THE APPLES OF NEW YORK. 29 



variety which may be found. Different fruits of the same variety may 

 vary considerably when grown under differing conditions. Some varie- 

 ties exhibit more irregularities in this way than others do. For example, 

 Northern Spy fruit grown on the topmost branches fully exposed to 

 light and air may be finely colored and highly flavored while on the same 

 tree overshadowed branches may bear fruit poorly colored and decidedly 

 inferior in flavor and quality. Innumerable examples of this kind might 

 be cited to show that the individual fruits of the same variety may vary 

 noticeably in size, form, color and quality on the same tree even during 

 the same season, and often the general character of the crop differs 

 noticeably in different seasons. Variations are also found in fruit from 

 trees of different ages or under different conditions of growth or from 

 different localities as has been previously stated. 1 It should be noticed 

 that normally developed fruits of the same variety may differ not only 

 in the characters above mentioned but also in such features as the calyx 

 (eye) being open or closed; the basin wrinkled or smooth, deep or 

 shallow; the stem long or short, thick or slender, and in other characters 

 of this kind. For example, Baldwin usually has a short thick stern but the 

 smaller fruits of this variety often have long slender stems. 



This tendency of different fruits to vary more or less must be recog- 

 nized if the reader wishes to use technical descriptions of fruits in the 

 most satisfactory and helpful manner. " Of what use then are these 

 exact descriptions?" some may ask. They are of much value if rightly 

 comprehended. While fruits of the same variety may vary in the ways 

 above indicated yet by examining a considerable number of specimens it 

 will often be found that although it may be impossible to identify the 

 variety from descriptions by any single character yet it may be identified 

 by the combination of characters which it exhibits. Thomas aptly re- 

 marks 2 " Controlling circumstances will produce changes in all fruits and 

 descriptions are not founded on extreme exceptions but on average char- 

 acteristics." 



DESCRIBING THE TREE. In the following descriptions when the habit 

 of growth of the tree is referred to the writer has in mind trees of bear- 

 ing age unless otherwise specified. The descriptions of the bark are 

 made from young twigs of a season's growth. 



Top. In describing the top the terms used, which are largely self- 

 explanatory, designate gradations from strong, very vigorous, moderately 

 vigorous or medium, to rather slow or weak growth. The form of the head 

 is usually described in the terms used by Downing; 3 upright spreading as 

 in Baldwin, see frontispiece, ivide spreading as in Rhode Island Greening, 

 round-headed as in Early Harvest, or upright as in Red June Carolina, 

 Tetofsky or Benoni. The top is sometimes noticeably close or dense as in 

 Fameuse and other varieties, or it may be open as in Haas, Lady, Gilpin and 

 Canada Reinette. 



Twigs. The new growth may be slender as in Rome and Cooper 

 Market or thick and stout as in Sutton. The twigs are said to be long- 

 jointed when the internodes, or the spaces from one bud to the next, are 

 long; they are called short-jointed when the internodes are short. 



1 Page 22. 



-Amer. Fruit Cult., 1897:248. 



3 Fruits and Fruit-trees, ""872: 71. 



