XXI 



WARDER'S CLASSIFICATION OF APPLES 



REFERENCE has already been made to the 

 apple classification prepared by the late Dr. 

 John A. Warder, as published by him in 1867 

 in his " American Pomology." This piece of 

 work exemplifies better than anything else 

 which has ever been done in this country the 

 artificial or arbitrary method of classification. 

 This is not stating the case very strongly, to 

 be sure, since no other general classification 

 of consequence has been prepared; but, aside 

 from the comparison, the Warder classifica- 

 tion is a valuable one in itself. It is, in- 

 deed, not possible to discover with certainty 

 the name of every unknown apple by the use 

 Dr. Warder's key, but with standard varieties 

 there is usually no great difficulty. 



There is, of course, a considerable objection 

 to the use of the Warder key at the present 

 time, because since its publication over thirty- 

 five years ago, a good many varieties have 

 been added to the list. The classification, 

 however, is of so much practical utility, the 



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