REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 HORTICULTURE. 



APPLES : OLD AND NEW.* 



U. P. HEDRICK and G. H. HOWE. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The culture of new varieties is looked upon by conservative 

 fruit-growers as gambling, pure and simple. Several causes com- 

 bined put this stigma on new fruits : Introducers outrun all license 

 in describing their wares ; nurserymen too often rename old varie- 

 ties ; and, more than all else, originators, nurserymen, and fruit- 

 growers have wrong ideals and introduce varieties without value 

 or to fill places better occupied by existing sorts which cannot be 

 dislodged. 



Yet despite the hazards, novelties must be grown if fruits are 

 to be improved. There are many notions current that old varie- 

 ties can be changed for the better but the statements to this effect 

 far outstrip the evidence. Varietal improvement has been and 

 will probably remain a negligible factor in obtaining better fruits 

 and new varieties must be grown to keep up the evolution which 

 each generation has seen in fruits and which will continue indefi- 

 nitely since the limits of improvement can never be reached. 



Old varieties are novelties in new locations as they are also to 

 all who have never grown them. The introduction of new sorts 

 and the uncertainty as to old ones makes it necessary for some one 

 to grow varieties on probation in fruit-growing regions. Now to 

 test varieties of fruits is a money-taking, time-consuming task 

 which requires not only the good judgment of an expert fruit- 

 grower but wide and thorough knowledge of varieties. Manifestly, 

 it is work for an experiment station and not for an individual. 



The New York Station attempts to test every variety of fruit 

 obtainable that will thrive in this climate. This bulletin is one of 

 several publications from this Station giving results of tests of 

 old and new apples. It is the latest answer to the oft-repeated 

 question: " What apples shall I plant? " 



* Reprint of Bulletin No. 361, March, 1913; for Popular Edition, see p. 730. 



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