FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



1297 



At present, the scoring or judging by points is a 

 favorite exercise in classroom and at exhibitions. The 

 score-card with points or attributes totaling 100 

 indicates the perfect fruit: the judge puts against the 

 perfect score such percentage of perfection as he thinks 

 the specimen in hand may deserve. This judgment 

 of course varies with the person, as the marks are not 

 mathematical; but experienced judges make very simi- 

 lar or uniform returns on given specimens. 



Following are examples of score-cards: 



SCALE OF POINTS FOB JUDGING FRUITS. 

 Established by the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. 



No. of points Score 



Quality 20 



Form 15 



Color 15 



Size 10 



Uniformity in size 20 



Freedom from imperfections 20 



CALIFORNIA SCORE-CARD FOR ORANGES. 





Size 



Form 



Color (bloom, 2; peel, 10; flesh, 3) 



Weight 



Peel (finish, 3; protective quality, 7) 



Fiber 



Grain 



Seed 



Taste 



Perfection 100 



SCORE-CARD FOR A COMMERCIAL VARIETY OF APPLE. 

 From "Productive Orcharding," by F. C. Sears. 



Totals 100 100 



SCORE-CARD FOR APPLES. 

 F. A. Waugh. 



100 



Form 



Size 10 



Color 15 



Uniformity 20 



Quality 20 



Freedom from blemishes '.'. 20 



Total 100 



SCORE-CARD FOR PEACHES. 

 F. A. Waugh. 



Form 15 



Size 10 



Color ......,,,.!! 15 



Uniformity 20 



Quality " 20 



Freedom from blemishes 20 



Total 100 



ONTARIO SCORE-CARD FOR GRAPES. 



Value of points Score 



Flavor 30 



Form of bunch 10 



Size of bunch 15 ...... 



Size of berry 15 



Color .' jo 



Firmness 5 



Bloom ..'..'.'.'. 5 



Freedom from blemishes '. 10 



Perfection 100 



SCORE-CARD FOR STRAWBERRIES. 



J. R. Reasoner, 111. Scale of 



points. 



Rootage 5 



Stock and foliage ............'. '. 5 



Vitality, drought-proof 7 



Plant-maker ! 10 



Healthfulnesa, rust-proof ........../...... 5 



Blossoms 5 



Staminate. 



Pistillate. 



Productiveness 25 



I" 6 10 



fehape 5 



Color 5 



Flavor 8 



Firmness, shipping quality . 10 



10 

 5 

 15 

 10 

 10 

 8 

 4 

 8 

 30 



Total .............................................. 100 



L. H. B. 



Russian fruits. 



The Russian apples and their close relatives, the 

 Siberian crabs and their hybrids, constitute the har- 

 diest types of pomaceous fruits in cultivation. It was 

 the demand for hardy varieties for the northwestern 

 states and Canada that led to their introduction. 



There are four varieties of Russian apples that may 

 be looked on as American pioneers; these are Alexander, 

 Tetofsky, Duchess (Borovitsky) and Red Astrachan. 

 These varieties were imported by the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society from the London (England) 



Total . 



83 



.100 



1597. Longfield, one of the Russian apples. ( X M) 



Horticultural Society about 1835. They were brought 

 to England from Russia in the early part of the last 

 century by the executive of the latter society. Dr. Hogg 

 is authority for the statement that Alexander was 

 cultivated for 50 years in England prior to 1808. Robert 

 Manning, superintendent of the test garden of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Salem, de- 

 scribed these varieties from home-grown American 

 specimens in 1839. Their productiveness and the 

 handsome appearance of the fruit attracted attention. 

 Through the efforts of Warder and other western 

 pomologists they were rapidly distributed throughout 

 Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It would appear that 

 in the last half- or three-fourths-century which prac- 

 tically covers the pomological history of the West the 

 periodicity of "hard" or "test" winters has been more 

 or less regular. When the normal or "mild" winter 

 obtains, the apples of the New England states or their 

 descendants do not, as a rule, suffer injury except in the 

 colder parts of Minnesota. These mild winters have fol- 

 lowed each other with delusive regularity for periods of 

 ten, fifteen or eighteen years. Under these conditions, 

 fruit-growers have been prone to efface from their memo- 

 ries the effects of the last "test winter" and have planted 

 freely of the American type. With this type have been 

 usually mingled Alexander, Oldenburg and Red Astra- 

 chan. It has been invariably noted that after the visita- 

 tion of an exceptionally cold winter varieties of the 

 Oldenburg or Alexander types were usually unharmed, 

 while Greening, Janet, and Baldwin were killed. "Test 

 winters" the name has more or less local adaptation 



