THE APPLE 



The Apple is the King of Fruits. In general useful- 

 ness, in ease of production, in geographical distribution, 

 and in length of season it is without doubt beyond all 

 rivalry. It would be difficult to determine the precise 

 quantity of apples grown yearly in North America, but 

 the product has been estimated at nearly two hundred 

 million bushels. In 1907 more than one and a half 

 million barrels were exported from the United States, 

 chiefly to Great Britain and Germany. 



The development of the Apple has been coincident 

 with the development of the human race. Wild Apple 

 trees grew in parts of Asia and Europe where man began 

 to grow in knowledge of the arts that led to civilization, 

 and the use of apples for food and their improvement 

 by cultivation extends far back of recorded history. 

 This wild Apple of Europe is called by botanists Pyrus 

 Malus: our cultivated apples, as distinguished from 

 Crab apples, practically all belong to this botanical 

 species. Wherever civilized man has gone to make his 

 home Apple trees have followed, so that the species has 

 been distributed well over the globe. The trees have 

 grown under almost all conceivable conditions and 

 have varied in infinite ways. Among the bilHons of 

 seedlings that have sprung up a very few have borne 

 fruit that appealed to man as of especial value. These 

 have been preserved by grafting upon other seedlings, 

 so we have today hundreds of improved varieties, giving 

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