THE APPLES OF NEW YORK. 261 



New York to determine its value for this region either for the home or for 

 market purposes but so far as it has been tried it has proved desirable for 

 home use, and it appears worthy of trial for commercial planting where a 

 yellow fruit of this class is desired. Its culture in the Middle West is said 

 to have declined in recent years on account of the susceptibility of the variety 

 to the attacks of the apple scab. We have found no difficulty in protecting it 

 from this disease by the ordinary line of treatment with bordeaux mixture. 



Historical. Originated in Park county, Indiana, from seed brought from 

 North Carolina (2). Professor W. H. Ragan has kindly supplied the follow- 

 ing statement concerning its history and habits of growth in Indiana. " It 

 originated with the late Wm. Pickard, of Park county, Ind., and about 40 

 miles from the place of my birth. Wm. Pickard was a Friend (Quaker) and 

 had a pioneer seedling orchard. By chance he had several fairly good varieties 

 and he boasted that he had as good fruit as those of his neighbors who had 

 cultivated varieties. To convince them of this fact he invited his friends to 

 a test of his varieties. To them he presented several varieties which in turn 

 were pronounced good, bad and worse. Finally he brought out his ' best,' 

 that is in his own opinion, but only announced that this was the last. On 

 testing it they were all charmed with its high quality and it was suggested 

 that this was ' Pickard's Reserve,' it having been reserved until the last of 

 the feast. 



" Your inquiry concerning its quality, and your mention in that connection 

 of Grimes Golden indicates that you know of its high character as a fruit. 

 There is no mistake on this point, and yet I am hardly prepared to claim that 

 it is the equal of that fine variety. But it ranks ' very good ' if not quite 

 ' best.' 



" The tree is upright and inclines to make splitting forks that are liable to 

 split down and thus destroy the tree. It is fruitful almost to a fault, and if 

 not overloaded, the fruit is of good size, averaging about with Yellow New- 

 town in this particular, which it somewhat resembles in appearance. Its flesh 

 is, however, much more tender and less acid than the Yellow Newtown. Its 

 parentage is not certainly known, though it has been suggested that it may 

 have been from seed of ' Ortley.' It was one of the very first (along with 

 the Ortley itself) to yield to the attack of the apple scab, when it first in- 

 vaded our country, and hence its culture has been largely discontinued with 

 us." 



TREE. 



Tree vigorous; branches long, moderately stout, liable to split at the forks. 

 Form upright spreading, open. Twigs moderately long, straight, rather stout ; 

 internodes medium to short. Bark dull brown tinged with red, heavily coated 

 with scarf-skin, slightly pubescent. Lenticels rather conspicuous, numerous, 

 medium size, somewhat elongated, slightly raised. Buds medium to below 

 medium, broad, plump, obtuse to somewhat acute, free or nearly so, pubescent. 



FRUIT. 



Fruit large, fairly uniform in shape and size. Form inclined to oblate, 

 rather irregularly elliptical, sometimes broadly or obscurely ribbed, often lop- 

 sided or with one side bulging; axis often oblique. Stem short, usually rather 

 slender. Cavity pretty large, acuminate, irregular, wide, very deep, often com- 



