346 THE APPLES OF NEW YORK. 



but not with prime flavor, for usually it begins to lose flavor by 

 midwinter or earlier. 



Tompkins King has been quite generally cultivated throughout 

 the principal apple-growing districts of the state and often with 

 fairly good success, particularly when planted on fertile, well- 

 drained soils or top-worked upon thrifty, hardy stock. In the lake 

 region of Central and Western New York in many cases it appears 

 to succeed better on the uplands than it does close to the lakes. The 

 fruit being large, there is often a considerable loss in windfalls, 

 and on this account it is well to select a location for this variety 

 that is well sheltered from prevailing winds. Generally it is 

 regarded as more liable to loss from wormy fruit and less subject 

 to injury from apple scab than either Baldwin or Rhode Island 

 Greening. As a rule the tree does not come into bearing very 

 young, but with maturity usually becomes a regular bearer, yielding 

 rather light to moderately heavy crops biennially or sometimes 

 nearly annually. Frequently it is regarded as a shy bearer and too 

 unproductive for a good commercial variety, and it nowhere has the 

 reputation of being a heavy cropper, yet many fruit growers find it a 

 profitable commercial variety. Taking the state as a whole, it prob- 

 ably ranks fourth in commercial importance, being surpassed by 

 Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening and Northern Spy. 1 



Were the tree hardier, healthier, longer-lived and more productive, 

 Tompkins King would be much more extensively grown in com- 

 mercial orchards. In the nursery it makes but a moderate root 

 growth, and in the orchard it is somewhat subject to sun-scald and 

 canker as well as to injury at the surface of the ground from what 

 is commonly called " collar rot " or " collar blight/' The cause of 

 this collar rot is not definitely known. Some suppose that it may 

 be due to a parasitic fungus; others that it is caused primarily by 

 winter injury. Tompkins King is certainly more liable to winter 

 injury than are most of the standard sorts of this region. Even in 

 some parts of Central New York, when standing in unfavorable 

 locations, and particularly if on heavy, poorly drained soils, trees 

 have sometimes been entirely killed by the winter, yet in many 



1 See page 17. 



