THE BEST APPLES FOR NEW YORK STATE.* 



F. H. HALL. 



Of the hundreds of apple varieties described in 



Why grow pomological literature not one in ten succeeds in 



new establishing itself as a useful commercial sort or as a 



varieties? general favorite in the home orchard. The great 



proportion of disappointments when novelties are 



planted tends to discourage individual testing; for each failure means 



loss of money, space, time and pleasure. Therefore newcomers are 



generally distrusted, whether from distant regions where they may 



have already established good reputations, or from some nearby 



nursery whose owner believes he has a new seedling or sport that 



will revolutionize apple-growing. Yet some one must originate and 



some one test such new apples if orcharding is to progress; for our 



old varieties are fixed, and probably no one would claim that the 



perfect apple has yet been grown. Varietal faults as well as merits 



apparently remain, practically unchanged, as they were on the parent 



tree. 



In some cases, it is true, "strains" have arisen in 

 Strains. varieties, which seem to be, and occasionally are, 

 distinctly different from the parent stock, as the red 

 Collamer and Banks from the light-colored Twenty-Ounce and 

 Gravenstein; and a russet type from the well known Baldwin. 

 These are well-fixed variations, probably bud-sports; but since we 

 know not why they come into being and have no idea how to produce 

 others, their existence does not weaken the conclusion that no changes 

 in old varieties will give us the new kinds we desire. Other so-called 

 " strains," like Olympia, Vandevere Improved and Improved 

 Wagener, when grown on the Station grounds beside Baldwin and 



* Reprint of Popular Edition of Bulletin No. 361; see p. 385 for Bulletin. 



[730] 



