ESSA.Y 



ON THE CULTURE AND PROPAGATION OF THE APPLE. 



BY L. A. ROBERTS, BROOKLYN, L. I., 

 For which the Gold Medal of the American Inditute iocs awarded. 



Although apple trees are sometimes successfully propagated 

 by layers and cuttings, undoubtedly the best method is from the 

 seed, and the best manner of obtaining seed is as follows : 



Take the cores from nice, fair apples, grown on thrifty trees, 

 always preferring seedlings ; wash them entirely free from the 

 flesh of the fruit and dry them slowly, carefully, and thoroughly. 

 The cleaning is conveniently done by first rubbing the core or 

 pommace through a coarse sieve, and afterward macerating or stir- 

 ring it in a vessel of water, when the pommace will float and can 

 be skimmed off, while the good seeds sink. It is common to take 

 ordinary pommace from a cider mill, but in sodoingyou are more 

 likely to get seeds from poor fruit grown on unhealthy trees than 

 from such as you would desire. 



Some persons plant the seed in the pommace without cleaning 

 it ; in such cases the seed is often destroyed by the malic acid 

 of the fruit. 



It has been held that stocks raised from the seeds of crab- 

 apples were more hardy than from those of cultivated fruit. 

 While this is doubtful, it is certain that stocks from such seeds 

 are almost certain to be of slow growth, and to make but small 

 trees. We cannot, therefore, recommend their use. 



SEED BEDS. 



Prepare seed beds by trenching or plowing a soil of sandy 

 loam, at least eighteen inches deep; make it rich with well-rot- 

 ted manure, and under no circumstances use raw or unfermented 

 animal manure, for it will certainly breed insects, as well as 



[Am. Inst.] D 



