THl' 



^apadian 4^Torticalt(inst 



Vol. XII. 



NOVEMBER, 1889. 



No. II 



--" >g^'g>- 



THE WEALTHY APPLE. 



LTHOUGH a com- 

 paratively new 

 apple, the Wealthy, 

 on account of its 

 beauty, productive- 

 ness and hardiness, has become 

 quite famous. In 1874, according 

 to the Report of the Minnesota State 

 Horticultural Society of that year, it 

 was a question in its native State 

 whether this then new variety should 

 be recommended for general cultiva- 

 tion or not, and probably very little 

 was known about the apple, save by 

 a few fruit-growers living about Ex- 

 celsior ; now it is widely distributed, 

 and in the catalogue of the American 

 Pomological Society it is double 

 starred, as being commended for 

 special excellence, by the Province 

 of New Brunswick, and the States 

 of Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa and 

 Colorado. 



The honor of originating this apple 

 belongs to Peter Gideon, of Excelsior, 

 Minnesota, who grew it from seeds 

 of the Siberian Crab carried there 

 by him from the State of Maine. 



Our colored plate of this apple is 

 claimed bv the artists to be an exact 



representation of a carefully selected 

 specimen grown in Pennsylvania ; 

 but fearing that it was an exaggera- 

 tion, we had rejected the plate, until 

 we had secured samples of the 

 Wealthy from various parts of On- 

 tario. Particularly fine specimens 

 were sent us by Mr. A. M. Smith of 

 St. Catharines, and by Mr. A. A. 

 Wright, of Renfrew. Of these the 

 former were the best in color, but 

 only medium in size ; while the 

 latter, though grown so far north, 

 were much the largest ; one of them 

 measuring about twelve inches in 

 circumference, and so nearly the size 

 of the one pourtrayed in this plate 

 that we have concluded to use it. 

 No doubt it is better, as a rule, to 

 represent fruits according to their 

 average size, instead of choosing out 

 the very finest samples, and that 

 course will be generally pursued by 

 this journal, as our interests are 

 wholly on the side of the fruit- 

 growers ; and yet by seeing the 

 possibilities in our line, we may be led 

 to inquire the reason of our own 

 failures to produce the same, and be 

 stimulated into greater diligence in 



