284 THE APPLES OF NEW YORK. 



good variety to grow with the Baldwin in commercial orchards 

 because, being a little earlier in season, it can be picked and marketed 

 before it is necessary to pick Baldwin. Moreover it bears good 

 crops some years when there is but a light crop of Baldwins or per- 

 haps none at all. 



In regions best adapted to its cultivation it thrives on different 

 slopes and on a variety of soils, but generally, it appears to do par- 

 ticularly well on fertile gravelly or sandy loam with well-drained 

 clay subsoil. The tree is long-lived and eventually becomes large 

 although it is not an exceptionally rapid grower. It is hardy, 

 strong, vigorous, and usually pretty healthy but unless thorough 

 preventive treatment is given, both the foliage and the fruit are 

 often injured by the apple-scab fungus. In some locations the limbs 

 are rather susceptible to the disease known as canker. 1 



The tree does not come into bearing very young and in many cases 

 it is classed as a biennial cropper, but in favorable locations with 

 good care it becomes almost an annual bearer yielding moderate to 

 heavy crops. The fruit hangs well to the tree until it begins to ripen, 

 but then is apt to drop to a considerable extent especially in high 

 winds. The tree has a tendency to form a rather dense head particu- 

 larly when the soil is kept fertile and well tilled and the foliage is 

 thoroughly protected from the attacks of insects and fungi. In 

 pruning, special care should be taken to keep the head sufficiently 

 open so that the light may reach the foliage in all parts of the tree. 

 Sometimes the orchardist makes the mistake of cutting out large 

 branches from the center of the tree thereby exposing the remaining 

 limbs to injury by sunscald. A better way is, thin the top every 

 year by removing as many of the smaller branches as may be neces- 

 sary to make it uniformly open. In training the young tree it is 

 well to form the head rather high because as it matures the branches 

 become long, wide-spreading and more or less drooping, and where 

 the tree is headed low the lower branches eventually are so much 

 in the way that it is necessary to remove them. Moreover when 

 loaded with fruit these bend so close to the ground as to interfere 

 with the free circulation of the air beneath the tree, and thus condi- 



1 Paddock, N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt., 18:331. 1899. Ib., 18:342. 1900. 



