APPLE GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 35 



CHAPTER IV. 



SELECTION OF TREES FOR PLANTING. 



Which varieties are selected should depend, first, upon their adap- 

 at ion to the conditions existing where they are to be planted, and, 

 secondly, upon whether they are to be used for commercial purposes or 

 for a home orchard. If the orchard is planted for commercial reasons 

 and that is really all that need concern us in this article only a very 

 1V\\ varieties should be secured. What these shall be should be deter- 

 mined by careful observations of profitable trees in nearby orchards 

 in a section, if older orchards can be found where information is easily 

 obtainable; if not, similar conditions elsewhere may serve as a guide, 

 but in this case the value of whatever varieties are planted will have 

 to be largely determined by experiment. Every older apple section 

 has passed through this experimental period, and, as a consequence, we 

 find in our state many old orchards of a miscellaneous lot of varieties, 

 some good and some bad. Such orchards very often do not have enough 

 good trees in them to justify their existence on the ground they occupy. 

 It is always a good plan to go slow with the testing out of new varieties. 

 The nursery agent who understands his business as a salesman very 

 often has no trouble in persuading people to buy varieties that, while 

 they may be good, have never been tried out in the section, and should 

 not form the major part of a new orchard. To test them out in a small 

 \\ay by planting only a few, until they are known to do well, is a com- 

 mendable thing. Practically every apple section of any consequence in 

 ( 'alifornia has growing in it some well adapted varieties that have pro- 



< In <-ed fine crops year after year. A few of such varieties, preferably 

 not more than three, should be selected by the prospective grower. Suc- 



\vill come to a section when it can produce, in quantities, some 

 variety or some few varieties of prime fruit better than any other sec- 

 i inn can produce them. An illustration of this may be found in the fine 



< iravi-nsteins of the Sebastopol section of Sonoma County, or the Yellow 

 Bellflowers or Yellow Xewtowns of the Watsonville section of Santa 

 ( 'ruz County. With a miscellaneous lot of varieties, and no great quan- 

 tity of any one, these famous apple regions would never have gained 

 their reputation. In the mountainous parts of the state, especially that 

 port ion occupied by the Sierra Nevada range, may be found a great 

 many other equally good varieties, such as Jonathan, Rome Beauty, 

 Esopus, Winesap, Delicious, Winter Pearmain, Baldwin, Northern Spy, 

 Maiden Blush and Ortley, any one of which, if grown extensively and 

 handled well, should make a reputation for its section, as the previously 

 mentioned varieties have done for Sebastopol and Watsonville. 



Some varieties are more or less self-sterile, and unless interplanted 

 with other varieties as pollinizers they may fail to produce well, if at all. 

 With the limited amount of scientifically accurate work that has been 

 done along this line, it is impossible to say just which varieties are self- 

 fertile and will do well when planted alone. It is safe to say that large 

 blocks of any variety should not be planted, for even though they may 

 be self-fertile the effect of cross-pollination would undoubtedly be good. 



