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BETTER FRUIT 



Dccciiibci 



■ Figure 3 — A Ckislri- of Baldwin Apples in 



which the central fruit failed to develop 



properly. Note uniform length of stems of 



other four apples. 



Wherever five apple.s had set in a single 

 cluster upon Baldwin the center apple 

 of the cluster, or the one directly oppo- 

 site the end of the spur upon which 

 the cluster was borne, invariably had a 

 short, thick stem. In some cases the 

 stem was even decidedly lipped as 

 illustrated in Figure 1. The apples 

 surrounding (he central one of a cluster 

 always liail loni'cr and more slender 

 stems than Ihal s|K'iimen. 



A furthei- study of the matter shows 

 that this behavior is not unusual. A 

 normal fruit bud upon the apple com- 

 monly develops five flowers and the 

 central one of these, if uninjured, 

 blooms and sets fruit in advance of the 

 others. If conditions continue to be 

 favorable this fruit will be the largest 

 one in the cluster for some time. The 

 foliage and flowers of the higher 

 forms of plants are arranged so as to 

 secure the greatest possible exposure to 

 light. In the family llmbelliferEE the 

 stems of each individual umbel making 

 up an entire flower is of such length 

 that all the flowers are in the same 

 plane. This means that the stems of 

 the marginal umbels must be the longer. 



In some varieties of apples there 

 seems to be an attempt to have all the 

 apples of a cluster in the same plane, 

 and this requires the apples surround- 

 ing the central one to have longer 

 stems, as illustrated in Figure 1. It is 

 evident, too, that in a cluster of apples 

 hanging downward on a slender twig 



that one or more apples will be located 

 toward the trunk or center of the tree, 

 while others will be on the side of the 

 cluster fully exposed to the light. It 

 might be expected then that the apples 

 located on the side of cluster facing 

 the center of the tree would have some- 

 what longer stems than those on the 

 fully exposed side, and this is often the 

 case, as shown by the illustration, 

 F"igure 2. When the central apple of a 

 cluster fails to set the remaining apples 

 have stems of a more uniform length, 

 as illustrated in Figure .S. With some 

 varieties of strawberries such as Wm. 

 Belt the first fruit of a cluster to set 

 and ripen, or the "king berry" as it is 

 sometimes called, is distinctly different 

 in form from the other berries of the 

 cluster. And this is true of some varie- 

 ties of apples in a more limited degree. 

 It can be noticed in F^igure 4 that the 

 central apple of the cluster is more 

 roundish oblong and less roundish conic 

 than the others. Again, in Figure 5 the 

 central Barry apple is much less ribbed 

 than the others. 



The form of an apple, including the 

 length and thickness of the stem, is 

 determined to a considerable extent by 



Frc.rRE 5 — Cluster of Barry Apples. Central 

 ap])le not as distinctly ribbed as other two. 



its location upon the spur and upon the 

 tree. This applies particularly to such 

 as Baldwin, King, Chenango, Barry, 

 King David, and undoubtedly to other 

 varieties not observed by the writer. 

 Gravenstein, Smith Cider, Rome and 

 Ben Davis, however, show a much 

 greater degree of uniformity of stem. 

 In some seasons such varieties as Bald- 

 win would have a larger proportion of 

 short or long-stemmed apples, depend- 

 ing upon the weather, or according to 

 whether the central apple of a cluster 

 set and persisted or failed to do so. 

 Botanically the short-stemmed Baldwin 

 or King, as grown in New Jersey, is 

 just as typical as the long-stemmed 

 specimens and vice versa, so if we 

 judge apples upon that basis it would 

 seem that a somewhat liberal score for 

 form should be allowed in judging 

 such varieties. 



Fir.uRE 4 — Cluster of King Apples. Central 

 apple of different form than the other three. 



Demand for Orchardists 



Trained orchardists arc in great de- 

 mand in Oregon and in other slates. Of 

 twenty-one graduates in horticulture at 

 the Oregon Agricultural College last 

 year five are members of the college 

 staff, one is assistant at the Southern 

 Oregon experiment station, two are in- 



FiGURE 6 — Chenango Apple Cluster. Note the 

 short stem of the central apple. 



structors in Eastern universities, one is 

 school landscape gardener of Alameda 

 County, California, four are managers 

 of departments in large connnercial 

 orchards, three are graduate students 

 at the Oregon Agricultural College, two 

 are managers of the home orchards and 

 three are owners of large orchard and 

 garden tracts. Although attractive sal- 

 aried positions were offered most of 

 the graduates not thus employed, the 

 Iiositions were declined in the belief 

 that further study or working for them- 

 selves is more profitable than working 

 for salaries. 



Cooking and Serving Apples for 

 Dessert. — It is very gratifying to "Bet- 

 ter Fruit" to see the publications and 

 people of the United States in general 

 advocating the value of apples cooked 

 and served in different ways as desserts 

 anti putting on a campaign to increase 

 the c<insumption in this way because 

 in U)12, long before the idea was ad- 

 vanced by any publication or taken up 

 by any organization or the people in 

 general, "Better Fruit" conceived the 

 importance of developing this field for 

 the greater consumption of apples and 

 published a special edition of "Better 

 Fruit" in October, 1912, showing 209 

 ways of serving the apple as a dessert. 



FiGi'RE 7 — Cluster of Yellow Transparent Ap- 

 ples. Note basin and stem of central apple. 



