No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. S65 



reviewed for the data, included the standard pomological books, hor- 

 ticultural society reports, experiment station bulletins and reports, 

 horticultural papers and magazines, etc. 



The catalog contains all known names of varieties that had been 

 published up to and including the j'ear 1904 and approximates 14,800 

 in number. This includes all synonyms as well as accredited varietal 

 names. Of the latter there are about 6,700 in number. This means 

 of course that there has been that number of different varieties re- 

 ferred to by name in American publications in the hundred years 

 that is covered by this catalog. A bit of arithmetic shows 8,100 

 synonyms, thus giving as an average more than two names apiece 

 for every variety, but as several varieties have over forty different 

 synonyms to their credii and others only a sliglitly smaller number, 

 the distribution of names is not on a very equitable basis. 



These totals do not include the crabs. If they are added to this 

 inventory the number of accredited names is increased by about 

 375, making in all 7,075. Two hundred and seventy-live names are 

 added to the synonyms making 8,375, thus bringing up the total 

 number of published names, including synonyms, to about 15,400. 



Of the approximately 6,700 (not including the crabs) accredit- 

 ed varietal names, the origin of about 3,U00 varieties is known with 

 more or less certainty and designated in the bulletin mentioned by 

 state for the native varieties and by the country for the introduction 

 oi ioreign sorts. Of these 3,900 varieties, the origin of which is 

 designated 309, if my account is correct, are accredited to Pennsyl- 

 vania though in case of 42 of these — a rather large percentage to 

 be sure — there is some question as to their being of Pennsylvania 

 origin. 



Of course a large proportion of il.o G,7G3 varieties in the catalog, 

 are now unknown in cultivation. This is made evident by tne last 

 revision of the American Pomological Society's ''recommended lists" 

 of varieties for cultivation in the various sections of the United 

 States and Canada. This revision was published in June, 1909, as 

 Bulletin 151 in the Bureau of Plant Industry series. The list of 

 recommended varieties of apples contains 319 names of varieties 

 which have been recommended by some fruit grower, professional 

 pomologists, or others capable of giving advice in the matter for 

 planting in some section of the country. The inference is then that 

 a little more than 300 varieties include all, or at least nearly all, 

 (not counting local sorts many of which are valuable), of the really 

 important sorts that are being grown at the present time. In fact 

 it would be surprising if this number could not be greatly reduced 

 without loss to the apple industry. Pennsylvania is credited with 

 seventeen of these 319 sorts as place of origin with three additional 

 ones that are doubtful in this respect. Forty-nine of the 319 are of 

 foreign origin including twenty-four Kussian sorts and several which 

 originated in Canada. 



With so long a list of varieties from whicb. to choose, there is some 

 difficulty in deciding just what ones should be named in the present 

 connection. As a foundation for a list it is of interest to refer to 

 the revised catalog of recommended varieties of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society above mentioned. For the district that includes this 

 region, the following varieties are the ones highly recommended: 

 Benoni, Early Harvest, Gravenstein, Grimes, Maiden Blush, Margaret, 



