210 REPOKT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



THE AITLE AND HOW TO GROW IT. 



By G. B. Brackett, United States Pomologist. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



Every farmer, however small his possessions may be, who lives within the 

 apple-growingf districts of the United States, should have an apple orchard, 

 the product of which should be found on his table in some form every day of 

 the year. It is the purpose of this bulletin to present briefly some of the 

 reasons why the farmers of this country should give more attention to the 

 planting and care of their orchards: to aid them in the selection of orchard 

 sites, of the varieties they may profitably plant, and of the trees that will 

 prove most thrifty and pi-oductive: and to give information as to after care 

 of orchards and the best use and disposition to be made of the fruit when 

 grown and ready for family use or market. If this should stimulate the 

 apple industry among our farmers, although it be only for home use, it will 

 be a sufficient reward foi- the prei)aration and publication of this treatise. 



The possible range of apple gi-owing within the territory of the United 

 States is very great. Perhaps two-thirds of the settled portion of our country 

 is more or less adapted to the growth of this staple fruit, and within that 

 range there are but few cases where the fai'mer is excusable if he allows his 

 family to go hungry for apples. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 



Although the apple ( Fyrus malus ) is not a native of American soil, it 

 seems to find a congenial home hei-e. It is true we have some nearly related 

 species in our native crabs, and they give promise in the hands of the experi- 

 menter of better things in the years to come, but as yet no specially valuable 

 varieties haA^e been developed from this source. Our cultivated apples and 

 crabs are the lineal descendants of the wild crabs of Europe, Fyrus malus 

 and Pi/rus bnccata, which have had many years of careful culture bestowed 

 upon them to bring them to our present standard of excellence. When our 

 American species have had as many years of domestic life and careful cul- 

 ture bestowed upon them they may rival their foreign cousins in many of 

 their good qualities. In a short treatise like this, addressed, as it is, to the 

 plain, practical farmers of our country, it may not be expected that an elab- 

 orate scientific explanation of all the methods of improving and domesti- 

 cating a wild species will be presented and discussed. It is deemed sufficient, 

 therefore, under the present heading, to say that the apple in its cultivated 

 varieties as grown in this country is a foreigner, but, like the Caucasian race 

 of man, has found a congenial home in the major portion of the United States 

 and in large areas of the adjacent territory of l^ritish America. 



