THE SEEDLESS APPLE IN CANADA 



W. T. MACOUN, HORTICULTURIST, C. E. F., OTTAWA. 



A WONDERFUL seedless apple is said 

 to have been developed by a western 

 experimenter. There have been seedless 

 apples in Canada for many years. One was 

 exhibited at the annual meeting of the On- 

 tario Fruit Growers' Association at Brant- 

 ford, Ont,, December 19, 1900. In the re- 

 port. of that meeting the following reference 

 is made to it: 



" A curiosity in the form of a seedless 

 apple was shown bv Mr. W. A. Whitney, 

 of Iroquois, Ont. The apple was quite nor- 

 mal in outward appearance and of good 

 size. Mr. Whitney says that none of the 

 apples contain seeds." 



As Mr. W^hitney is dead, I wrote to Mr. 

 A. D. Harkness, Irena, Ont., for informa- 

 tion regarding this fruit. He obtained 

 scions from the tree for me last spring. It 

 was reported by the owner. Air. L. Cam- 

 eron, Ont., to be both seedless and bloom- 

 less. I asked Mr. Harkness to obtain some 

 of the blossoms or places from which the 

 fruit sprung, and the following description 

 was made of them : 



" Apetalous apple blossoms received from 

 Air. A. D. Harkness, Irena, Ont., from tree 

 grown by Air. L. Cameron, Iroquois. Ont., 

 May 26, 1904 : About one dozen flowers 

 received. Flowers in clusters averaging 

 three each. Calyx apparently very similar 

 (these were not compared with the calyx of 

 perfect flowers at the time) to that of ordi- 

 nary flowers. Petals abortive, very small, 

 and hidden by the sepals. Flowers evi- 

 dently all pistillate. Appear to be 15 stig- 

 mas to each flower. W. T. Alacoun." 



Knowing the interest in seedless apples I 

 visited Iroquois, August, 1904, and went 

 to see the tree, which is in Air. Cameron's 

 garden. It was found in a very thrifty 

 condition, but with no fruit. This lack was 

 explained by the fact that there were prac- 

 tically no apples in the orchard last year, 

 hence the pistillate flowers could not be pol- 



lenized. Air. Cameron informed me that 

 it was a seedling tree about 10 years old, 

 and probably fruited for the first time in, 

 1900, when the fruit was shown at Brant- 

 ford. He has this seedless apple top 

 grafted on another variety in addition to the 

 original tree. The apple, as shown at 

 Brantford, was a rather handsome yellow 

 apple, above medium in size and of fair 

 quality. I remember testing it and noting 

 that it was seedless. It was an early winter 

 variety. Next summer we hope to obtain 

 a full description. 



In April, 1904, the following item 

 appeared in the Prince Edward Island 

 Farmer : 



" In a recent issue of the Farmer we pub- 

 lished the result of an experiment in apple 

 growing by which a noted Colorado or- 

 chardist, after seven years of experimenting, 

 had succeeded in producing a seedless apple. 

 It was noted that the tree bearing this scien- 

 tific wonder bears no blossoms, and that the 

 fruit resembles a naval orange. Last Satur- 

 day, to our surprise and pleasure, we re- 

 ceived a box of seedless apples grown last 

 year in the orchard of Air. Hugh Ramsay, 

 Port Hill, with the explanation that similar 

 apples had been grown yearly on the same 

 tree during the past 30 years. Examina- 

 tion shows that the apple is entirely solid; 

 there are no seed chambers nor any sem- 

 blance of seed ; it is well formed, richly fla- 

 vored, and a good winter keeper, the sam- 

 ples received being firm and fresh, although 

 stored in ordinary barrels. The tree bear- 

 ing this peculiar variety was full grown and 

 bearing heavily when Air. Ramsay came 

 into possession of his farm 30 years ago. 

 Since then it has been a heavy bearer yearly, 

 and in no case has a seed ever been found 

 in any of the fruit." 



T wrote to the editor and also to the owner 

 of the fruit, asking for specimens, but un- 

 fortunately the best were gone, the speci- 



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