34 



^56 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



J. Silvanus Gordon, of Sergeantsville, N. J. Mr. Gordon had received 

 the scions from Doctor Stayman a short time before. About 1887 

 it reached the nursery of the Michigan Agricultural College, 6 appar- 

 ently direct from Doctor Stayman, under the same designation. In 

 1890 c Mr. Benjamin Buckman, of Farmingdale, 111., received scions 

 of it from the Michigan Agricultural College orchard labeled " Stay- 

 man's No. 1," and in 1893 under the designation " Stayman' s Supe- 

 rior" he received scions direct from Doctor Stayman. Having 

 fruited both and finding them identical, in 1901 he sent specimens 

 of the fruit to Doctor ' Stayman for authentication of name, and 

 received from him a strong expression of his conviction^ that the 

 apple sent was in fact his " Stayman's No. 2." The original tree is 

 reported by Mr. George H. Black, its present owner/ to be living still, 

 though it was almost destroyed by a severe windstorm in September, 

 1905. Messrs. Stayman and Black propagated a considerable num- 

 ber of trees of it for their own planting in the winter of 1897-98 at 

 Leavenworth, Kans., where some seventy trees about 6 years old are 

 now in bearing. 



The earliest publication of the variety appears to have been by 

 Prof. L. H. Bailey in 1887/ when, as "Stayman's No. I/' it was 

 included with several others of Doctor Stay man's seedlings in a list 

 of varieties growing at the Michigan Agricultural College. In 1896 

 Mr. Benjamin Buckman published the names "Stayman's Superior" 

 and "No. 1 Stayman's" in his " List of Fruit Varieties,"* 7 their identity 

 not having been discovered at that time. The first commercial 

 introduction of the variety appears to have been by Mr. J. W. Kerr, 

 who catalogued it for the fall of 1898 and spring of 1899 as " Stay- 

 man No. 1." 



It is evident from Doctor Stayman's notes and correspondence 

 that at different times he had different names for the variety under 

 consideration, such as "Red Sap," "Stayman's Superior," "Mag- 

 net," and "Magnate," and it appears strongly probable that sciors 

 were distributed by him for testing under all these names, as well j s 

 under the designations "No. 1" and "No. 2." His final choir e 

 appears to have been " Magnet, " h but conflict of this with a previ- 

 ously published variety* of Wisconsin origin causes the present 



a Letter from J. Silvanus Gordon, December, 1906. 



b Letters from Prof. L. R. Taft and Prof. L. H. Bailey, December, 1906, and January, 

 1907. 



c Letters from Benjamin Buckman, December, 1906. 

 d Letter of Dr. J. Stayman to Benjamin Buckman, October 3, 1901. 

 Letter of George H. Black, January 12, 1907. 

 /Michigan Agricultural College Bulletin 31, 1887, p. 54. 



0List of Fruit Varieties in Private Experimental Orchard of Benj. Buckman, 

 Farmingdale, 111., fall 1896, pp. 4-5. 



ft Letter of Dr. J. Stayman to Benj. Buckman, December 17, 1900. 

 * Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station Report, 1890, p. 36. 



