other cases in which a dim-
inutive undeveloped fruit is attached to the side of a
normal one.

THE VARIETIES OF APPLE 75

Perhaps the oddest of them all is the “Bloomless
apple.” It is said to have no flowers. In fact, however,
the flowers are present but they lack showy petals and
are therefore not conspicuous. The bloomless apple is
a monstrous state, the cause of which is unknown. Now
and then a tree is reported. It was described at least as
long ago as 1768, and in 1770 Muenchhausen called it
Pyrus apetala (the petalless pyrus). The flowers have no
stamens, and apparently they are pollinated from any other
apples in the vicinity. In 1785, Moench described it as
Pyrus dioica (the dicecious pyrus, sexes separated on
different plants). The ovary is also malformed, having six
or seven and sometimes probably more cells, and bearing
ten to fifteen styles. The resulting fruit has a core char-
acter unknown in other apples but approached in certain
apple-like fruits, as the medlar. The fruit has a hole or
opening from the calyx (which is open) into the core; and
-the core is roughly double, one series above the other. The
fruit, in such specimens as I have seen or read about, has
no horticultural merit ; but it is a curiosity of great botanical
interest. It appears now and then in widely separated places,
the trees probably having originated as chance seedlings.
The fruits from the different originations are not always
the same in size and form, but the flowers apparently all
have the same malformed character.

The apple is preeminently the home fruit. It is not
transitory. It spans every season. In an indifferent cellar
I keep apples till apples come again. The apple stands up,
keeps well on the table. Children may handle it. In color
and form it satisfies any taste. Its rondure is perfect. The
cavity is deep, graceful and well moulded, holding the good
stem securely. The basin is a natural summit and termin-
ation of the curvatures, bringing all the lines together,

76 THE APPLE-TREE

finishing them in the ornaments of the remaining calyx. The
fruit adapts itself to the hand. The fingers close pleasantly
over it, fitting its figure. It has a solid feel. The flesh of a
good apple is crisp, breaking, melting, coolly acid or mildly
sweet. It has a fracture, as one bites it, possessed by no
other fruit. One likes to feel the snap and break of it.
There is a stability about it that satisfies; it holds its shape
till the last bite. One likes to linger on an apple, to sit
by a fireside to eat it, to munch it waiting on a log when
there is no hurry, to have another apple with which to invite
a friend.

Now I am not thinking of the Ben Davis apple or any of
its kind. I do not want to be doomed to one variety of
apple, or even to half a dozen kinds, and particularly I do -
not want a poor one. There are enough good apples, if
we can get them. The days of the amateur fruit-growers
seem to be passing. At least we do not hear much of them
in society or in many of the meetings of horticulturists.
There may be many reasons, but two are evident: we give
the public indifferent fruits, and thereby neither educate the
taste or stimulate the desire for more; we do not provide
them places from which they can get plants of many of the
choicest things. Yet on a good amateur interest in fruits
depends, in the end, the real success of commercial fruit-
growing. Just now we are trying to increase the consump-
tion of apples, to lead the people to eat an apple a day: it
cannot be accomplished by customary commercial methods.
To eat an apple a day is a question of affections and
emotions.

We have had great riches in our varieties of apples. It
has been a vast resource to have a small home plantation
of many good varieties, each perfect in its season. The great

THE VARIETIES OF APPLE 77

commercial apple-growing has been carried to high per-
fection of organization and care. More perfect apples are
put on the market, in proportion to numbers, than ever be-
fore,—carefully grown and graded and handled. I have
watched this American development with growing pride.
The quantity-production makes for greater perfection of
product, but it does not make for variety and human in-
terest_nor for. high-quality varieties. We shall still improve
it. Masterful men will perfect organizations. The high char-
acter and attainment of the commanding fruit-growers,
nurserymen and dealers are good augury for the future.
But all this is not sufficient. Quantity-production will be
an increasing source of wealth, but it cannot satisfy the
soul,

The objects and productions of high intrinsic merit are
preserved by the amateur. It is so in art and letters. It
is necessarily so. A body of amateurs is an essential back-
ground to the development of science. The late Professor
Pickering, renowned astronomer, encouraged the amateur
societies of star-observers, and others. The amateurs in
the background, disinterested and unselfish, support ap-
propriations by legislatures for even abstruse public work.
The amateur is the embodiment of the best in the common
life, the conservator of aspirations, the fulfillment of dem-
ocratic freedom. I hope pomology will not lag in this
respect. In all lines I hope that professionalism will not
subjugate the man who follows a subject for the love of it
rather than for the gain of it or for the pride of it. In
horticulture, when we lose the amateur, who, as the word
means, is the lover, we lose the ideals.

Naturally, the nurseryman cannot grow trees of all the
good apples that may be wanted. The experiment stations

78 THE APPLE-TREE

cannot maintain living museums of them, for their func-
tion is to investigate rather than to preserve. Arboretums
are concerned with other activities. Is there not some per-
son of means, desiring to do good to his successors, ready
now to establish a fructicetum in perpetuum for the pur-
pose of preserving a single tree of at least one hundred of
the choicest apples, to the end that a record may be kept
and that amateurs may be supplied with cions thereof?

XII
THE PLEASANT ART OF GRAFTING

If I procure cuttings of a good apple, what shall I
do with them that they may give me of their fruitage?

The cuttings will probably be dormant twigs of the
last season’s growth. They may not be expected to grow
when placed in the ground. They are therefore planted
in another tree, becoming cions. The case is in no way
different in principle from the propagating of the young
tree in the nursery, of which we already have learned.
The nurseryman works with a small stock, a mere slip of
a seedling one or two years old. The grower would
better not attempt the making of nursery trees. It is
better for him to purchase regular nursery trees and to
graft the cions on them; or he may put the cions in any
older tree that is available.

I have spoken of my own collecting of certain dessert
apples. I “worked” them on young Northern Spy trees,
purchased when two or three years old; they were grafted
after they had stood a year in the orchard. These
Northern Spy trees, used in this case as stocks, were
regularly grown by nurserymen. The Northern Spy was
chosen because of its hardiness and straight, clean, erect
growth, making it a vigorous and comely stock. Weak-
growing varieties are usually rejected for this purpose.

79

80 THE APPLE-TREE

Some growers use Oldenburg as stock, and there are
other good kinds.

From the young stock, the old head is to be removed
and a new head (the new variety) grown in its stead.
The tree, therefore, will be combined of three kinds of
apple,—the root of unknown quality; the trunk or body
under a varietal name; the top, of the variety desired.
Any number of different kinds of apple wood may be
worked into the tree if the tree is large enough. If the
operations are well performed so that there are no im-
perfect unions, and if the pruning is judicious, the tree
may be grafted many times, in whole or in part.

I have said that my father brought apple seeds from
New England and that the resulting seedlings were top-
grafted. One of these trees was early top-worked to
“Holland Pippin,” which seldom bore. It stood in the
yard near the smoke-house, where it found abundant
nourishment. It grew to great size. In time I became
a grafter of trees for the neighborhood, and often as I
returned at night would have cions of different kinds in
my pockets. It became a pastime to graft these cions in
the old tree. More than thirty varieties were placed
there. It was with keen anticipation, as the years came,
that I looked for the annual crop, to see what strange
inhabitants would appear in the great tree-top. I do not
remember how many of these varieties came into bear-
ing before the tree was finally gathered to the wood-box,
but they were a goodly number, probably more than a
score. I used often to wonder how it was that the nutri-
ents taken in by the roots of the Vermont seedling and
transported in the tissues of the Holland Pippin, com-
bined with the same air, could produce so many diverse

THE PLEASANT ART OF GRAFTING 81

apples and even pears (for I had pears in that tree) each
with the marks and flavor proper to its kind. The little
cions I grafted into the tree were soon lost in the over-
growths, and yet all the branches that came from them
carried the genius of one single variety and of none
other. And I often speculated whether there were any
reflex action of these many varieties on the root, de-
manding a certain kind of service from it.

The cions (sometimes still called “grafts”) are cut
in winter or early spring, when well matured and per-
fectly dormant. Placed in sand in a cool cellar so they
will not shrivel, they are kept until grafting time, which
is early spring, usually before the leaves start on the
stock. The cions may be placed on the tree by several
methods, but only two are commonly employed,—the
whip-graft and the cleft-graft. The former is adapted
to small stocks, the size of one’s finger or smaller; it is
the method employed in root-grafting in the nursery,
and Fig. 16 explains it.

The requirement is to cause the cion and stock to
grow together solidly, making one piece of wood. The
growing plastic region is associated with the cambium
tissues underneath the bark. It is necessary, therefore,
to bring the “line betwixt the wood and the bark” to-
gether in the two parts, and to hold the junction firm
and also well protected from evaporation until union
takes place. The method of putting the parts together,
the form of whittling, is a matter of convenience and
practice.

The case was put in this way by old Robert Shar-
rock, “Fellow of New-College,” in his “History of the
Propagation and Improvement of Vegetables by the con-

82 THE APPLE-TREE

currence of Art and Nature” (I quote from the second
edition, Oxford, 1672): “Grafting is an Art of so placing
the Cyon upon a stock, that the Sap may pass from the
stock to the Cyon without Impediment.” Batty Langley,
in 1729, gave this direction in the “Pomona”: “The
Stocks being cleft, you must therefore cut the Cion in
the Form of a Wedge, which must always be cut from a
Bud, for the Reasons aforesaid; and then with a Graft-
ing-Chizel open the Slit, and place the Cion therein, so
that their Barks may be exactly even and smooth.”

Still earlier (1626) did William Lawson, in “A New
Orchard and Garden,” set forth the rationale of the prac-
tice in his Chapter X, “On Grafting,” in this wise:
“Now are we come to the most curious point of our
faculty: curious in conceit, but indeed as plaine and
easie as the rest, when it is plainly shewne, which we
commonly call Graffing, or (after some) Grafting. I can-
not Etymoligize, nor shew the original of the word,
except it come of graving and carving. But the thing or
matter is: The reforming of the Fruit of one Tree with
the fruit of another, by an artificial transplacing or trans-
posing of a twig, bud or leafe, (commonly called a Graft)
taken from one tree of the same, or some other kind, and
placed or put to, or into another tree in due time and
manner.”

If the whip-graft is to be below the ground, it is suf-
ficient to tie the parts tightly with string and cover with
earth ; if above ground, wax is applied over the string to
prevent drying out. On the small shoots of young trees,
the whip-graft is often employed, but it is not used in
large trees.

The cleft-graft is shown in Fig. 18. The trunk or

THE PLEASANT ART OF GRAFTING 83

branch is cut off; two cions are inserted in a cleft made
with a knife. The “stub” is covered with grafting-wax
(Fig. 19). Cleft-grafting is the usual method for the
orchardist.

18. 19

a The cleft-graft. The cleft-graft ;
fl after waxing.

In either kind of grafting, the cion carries about three
leaf-buds. If “wood” (cion-shoots) is scarce, only one
bud may be taken, but this reduces the chances of suc-
cess. One bud may not grow, or the young shoot may
be injured. The lowest bud is usually most likely to
grow; it pushes through the wax.

In young trees set for the purpose of top-working,
the trunk may be cut off at the desired height and two
cions inserted. The entire top is then removed at once;

84 THE APPLE-TREE

this is allowable only on young trees. Probably the bet-
ter practice is to graft the main small side limbs and the
main trunk or leader higher up. Usually it is better to
leave some of the branches on the tree, not removing
them all till the second or third year.

In old apple-trees, the main branches are grafted,
where they are an inch or two in diameter. Care is taken
so to choose the branches that a well-shaped free-headed
tree will result. Only a small part of the top is removed
the first year, and three or four years may be required to
change the top all over, the old branches being removed
as the new ones grow. In about three years, or four, the
grafts should begin to bear,—about as soon as strong
three-year-old trees planted in the orchard.

Any variety of the pomological apples will grow on
any other variety, but apples do not take well on other
species, as does the pear. The pear may be made to grow
on the apple, but the graft is short-lived and the practice
is not recommended. Boys may graft indiscriminately
for practice, but grown-ups, having arrived at the un-
fortunate age of discretion, must operate only on those
kinds known to succeed when joined. I have never
known a boy who did not want to graft anything, as soon
as his attention was called to the operation. The boy
does not take it for granted: he wants to try.

XIII
THE MENDING OF THE APPLE-TREE

Many accidents overtake the apple-tree. The hired
man skins the tree with the harrow; fire runs through
the dry grass; hard winters shatter the vitality, and parts
of the tree die; borers enter; rabbits and mice gnaw the
bark in winter; loads of fruit and burdens of ice crush
the tree; wind storms play mischief; bad pruning leaves
long stubs, and rot develops; cankers produce dead
ragged wounds; fire-blight destroys the tissue; a poorly
formed tree with bad crotches splits easily; grafts fail
to take, and long dead ends are left; the tree is injured
by pickers; vandals wreak their havoc. All these acci-
dents must be met and the damages repaired. The sur-
geon must be summoned.

We must first understand how a wound heals on a
tree. Note any wound,—knot-hole on the trunk, place
where wood has been removed. The exposed wound it-
self does not heal; it is covered and inclosed by tissue
built out from the edges or periphery of the wound. This
tissue is like a roll. It is the callus. Eventually the tis-
sue meets in the center, and the lid is thereby put on the
place,-and it is sealed. The exposed wood has died, if
it is the cross-section of a branch or a deep wound, and it
remains under the callus a dead body. If the wood has

&5

86 THE APPLE-TREE

not started to decay in the meantime, the place is safe,
but too often invasion has begun before the process is
complete, the rot disease finally extends to the heart of
the tree, causing it to become hollow. If the center of
the wound falls in, the callus cannot cover it, and an open
sore remains. In these cavities birds may sometimes
build.

Therefore there are two points for the surgeon to
consider in respect to the wound itseli—whether it is
so placed on the tree that the callus forms readily;
whether the wound is kept healthy during exposure.

All ragged tissue being removed, deep-wound sur-
faces should be kept aseptic. For ordinary cases,
white-lead paint with plenty of linseed oil is a good pro-
tective from the germs of decay. On old wood, no longer
active, creosote is good, perhaps followed by coal-tar.
Usually, however, paint is quite sufficient. Small ex-
posures usually receive no dressing. When the fresh
surface wood is exposed by removal of bark, it is neces-
sary to keep the tissue from drying out, and antiseptics
are usually not applied. Bandaging with cloth is the
usual practice, after the wound is cleaned and trimmed.

The repairs fall into two classes,—those that require
merely removal of injured parts and treatment of the
wounds, and those that demand the ingrafting of new
wood.

We have learned, in the discussion of pruning, that
long projecting ends of severed branches do not heal.
The branches to be removed should be cut back close
to the larger branch or to the juncture with another. In
repairing injured trees, all projecting parts that do not
have life in themselves must be removed. All wounds

‘

THE MENDING OF THE APPLE-TREE 87

should be left smooth, without splinters or hanging bark.
Decaying wood is to be removed, and the area cleaned
out and disinfected.

The nature-lover may find much to interest him in the
observation of knot-holes as he comes and goes. Every
knot-hole has a history ; this history usually can be traced
by one whose eye is keen and who becomes practiced
in connecting cause with final result. One prides oneself
on the ability to work out the obscure cases. An old
neglected apple orchard thereby affords much entertain-
ment.

If a very large branch breaks off, the remaining part
is cut back to fresh hard wood; antiseptic is applied; the
other part of the tree may be shortened-in to aid in re-
storing the proportion or balance.

Deep cavities caused by rot are cleaned out, disin-
fected with bordeaux mixture, gas-tar, or other material,
and the place filled completely with cement.

In some cases, new wood is added in the form of cions
of last year’s twigs. Such cions may be set around the edge
of a stub, thrust between the bark and the wood, to start
new branches where an important one was broken off.
The cions are cut wedge-shape (much as those in Fig. 18)
and a bandage is tied around the stub to hold them in
place; the exposed parts are covered with grafting-wax.
The operation is performed in spring.

Sometimes cions are used to bridge a girdle. Usually
a girdle heals itself if the injury does not extend into the
wood, and if it is bound up to prevent drying out; but
when the injury is deep and the exposed wood has be-
come dry and hard, the cions may be used. The cions are
somewhat longer than the width of the girdle. The edges

88 THE APPLE-TREE

of the girdle are trimmed to fresh tight bark; cions are
cut wedge-shape at either end; the ends are inserted
underneath the bark at bottom and top of the wound;
edges of the wound are securely bandaged; entire work
is covered with wax. The cions are many, so close that
they nearly touch. The buds on the cions are not al-
lowed to produce branches. This process is known as
bridge-grafting.

With some experience, the cultivator soon learns to
make many deft applications of ingrafting. Sometimes
a piece of bark may be used as a patch. In the bracing
of crotches in young trees, the two trunks may be joined
by uniting a small branch from either one, twisting them
together to form a bridge like a bolt; they can be made-
to grow together, forming a solid union. Bolting the
parts with iron rods, or holding them together by means
of chains, is the usual and commonly the better method.
The iron is not to go around a limb, however, for gird-
ling results; the rods or chains should be secured by
bolts bored through the wood and pulling against large
heads or washers.

The usual repairs are easily made. When trees are
badly injured, and particularly when the tree is low in
vitality, it may not be worth while to engage in surgery.
It may be better to plant a new tree. Saving very old
trees by the mending processes is not likely to be satis-
factory. The grower should transfer his affection to a
young tree. If the tree has had good care throughout its
life, it probably will not need much surgery in old age.
The grower will be willing, when the time comes, to
take a photograph for memory’s sake and to let the tree
come to a timely and artistic end.

XIV
CITIZENS OF THE APPLE-TREE

Many years ago, my old friend, the late Dr. J. A.
Lintner, State Entomologist of New York, compiled a
list of 356 insects that feed on the apple-tree. Later
authorities place the number at nearly five hundred spe-
cies. It must be a good plant that has such a host of
denizens. The number of fungi is also large; and
the tree often supports lichens, alge, and other forms
of life.

The apple-tree is not single in its denizens. No plant
lives alone. It has association with its fellows, perhaps
contest for space and nourishment. It provides habitat
for many organisms, many of which live on its bounty.
I have never seen a bearing apple-tree that was not a
colonizing place for other living things. We accept
these things as matters of course, as being in place, living
their part in nature. Therefore, one cannot understand
the apple-tree unless one knows something of its
citizenry.

Probably the most prominent citizen of the apple-
tree is the codlin-moth. Its larva is the apple-worm,
the one that makes “wormy apples,” the burrows going
to the core and out again. The insect is native in Europe,
but has been known in North America nearly two hun-

89

90 THE APPLE-TREE

dred years, and is widespread in the apple countries of
the world.

If one has screens in the apple cellar, one is likely to
find small moths on them in the spring, larger than a
clothes moth, about three-fourths inch in spread of the
soft gray watered-silk wings. This is the imago or ma-
ture form of the insect known as the codlin-moth (it
lives on codlins or apples). The larve or “worms” were
brought into the cellar in the apples; some of them
crawled out, spun themselves in a cocoon and pupated;
in due season the moth emerged, ready to lay the eggs
for other larve. Ordinarily the fruit-grower does
not see the moth, for it is a small object amidst the
foliage of apple-trees ; the larva or apple-worm he knows
well.

There may be two or more broods of apple-worms,
depending on the length of the season. In the northern
apple regions of North America there is usually only one
brood, with a partial second brood. The first brood is
hatched from eggs laid by moths that emerge in spring.
The moths come from larve that have lain in cocoons all
winter, hidden under bark on the trunks and main
branches of the apple-tree, in crevices in nearby posts
and fences, and sometimes in the ground. The pupe
are the transformed larve or worms that left the apple
of the previous year, usually before it fell, and crawled
down the tree to find a place to spin the silken brown
cocoons in which they wrapped themselves to undergo
the wonderful transformation.

So is the cycle complete: egg laid in early spring,
mostly on the leaves; larva hatched in about one week,
crawling to the young apple to feed, where it lives for

CITIZENS OF THE APPLE-TREE 91

perhaps a month; larva departed from the fruit to form
a cocoon and to remain quiescent till it pupates the fol-
lowing spring (if there is no second brood) when it trans-
forms into a moth; the moth alive for one week or ten
days, laying perhaps as many as one hundred eggs or
even more. If there is a second or third brood, the pupa
resurrects in ten days or so into the moth; eggs are laid;
larve are hatched; pupz again are formed; and thus is
the process continued. But the winter stage is the larva,
although perhaps in store-houses the moths may emerge
earlier and survive till spring.

The eggs of the first brood are commonly laid on the
leaves and fruit. The young larva or worm eats very
little on the foilage. It usually crawls into the blossom
end of the apple. The young apple stands erect, with the
calyx open (Fig. 6); later the calyx closes and protects
the larva that hatched there, forming a good cover for
its operations (Fig. 7). The worm drives for the core,
where it eats the young seeds and burrows extensively ;
then, when nearly grown, it sets out for the surface, eat-
ing a straight burrow; an opening is made through the
skin of the apple, but this exit is plugged until the animal
is ready to leave the place and to crawl down the tree to
pupate. The larve of later broods may enter at the side
of the apple, where a leaf affords protection or where
two fruits come together ; but the life-history is the same,
varying in its rapidity.

This account discloses the vulnerable point in the
life-history, if one is to destroy the insects and to grow
fair fruit; if poison is lodged on the erect open-topped
little apple, the young larva will get it before he injures
the fruit. If the application of the poison is delayed until

92 THE APPLE-TREE

the calyx closes (Fig. 7), there will be small chance of
reaching the worm. The best way to reach the second
brood is to destroy all the first brood. The standard
practice, therefore, is to spray the trees soon after the
petals fall, with the idea of depositing arsenic in the
blossom end.

But the season of egg-laying is long, often extending
over a period of three or four weeks, for the moths do
not all emerge from the cocoons simultaneously. It is
customary, therefore, to spray again about two weeks
after the first application, with the hope of catching the
young worms on their way to the fruit.

There is no question about the efficacy of spraying.
Its value has been demonstrated time and again. The -
methods and the materials may be learned from the ex-
periment station publications in any State, wherein the
advice is kept up-to-date.

In the days before the perfecting of the spraying pro-
cesses, the codlin-moth was controlled by catching the
pupating larve. Taking advantage of the habit of the
worm to find lodgment under the bark on the trunk, it was
the practice to scrape the loose bark from bole and large
branches to destroy the hiding-places and then to tie a
band of cloth around the trunk. Under this band the
worms were taken, as they spun themselves up in the
cocoons. This is a lesson taken from the industrious
woodpeckers, who, in the winter, search the trees for
the pupze and make holes through the flakes of bark to
get them. The scraping of apple-trees is not much re-
commended now for the reason that this special necessity
is passed, and because the better tillage and care together
with the soaking of the branches and trunk in the spray-

11. July 31, and the apples are getting ripe

CITIZENS OF THE APPLE-TREE 93

ing operation, tend to keep the tree vigorous and the
bark properly exfoliated.

So the worm in the apple has a delicate and interest-
ing history. From egg to imago the transformations pro-
ceed with regularity, and they are marvelous. Had we
not traced the sequence, no man could tell by appear-
ances that the larva, the pupa and the moth are one and
the same animal. They seem to have nothing in common.
So is the egg stage as different as the other three, but
we are measurably prepared for this epoch, since we
know seeds so well; the egg and the seed are analagous.
That a moth in the air should come from a crawling
worm in an apple is indeed one of the miracles of nature.
The worm leaves the apple ere it falls; how the worm
knows the time is again a mystery. By some instinct,
it is able to cognize a dying apple. The later worms,
either the lastlings from the early brood or the product
.of subsequent broods, may remain in the apple when it
is harvested, particularly in an apple picked before it is
guite mature and from which the worm has not escaped.

The apple-worm ruins the crop by killing many of the
fruits and by blemishing the remainder. Seldom are
there two worms in an apple. They seem to respect each
other’s hunting-ground. From the worm’s point of view
and from man’s, one is enough.

If man has dominion and if he needs apples, then
is he within his rights if he joins issue with the insects.
Yet is the insect as interesting for all that. I think we
should miss many of the satisfactions of life, and cer-
tainly some of the disciplines, if there were no insects.
My apple-tree is a great place for a naturalist. Van
Bruyssel wrote a book on “The Population of an Old

94 THE APPLE-TREE

Pear-Tree.” ‘When certain blue spirits begin to flit
about me,” he writes, “I depart from my study to go and
read, in what I am allowed, even by my clerical uncle,
to call my book of devotions. The devotions I mean are
not in my book-case. No publisher, if he ever thought
of such a thing, could bring them out. They are a page
of the book of Nature, opened in the country, under blue
sky, displayed at all season.” What a marvelous com-
pany Van Bruyssel found on his old pear tree; and what
inexhaustible worlds did Fabre discover in the lives of
the spider, the fly, the caterpillar, the wasps, the mason-
bees and others!

Therefore we need not pause with the other four
hundred and more insect citizens of the apple-tree. Some
of them, as the San José scale, are not peculiarly apple-
tree insects. My tree has another crew of inhabitants,
and to this company we may now have introduction.

The spots on the leaves and fruits are not deposits
of dirt or are they caused by mysterious conditions in
the atmosphere, as once supposed, nor is it in the nature
of leaves to be spotted and of fruits to be scabby; nor
are the one-sided dwarfed fruits merely accidents. The
organism responsible for these blemishes is less evident
than the codlin-moth; yet what fruit-grower knows the
eggs of the codlin-moth? But the organisms are as
definite as are the insects; no longer are the fungi things
without form and without positive cycles.

On the ground are apple leaves, shed in the autumn.
On the leaves are spots or lesions,—injured or “diseased”
—infected with the apple-scab fungus. Under a good
microscope the investigatior finds immature fruiting
bodies in these areas. In the early days of Spring, these

CITIZENS OF THE APPLE-TREE 95

bodies or winter-spores mature. A rain discharges them
in astonishing numbers. Rising in the air (for they are
incredibly light), these spores lodge on the unfolding
leaves and flowers of the apple, and there begin to ger-
minate, invading the tissue. The tissue is penetrated
and killed so rapidly that the practiced eye soon discovers
a “spot.” The leaf, if badly infected, may not reach
full size; it may curl; it may die and fall; the tree thereby
is injured.

From the fungus in the active diseased areas, an-
other kind of spore develops rapidly. It is the summer-
spore, which may be produced in prodigious numbers,
and being discharged carries the disease elsewhere.

All summer the process of spore-formation and dis-
tribution keeps up. If conditions are favorable, the tree
is invaded in foliage and fruit. The flower-stems in the
unfolding buds are attacked by the winter-spores and the
flower falls.) The apples become spotted from the in-
vasion of the summer-spores, perhaps misshapen. Late
infections may not show at picking time, but develop on
the fruit in storage. The affected leaves are cast in the
autumn, the winter-spores begin to form, the snows come
and hide the processes, in spring the spores mature; and
so does the round of life go on and on.

There are beautiful forms in these fragile fungus
threads that eat their way into the tissues of the host.
There are fascinating phenomena in the growth and re-
production. Even so and for all that, man protects his
tree by spraying it with poison, and thereby again does
he have dominion.

The spraying for apple-scab is with lime-sulfur to
which may be added arsenate of lead. This treatment,

96 THE APPLE-TREE

properly timed, may suffice also for the codlin-moth.
As the fungus may attack the flower-stems and kill them,
so is the first application made when the flower-buds
open and the stems begin to separate, but before the
flowers expand; the operator has a period of one to three
days in which to spray. A second spraying is given just
after the blossoms fall, as for codlin-moth; if the season
is wet, a third application may be made ten to fourteen
days later; if the fungus seems to spread, a fourth spray-
ing may be applied in midsummer. These sprayings,
variously modified, control not only the codlin-moth and
the scab fungus but also scale, blister-mite, plant-lice,
leaf-roller, case-bearer, bud-moth, red-bug and others.

In the tropics one sees trees bearing great burdens
of orchids and bromeliads and ferns and mosses, and one
wonders at the strange and exuberant population. Yet
here is my apple-tree supporting epiphytes and parasites
and insects, protector and nurse of a goodly company;
and birds nest on the branches thereof.

XV
THE APPLE-TREE REGIONS

The northern hemisphere is the home of the apple,
particularly Central Europe, Canada, the United States.
In certain regions in the southern hemisphere the tem-
perature and humidity are right for the good growing of
apples, mostly in elevated areas. In New Zealand
and parts of Australia, apple-growing is assuming large
proportions. Their export trade to Europe and parts of
South America has come to be important and undoubt-
edly is destined greatly to increase.

In Europe, where land is often limited and high in
price, apple-trees may be planted closer than in Amer-
ica, even in field conditions, and more attention is given
tc pruning, heading-in, and the development of fruit-
spurs in the interior of the tree-top. I noticed this prac-
tice in New Zealand, also. In these directions, the Euro-
peans have much to teach us in the careful growing of
good apples. In Europe, the definite training of the
apple-tree begins in the nursery; quantity-production,
with standardization, is not there the aim.

In North America the general practice is to let the
tree take its course, reaching its full natural stature. The
pruning is mostly corrective, to keep the tree in shape
and to prevent the top from becoming too thick, rather

97

98 THE APPLE-TREE

than in the development of fruiting wood. The con-
sequence is that our trees become very large, specially in
New York and New England where they are long-lived.
In the western country, as we have learned, the apple-
tree tends to be shorter-lived and does not usually attain
such great size. In the New York apple country, or-
chards may be in good bearing at forty to sixty years
from planting, and individual trees may be productive
much longer than this. The trees come into good bear-
ing in ten to fifteen years. In the irrigated regions of
the West, the trees may be expected to bear a good crop
two to five years earlier; to what age they may attain,
in large plantations, it is yet too early to state.

The commercial apple regions of North America are
in Canada and the northern United States, comprising
about two or three tiers of States, with important exten-
sions southward into the mountains and in special parts.
The Southern States are not known as apple-growing
country, except in special restricted elevated areas, al-
though there are considerable plantations near the Gulf
of Mexico.

The geography of apple-growing on the North Amer-
ican continent cannot be better displayed than by copy-
ing the table of contents of the larger part of Chapters
III and II in Folger and Thomson’s excellent recent book,
“The Commercial Apple Industry of North America:”

Commercial Apple Production in Canada

Nova Scotia

Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick
Quebec

Ontario

British (Columbia.

THE APPLE-TREE REGIONS
Leading Apple Regions of the United States

Western New York
Hudson Valley
New England Baldwin belt
The Champlain district
New Jersey
Delaware
Shenandoah-Cumberland district
Piedmont district of Virginia
Minor regions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia
Mountain region of North Carolina
Mountain region of Georgia
Ohio
Southern Ohio, Rome Beauty district
Minor regions in Ohio
Kentucky
Michigan
Illinois
Southern Illinois early apple region
Mississippi Valley region of Illinois
Ozark region
Missouri River region
Arkansas Valley of Kansas
Southeastern Illinois
Colorado
New Mexico
Utah
Montana
Washington
Yakima Valley
Wenatchee North Central Washington district
Spokane district
Walla Walla district
Oregon
Hood River Valley
Rogue River Valley
Other apple districts in Oregon

100 THE APPLE-TREE

Idaho
Payette district
Boise Valley
Twin Falls
Lewiston section
California
Watsonville district
Sebastopol apple district
Yucaipa section

Wisconsin
Minnesota

The varieties of the South and the North, and largely
also of the West and the East, are prevailingly different.
Canada has a set of apples quite its own. These differ-
ences are marked when one visits exhibitions in the
various regions. Let the visitor who is a good judge of
apples in Michigan and Ohio attempt to judge them in
an exhibition in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, in
the Province of Quebec, in North Carolina, in Minnesota,
in Oregon. He will be impressed with the wonderful
diversity, as well as the undeveloped resources, of the
continent.

Southward, apples do not keep well. There are no
true winter apples in the Southern States, outside moun-
tain regions. A winter apple of the North becomes a
fall apple in the South. In fact, there are marked differ-
ences in keeping quality within a single State. On grav-
ly lands or warm slopes in the southern part of New York,
the Northern Spy may become practically a late autumn
apple; in the northern parts of the State it is a firm crisp
all-winter keeper. In the winter apple, the ripening pro-
cess proceeds in storage. When the season is so long

THE APPLE-TREE REGIONS 101

that maturity is reached on the tree, the subsequent
duration is relatively short.

It is not to be inferred, however, that apples are to
be grown only in regions and soils naturally well adapted.
Such adaptations should be controlling in commercial
plantations; but if man has dominion he should be able
to accomplish much in untoward or even in hostile con-
ditions. Even the city lot may be able to yield a harvest,
if the occupant of it is minded in fruits rather than in
other things. Every observant traveler has noted cases
in which good results in the rearing of plants and animals
have been attained in places that no one would choose
for the purpose: the man has overcome his obstacles.
I was impressed with this fact in visiting a greenhouse
in the Shetland Islands. Cultivation has been carried
far beyond the optimum regions. The merit of the man’s
performance is measured in the excellence of his result
rather than in the quantity of it. The application of
skill is the highest test of ability in plant-growing, and
this is often expressed in the most difficult places.

Whatever may be the adaptability of any general
territory to the growing of apples in a large way, the
probability is that a man of resources and skill will be
able to raise good apples for himself, unless, of course,
the region is prohibitive. The amateur may be a law unto
himself in many of these matters, delighting in the in-
genuity that enables him to overcome,

XVI
THE HARVEST OF THE APPLE-TREE

Finally the apple is ripe, a fair goodly object joyous
in the sun, inviting to every sense. Hanging amidst its
foliage, bending the twig with its weight, it is at once a
pattern in good shape, perfect in configuration, in sheen
beyond imitation, in fragrance the very affluence of all °
choice clean growth, its surface spread with a bloom
often so delicate that the unsympathetic see it not; and
yet the rains do not spoil it.

The apple must be picked. Do not let it fall. Probably
it is over-ripe when it falls; the hold is loosened; its time
is up. Wormy apples may fall before they are ripe; the
worm injury, if it begins early, causes them to ripen pre-
maturely. A premature apple is not a good apple, albeit
the small boy relishes it but only because he may get
his apple earlier ; in the apple season, when ripe fruits are
abundant, the boy does not choose the wormy one.

Pick the apple from the tree. It will do you good.
It is ever so much better than to pick it from a box on the
market or out of a quart-can in the ice-chest. You will
feel some sense of responsibility when you pick it, some
reaction of relationship to its origin. We know that we
understand folks better when we see them at home.

In varieties that mature before winter, the apple is of

102

THE HARVEST OF THE APPLE-TREE 103

best quality when it ripens on the tree and is picked when
fit to eat. In this respect it differs from the pear. One
reason why store apples are usually poor is because they
must be picked long before ripe to stand shipment. In
my experience it is most difficult to find a man who will
pick apples when ripe; he is usually possessed to pull
them green, thinking that if the fruit is full grown and
has a red cheek it is therefore ready to be plucked.

One would expect the best summer and fall apples to
come from nearby local orchards, but practically this is
not the case because the grower will not allow them to
remain on the tree until they are fit. Of course the really
ripe apple will not keep long and it does not stand rough
handling, but this does not affect the fact that, for eating,
an apple should be naturally ripe. In every city, small or
large, a good trade can be built up for local ripe hand-
picked fruit of the first quality, in competition with the
best commercial supply.

' Winter apples are picked in the Northern States in
October, sometimes late in September. They are then
full grown, but are hard and inedible. The red varieties
are full colored; the green ones show more or less yellow.
Light early frost does not injure them on the tree. Usu-
ally they are placed at first in piles or windrows; and
from these piles they are barreled or boxed for market.
Tf the choicest grades are to be made, they should be
taken to a packing-house.

The apple is an easy fruit to pick. The stem parts
readily from the spur or twig. Yet if the harvester is
choice of his trees he will work deftly rather than
roughly, not to injure the bearing wood. The fruits are
placed in baskets as they are plucked, sometimes in a

104 THE APPLE-TREE

bag slung over the shoulders but this is not the best way
when the apples are ripe. In the packing-house, the
fruits are sorted into uniform grades if they are for
market.

The better. the trees are tilled, pruned and sprayed,
the more uniform will be the crop, and particularly if
the fruit is thinned on the tree; yet the second-class and
even cull apples will be many under ordinary conditions.
The purchaser, noting the price of extra-grade apples, may
not realize that he buys only the remainder in a long
process of grading, extending really over the season or
even throughout the life of the orchard. In all this time,
the grower has borne the risks of frosts and hail, insect
and fungus invasions, lack of help, and disastrously low
prices. A finished product of high quality is always
expensive.

The usual apples on the open market are not the kind
I have here tried to describe. They are the product of
indifferent orchards or of careless handling. They are
purchased for cooking; and the eating of apples out of
hand because they are attractive and really good is an
unknown experience with great numbers of our people.
The polished shiny apples of the fruit-stands are a de-
lusion. The practice of burnishing the fruits produces
a most inartistic result, destroying the natural bloom and
violating the appearance of a natural apple. It is one
thing to clean a fruit if it is soiled (which is seldom the
case with boxed or barreled apples); it is quite another
thing to rub and furbish an apple as if it were a billiard
ball or glass marble and not a living object that grew on
a tree,—it sets false standards before the children. Yet
all this is in line with much of our practice whereby, in

13. The apples in section

THE HARVEST OF THE APPLE-TREE 105

cookery and manipulation, we disguise our foods and
show our lack of appreciation of the products themselves.

For home use, winter apples may well be stored in
boxes in a cool moist cellar if such a place is available.
For best results in long keeping, the temperature should
be maintained below 40 degrees F. In a cellar containing
a furnace, the fruits shrivel from too much evaporation,
as also in an attic or other dry room. If the fruit must
be stored in such places, it is well to keep the box or
barrel tightly closed, and the individual apples may be
wrapped in thin paper.

The apples must be sorted now and then, to remove
the decaying ones; if the fruit was carefully sprayed,
handled and graded in the first place and not too ripe,
the necessity of frequent sorting will be considerably re-
duced. But in any case, the keeping of apples, except
under good cold-storage, is at best a process of continu-
ally saving the most durable fruits. An “outside cellar,”
if properly ventilated, usually is a good place in which
to keep apples. With the use of furnaces for heating
and the cramped quarters of city apartments, the keeping
of apples for home supply is constantly more difficult.

There is no apple like the one that comes up fresh
from the cellar on a winter night, cool, crisp, solid yet
ready. It is the fruit of the home fireside. I often won-
der whether one in a hundred of the people know what a
really good and timely apple is.

The yield of an apple-tree depends on many factors,—
age, size, thriftiness, care it has received, whether it has
escaped frost and other injuries; and some varieties are
much more prolific than others. Some apples are “shy
bearers,” and for this reason soon are lost to propagation

106 THE APPLE-TREE

unless they have some superlative merit;Yellow Bell-
flower is an example of a shy, or at least an irregular,
bearer. The great commercial varieties are of course
good bearers, as Baldwin, Ben Davis, Stayman, York
Imperial, Oldenburg, Rome, McIntosh, Wealthy, Yellow
Transparent, Jonathan.

An apple-tree at full bearing is a wonderful sight at
the harvest, particularly in such varieties as McIntosh
and Baldwin, in which the fruit is highly colored and
hangs well toward the outside of the tree-top. While
the first bearing year may yield only a half dozen fruits,
the crop increases rapidly with the added years,—one
peck, one bushel, five bushels, ten bushels, thirty bushels,
even to sixty and seventy bushels on large sturdy old
trees of some varieties. The amateur, however, first
prizes the quality and regularity of his product for the
sheer joy of it; then every added bushel is so much to
the good,

XVII
THE APPRAISAL OF THE APPLE-TREE

Now, therefore, in these sixteen littlé chapters have
I tried to explain what I feel about the apple-tree. It is
a version to my friend, the reader, not a treatise.

As the interpretation is in the realm of the sensibil-
ities, so do I aim not directly at concreteness. Yet as
it is now the fashion to “score” all our products by a
scale of “points,” I make a reasonable concession to it.
But I do not like the scoring of the fruit independently
of the tree on which it grew as if the fruit were only a
commodity. I know we cannot bring the tree to the
exhibition-room, yet the perfect measure, nevertheless, is
the tree and the fruit together. In these later times we
have said much against the use of the museum specimen
to the exclusion of the living object in its natural place:
let us be cautious, then, that we do not forget apple-trees
in our studies of apples.

Here I shall not arrange numerical scales of points
for the apple-tree. Sufficient for this occasion is the
naming of the points, letting the reader place his own
percentage-value on each of them; for I am trying to
teach, not to instruct.

Yet I must insert, for the reader’s benefit, certain good
rules and scores that have been adopted for the “judg-

107

108 THE APPLE-TREE

ing” of the fruit by those experienced in these matters.
This excellent exercise of judging fruits at exhibitions has
gained much headway. Students of schools and colleges
are trained for the “judging teams,” and great technical
perfection has been attained.

To be exact is an exigency of science. I fear that we
make exactness an end, but that is neither here nor there
on this occasion and I shall not now pursue the subject
further; I hope the judging trains the judge to see what
he looks at in other things as well as in apples, that it
leads him into the pleasant paths of causes and effects,
that it opens the eyes of the blind.

The customary judging of plants and animals and
their products consists in assessing the attributes against
a scale of perfection. Thus, if “form” or “conformation”
is worth 10 points in the hundred (by the estimation of
good authorities), the judge must decide whether the
particular animal before him merits 6 or 7, more or less.
So if “flavor” in an apple is considered to be worth 20
points of the hundred, the judge makes up his mind what
rating, within that limit, he shall accord to the fruit he
is testing. The arrangement in tabular form of the feat-
ures for any product, with the number of points stated
for each, all summing 100, constitutes a “score-card.”
Thus there may be a score-card for Merino sheep, another
for Shropshires, one for apples, and for any other objects
whatsoever.

At competitive exhibitions, the element of comparison
comes in. Perhaps it is the only criterion to be considered
in a particular case——whether this apple is better than
that or than any number of others, which of several
“plates” or samples of apples merits first mention, which

THE APPRAISAL OF THE APPLE-TREE 109

of two or more collections of varieties is altogether most
worthy of a prize. In these cases, the different fruits or
collections may be scored by the card, and the total foot-
ings determine where the award shall go. Or, the dif-
ferent entries may be judged in general, “by the eye;”
this is the usual method, and is satisfactory in the hands
of persons whose standing and experience carry convic-
tion.

If one is to evaluate an apple-tree against a scale or
code, these are some of the features, in relative order of
importance, to be considered:

1. Whether the tree is typical of the variety, in shape,
manner of growth, character of foliage and bloom.

2. Whether it is sound of all injury and disease, and
free of blemish.

3. Whether it is duly vigorous and productive.

4. Whether its fruit is characteristic of the variety or

kind.

5. Whether the pruning has been good; the thinning;
the spraying.

6. Whether the performance of the tree has fulfilled
reasonable expectations.
The judging of fruits is facilitated by such score-

cards and explanations as the following:

1. For comparison of different dessert varieties.

Conformation ................0005 10
Sizel gheawavsnd Aeeecmionn Wed awe 5
COlOR- 268 annette wee ees 20
(COLE: dapriigecesaitoa chee caren cased roetate 5
Uniformity ......-..... ee eee eee eee 5

Durability (keeping) ............. 10

110

2.

THE APPLE-TREE

Condition ............ ce eee eee eee 5
Freedom from blemish ...........- 10
Quality sc hare) aos nena e eee 30
100
For comparison of plates or samples of the same
variety.
FORM. Acetic skew eke ones 15
SIO its site saeatieer iat etd enaarad aa ee 15
COlOF bicker has one WOR ERE 25
Uniformity .. csc ce eee we ewe 25
Freedom from blemish ............ 20
106

DIRECTIONS FOR JUDGING PLATES OF APPLES

IN AN EXHIBITION

Following are directions and explanations issued to

judging teams in exhibition contests, by an agricultural
college:

(1)

(2)

(3)

Form: The shape and conformation of the apples on any one
plate should be typical for the variety, the region of growth
being somewhat considered. All specimens on a plate should
be uniform in shape. When competition is close, a careful
comparison of the more minute characteristics of the basin,
cavity and stem are made.

Size: The specimens on any one plate should be uniform in
size and of the size most acceptable on the market for the
variety. A plate may be marked down for being either under
or over the accepted commercial size. In many exhibits, the
ideal size is given in the premium announcements.

Colors: All specimens in an entry should be uniformly colored
in the way that is considered perfect for the variety in the

(4)

(5)

THE APPRAISAL OF THE APPLE-TREE 111

district where grown. In judging color, one should consider
(a) the depth and attractiveness of the ground color, (b) the
brightness and attractiveness of the over-color, (c) the amount
of the over-color. In a yellow or green apple, the yellow or
green should be clear and even all over, considering the
maturity of the specimen. In varieties that are typically blushed,
(e. g., Maiden Blush) the specimens should show a distinct
tinge of red on the cheek exposed to the sun. With such apples
as Rhode Island Greening, that are only sometimes blushed,
the presence or absence of the blush should not detract except
that the apples on any one plate should be uniform. With
apples typically over-colored, an intense color for the variety
is desirable.

The bloom may be wiped from apples, but in no case should
polished specimens be given the preference. Some exhibits
have special rules regarding polishing of apples.

Conditions: Refers to the degree of ripeness. An apple to be
in perfect condition should be firm for the variety and free
from the withering that comes when apples are picked too green
or when the fruit is over-ripe or has not been stored: properly.

Freedom from blemish: All specimens should be free from
blemishes of all kinds. One should look particularly for (a)

marks of fungous or other disease, including stippin, (b') injury
from insects of all kinds, (c) mechanical injury, including loss
of stem. Unmistakable evidence of codlin-moth injury or San
José scale should disqualify a plate. Other blemishes are con-
sidered important in about the order named: Side worms,
scab, stippin, curculio or red-bug, skin punctures, bruises, stem

pulled, russet (not typical for variety) and limb rub. The
extent of scab spots should be considered. Minute spots are

not as serious as some other blemishes, while spots which de-
form the apple should disqualify the plate.

Other information: Five specimens constitute a plate, except when

the rules of the contest or exhibit state otherwise. Any
variation from this rule disqualifies the plate.
When a plate is not labelled with the correct variety name, it

should not be judged, but is disqualified and if possible the correct
name is applied. If one specimen on a plate is not as labelled, the
whole plate is disqualified.

112 THE APPLE-TREE

In some judging contests, the plates are not labelled with the
variety name, and the contestant is supposed to make the identifica-
tion.

Precaution: Avoid pressing the specimens with the thumb and
finger so as to bruise the fruit. The degree of firmness can
be determined by gentle pressure with the inside of the
whole hand.

Defects, apparent or otherwise, should not be probed with the
finger nail, pin, or other hard object.

Special care should be exercised to replace all specimens on the
right plate. ;

Having in mind these definite criteria, the reader will
know what is meant by a “good apple” and also a good
apple-tree. Measurements of perfection aid us to esti-
mate the deficiencies.

He who knows the apple-tree knows also its region.
The landscape is his in every blessed year; he sees
the chariots of the months come down from the distances
and pass by him into the twilights. Clouds are his and
the repeating shadows on the hills. The morning when
the blossoms are laden with the fragrance of the night,
high noon when the bees are busy, the gloaming when
the birds drop into the boughs, these are his by divine
right. The smell of new-plowed fields is his, with the
urgent promise in them. Seed time and harvest, as old
as the procreant earth and as new as the latest sunrise,
are his to conjure. The verities are his for the asking, the
strong things of cultivated fields and of wild places. And
mastery is his, that comes of the amelioration of the land
and the education of the tree. All these are everyman’s,
and yet they are his alone.

PAGE
ACid, PIOSPlAle rs Gi Site ied engo ese beyuddetew eens 45
Age Ot 2pplestrees! oc cae vcavn ad dior madsesswen nena 98
Alternate: Dea rine seiccvincsasesscwielar ste ucthe wie 6.8 abe artgn aie 42
American Pomological Society .............0--- eee 66
Applé-stab \ic.cinecdicnnvenidonede vaekntaweeearewas 95
Appleseed, Johny ............ ce cee cee cere tenes 61
Arsenate. Of léadsccxieicmraascreeimeres se son ene nee 95
Australia, Apples in .......... 0... ee eee ee ee eee eee 97
Baten al assists sal tergev esi verais a eae Suse eae ace been enone chan 12
Barle wt applettrees.c.iececcnannengenneeaweamnnd eee 11

OP CHEETY cis igo Ue aah waow ae NSE Cae eu 11

of elit... sien cenndesmnee eset wer es Meow eR 11

OF POAT tLe cesicc-asacnueritanel tho ur seed Nes ch ade Ha 11
Bearing’ “yeata.cisenaa seeded aes meee ree eee 42
Black: Gilli Owe re oy cocci insect sie sla bela sow tealin aualasas 73
Biootiléss: apple x nc.sueantixetastiaeweoua awe reese 75
Bolting trees ..............00065 Sonia chine ee aNa eR ee 88
Bridge-Srarine exckseaerine redex denim enews 88
Brush pile: ....nvcieniesncraetersewew ra wae neko es 27
BUCO uetgcscues aecden coded wiecaamimaceneeae 50, 51
Bids: <. cendtacete ncntaaebeuess oat eatanhs 15, 19, 27
Calva tube aac noccn cn seteqednsodenesenreranee eur 26
Canata, Apples A. caseianieccemanes i mee chenaaees 98
Canker occck hese ose eee Reine eeeewae 12
CherimOye «20 sarend ete bearses ae vam ewer en vik 8
Cherry, bark of ........ ce eee cece eee e reece nes 11
Christophine .~.++s<«vesseener snore aneeeveeneses 8
Cider, treatise OM si...caconeereacaerenreseecesewepe 62
Cion-grafting ....- 16. sees eee eee eee eee eee eee 50, 79

114 INDEX

PAGE
Giteus: fruits: 2c shee aaa curds Gan aaa aa ena RE 8
Cleft-grafting 2.0... ccc cece cece cence tee eenes 82
COGCONIE stoma gierencee Meaty Hike ata aie gb Ate atonal teed 8
Codlin-moth, we... ee eee hee eae 12, 89
Giistard apples. cin aiusagpi yond aces ad aie een TE 8
TISCASES) 2:ca sir wnca ts waney were m Veo encase whee inee oe ceo 46
Distance apart: si cos cecaliegadivee saw ide nearness 43
Double apples> sccsncae actin dow vese sas Wane eee RS 74
DOUGii StOCKS vies c caere enw enw aes aes eo yew ES: 57
Downing, quoted ......... 20... 0... cece eee 54, 67
Dwatf apple-trees: w.6...-.cccea esp pews wine a ie ee aie 54
Eels (Darke Ol evsacineccstevsraure sariieres eanenocerwe eras a eeieuss 11
Pndieott, “GOvie <.cisncees heii ce tonto dud uslguaeateeeaeuars eaenentd 61
Enriching the land .......... 2... cee eee eee eee ee eee 45
Exhibitions! sn:aws.new seks uss oe etn eee eune Gs 108
Fertilizing c..ccicccauiensy ataades paxnesaares 40, 44, 45
i lg yideoto siento dae vctoteaaeinanehaea aaa etna wa pngeeeveaedengs waeEE 8
Flower, StriGturé: Of \<aavacae Gare cumewemaneae eee es 20
Folger and Thomson, quoted ..................... 98
PruCHCEtuiy cases cong acte sconce wave iulee aigeaneb aineiel dels 78
Fruit-spurs and bearing ................. 20s seen 42
MPN Oy. yc he nsecah sack ih cepssinen. pov iarsauduarcaceda acaba latay Quasi apraneue eastern 12
GiftdléS: jheacracracrnw chiar eae ede conto ene nw atmos eo tes 87
Grattage: sense cowwaiae rags Re a evexy ed emenmeredle de 49, 79
Gra Pt sy oiced susp eeudadeee Sia lbubugdd hors das Goaiioaat.&, dosaetaud Sesto gumnscale 81
GUA VA: saree qosene tithe, « waren Geen exe ngptiinnsonge anes esas. eng 8
Harvesting ssaceisirusisanrkin erie bese e ea bisa eloweanne 102
Hillsides for orchards .......... 0.0 e eee eee eee eee 44
Hogs in orchards ....... 0... cece eee cee ee eee 45
Tiypanthiuin cccaddiesvdleins atte howto hae e ay aoe eeucen 26
THSBCES® Gacapcecd ddksarwsas costa cacce as antes @aisnewan ladipateeadatena aaldes dasannt 46, 89
JU gine Apples cove wwr tego ren nee mar nntee wears 108
MnO tS) este ene anther de aces bem aati ee 11, 85, 87
Tiaridl for ap plesi- scene coisacavenecestsh cca a nedana a2 ies cnua lapatiacdh char sran « 42
Wangléy, Batty cyennnotaice iea-tendacdesuuwsseuens 82
Isawson's Walliaml o<-cepseeoss etd oemrawreraixextaenie 82

Leaf-arrangement: .a.0ssca0.e ivesetenemescamecaiens 29

PAGE
PICKENS oi Soi aie ones eh edew enue ace geamaceecae 11
Lime-sulphur 2.6 esccc ceene cia nee tee cuicea ween uen es 95
Linneis: ns.cusececacteewt an desevers dxewseee earns 62
Lemtner, (Jie doves weaetesd tet weld salswieaiiasens giece eRe 89
Mali occ douse eis oder ee g) Sie ewelg glee 62
“Mamone sesecianvenresdareneadsenee danas waxes 8
MBIT Oe ois sahais and edn aus) ott axle xk Se wliea! 1S ey na Fava NEE sedated ons 8
Manning, mentioned .............. 00. cece eee 67
M’Mahon, quoted ........... 0... cece eee 66
IMedlat® ice setled a 4S SRR Rai Ee Oe eS Se ES 75
Méndinie 166€S yale aisaesy Besa Bia oe iE eee ke 85
Moench,, cited) sceiciis ed oo eee es Si Gi cone 75
Mound-layering .......... 0. cee eect eee eens 55
Muenchhausen, cited ........... 0... c cece eee eee 75
Natural trees ................0.. sf oe Ted de cen Sug oailbe Sango bod 51
New Zealand, apples in ........... 0... cece ee eee 97
Nitrate: of SOda)2 i ceca od yin Shoat hadi nie aan 45
Origin of apple-tree ......... 0. cece eee eee eee eee 60
Ornamental apples ............. 0... cece eee eee ees 64
Ovary cenaecoven eeniee sed eevee eee ee oes 20
Paint for wounds ...........: cee eee ee eee ee eens 86
Papaya: ain wegereSiguce ese Sees we any ee wags ety Ae 8
Paradise Stocks: s.e.+4s 6c wees seks W oes de ee enw oe 57
Parkinson, JORR ciccisd:atsdn wie cick Ve oop aa eanene 58
Pastuyinr: ds suge siete vss eetes ses Hea ine aot sees 45
Pear, bark Of cise igessceeiece stews: sore eseaase 11
Phosphate, Acid). ois a pesciinws Hor de eeere nee labo ete 45
Plillotaxy sxeiavsuseerdiabeewsudes ceweewens nea ces 29
Picking Apples .ae-wirecisseeseas csr breecewedeee se 102
PIECO<TOOES: cu edteasl wh Pb aed awa ee Se dates 50
Pistil cycew kes aw Cee eae eee re betoes gods 20, 26
Plant-breeder ....--..----eeees ee eee ree re 51
Planting: . ais ccwataeess weenie ope oweew age egeswes 42, 43
Plantaice sc sa eek ok eu Seer a cess me Rees 12
Pollen=tube: .66i6ce chee te wew ae RENEE Re eve eee gues 20
Polio snc vcarasdiyis es mae was veaageieesge rey 40

Pomegranate ...--. 0. sees eee e terrence ee ee eee ees 8

116 INDEX

PAGE

Propagation of apple-tree ..............00000 eee 48, 54
PMI 65 2 ees e een eae en mates 36, 40, 86, 104
PYEUS, DaCCAta, gcexew kien wid cena RAE oe chee 63
COMOMA LIA, 55:5 ek sp ahineg vote ia eacnenroadisanalecse EEE Dao aLe 63
MOGI. oa: atdsnesceairis spas arene Riceareaie gtatneaeaneretauiate 75
LOGNSIS v4.05 cig iwews akae We chm eeieeea ais 63
Malispisichise aa aa idoaaeeebaaans GGureeueias 62, 63
SOulardi sccwccow aides SeMsange Garay rnaauente 64
Receptacle of flower 2. 2.26.0 c00saccceser er seeeowes 26
Regions for apples ......... 0.0.0. c cece eee 97, 99
Repairing trees? ecu dace sais ox Segunda eee tandoori 85
Root-Sfattin® x ncdewsweecue nt ang awe anaes 50
WROGES 33 asedinase Sade eaacqrinspaeedapsboaautacuiarens Guabaserl satenuounyans 43
SCal@ INS€CtS x. ecw anan ene evade weed eeene 12
Scalevot POints: os.csdaenci quia wi aeea owen ns 108
SC OTESCATG: Goo escs re S8iy dish aca ea cen deg have asaunniers a ueasantiabe mien dacoat 108
Séedless applé cis cncsosyece y yee eG eee s tees 74
Seedling: trees: .¢ scsseasces eager areas seer eesens 48, 51
Seeds, plantings icctaeccicaace tie nce acacelactiacers piecwad aceuas 48
Sharrock: RODERE soxciodcdepeneiewunincecnkereSemeen 81
Sheep in, otchards « .neccnnu eecotuond geeky user eee es 45
SHEEPNOSE! sie G dic ccitbancak allad shy tip Mietaesioam al eed lane tliavalees 73
Sod in orchards ..... aaeatens laren ciate eau etnee acs 44
Soil for apples. sess eteuciers ae ee ween ces 42
ASO) ey be <a e 40, 91, 95, 104
Starapplé’ «iaqusescsews twee wwe wees ewes 8
Soa) cicick Saintes 4 eta baeleasac dada neha as 20
S COIS aise Seized tesent ava own le hauarae is vaste ceeeyo aeod dutnertidnenaderinaaane 49
StOniNe areas ache amine kas eee aaeas Ube ie Maen 105
Struggle for existence ........... 0.2.0.0 e cece ee eee 47
StS ecicesknd dare votives ariwieisminne aaron Rabie ea ok ek 20
SUIT OLY: cic his teers arose he each ready sive aetaty see aCeurs 86
SUrpriSé:.iisariwsisen cise eige oRe Santas Qucnacdineilueteaie cyte 73
Sweet-and-Sour 20. cess nen seecaneeeean nee seu wwaics 73
PRINNI ND wei esede cies derma hal ein! Aa eat eee eee 38, 39
Thomson and Folger ................ 0c ccc e ee euee 98

DMUD cocoon ebaiaawaobivoatnas 40, 44, 47, 104

PAGE

Tree Surgery: sasiessenviowvainc sig peed peetsraae ues 86
WATICTI OS aia cries cpasclhipees « weeicasanerinlas ous era aeaeaea gle. GI ste es 66
St Oh: ariel ccebce atte alan aa are all 70

Water corey 2 o.ailans Sacre nl hea iota Senet reeee eed 74
Wihip-r att 20 ctstuieerxaur swan euaaca tenia stamens 50
Wilder, mentioned .............. cece eee e ences 67

Wormy apples: ici ceca daw or adteesengi eens 89, 102