00 

 &CJ 



PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 471 



subsequent writers that it originated somewhere in western Xew 

 Jersey at some time prior to the year 1800. 



As would be expected, a variety with so many strongly marked 

 characteristics, grown under such varied soil and climatic conditions 

 as are found from the Atlantic to the Ozarks, has left a marked impress 

 011 the pomology of this great region. It is a singular fact, however, 

 that so far as known nearly all of those newer varieties which show 

 strong evidence of Winesap parentage have originated west of the 

 Allegheny Mountains. Among these may be mentioned Kinnard, 

 Paragon, and Gilbert, of Tennessee; Arkansas (synonym Mammoth 

 Black Twig) and Arkansas Black, of Arkansas Howsley; and the 

 several seedlings grown by Dr. J. Stayman, of Leavenworth, Kans., 

 of which last the Stayman Winesap has been most widely dissem- 

 inated. 



During the past six or eight years Stayman Winesap has been 

 widely discussed by commercial fruit growers throughout the Eastern 

 United States. According to the statement of its originator, it was 

 one of a lot of seedlings grown at Leavenworth, Kans., in 1866, from 

 seed selected from a choice lot of Winesap apples grown in the same 

 county. About a dozen of the most promising seedlings of the lot, 

 as judged from foliage and wood, were transplanted to permanent 

 locations in 1868 and allowed to attain fruiting age. When they 

 came into bearing, so large a proportion of them were considered 

 promising that Dr. Stayman sent out scions of several to parties in 

 Kansas, Minnesota, Xew Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia 

 for testing. Of the lot, at least three, besides the Stayman Winesap, 

 appear to possess distinct merit, the others having been more or less 

 disseminated under the designations Stayman Xos. 1 and 2 and Stay- 

 man Sweet. 



The variety described and illustrated in this paper first produced^ 

 fruit in 1875, and the first published description of it appeared under 

 the name " Stayman's Winesap" in Charles Dowiiing's third appendix 

 to the second revised edition of "Fruits and fruit trees of America," 

 published in 1881. Dr. Staj'inan also published a description of the 

 variety in the Annual Report of the Missouri State Horticultural 

 Society for 1883. The original tree of this variety was destroyed by a 

 storm several years ago, but those of the other seedlings were reported 

 to be still standing in January, 1903. 



Further than these descriptions the variety does not appear to have 

 attracted any special attention until after 1890, when its good quali- 

 ties were discovered almost simultaneously by Mr. R. J. Black, of 

 Bremen, Ohio, and Mr. J. W. Kerr, of Denton, Md., both 'of whom 

 fruited it on top grafts at about that time. It was first catalogued 

 by the latter in 1894-1895, and has been quite extensively planted 

 in Xew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia 

 since that date, and somewhat in other States. Its chief merits 



