XVIII.] RISE OF AMERICAN APPLES. 315 



nine, or 59 per cent, are American ; and these figures 

 undoubtedly give undue advantage' to the European 

 apples. Of the one hundred and seventy -two vari- 

 eties unaccounted for, I should judge that fully three - 

 fourths are American. In the twenty -seven years 

 between the first and second editions of Downing, 

 therefore, there was a remarkable falling off in 

 percentage of apples of European origin and a corre- 

 sponding increase in American varieties. It would 

 not be safe to say, however, that all of this loss in 

 European varieties is due to lack of adaptation of 

 these varieties to our climate and other environments. 

 Fashion, and the desire to patronize domestic produc- 

 tions, may have influenced this result, yet it is not 

 probable that either of these causes could have de- 

 feated a profitable variety. But there is another and 

 more important aspect of the question, and that is 

 the fact that probably over three -fourths of the 

 prominent apples belong to the American part, which 

 comprises 59 per cent of the list ; and of the popular 

 market apples a still greater percentage is to be found 

 among the Americans. In this connection^ we may 

 study with profit the Michigan Fruit Catalogue (1888), 

 prepared by T. T. Lyon, which rates all prominent 

 varieties for Michigan in three categories— dessert, 

 culinary and market — upon a scale of 10. This cata- 

 logue contains two hundred and nineteen varieties of 

 apples. Of these, thirty -eight are rated 9 and 10 for 

 dessert, of which two are known to be of European 

 origin and three more are supposed to have come from 

 that country, — that is, somewhat over an eighth of the 

 dessert apples of Michigan are of probable European 

 origin, the remainder being domestic varieties. Mr. 



