22 CULTURE' AND MANAGEMENT 



fruit is extremely acrid. The apples of that par- 

 ticular branch were found to combine these two 

 properties for that season ; and by this simple pro- 

 cess, the experimenter asserts, he can easily provide 

 himself with apples, for that season, perfectly to 

 his taste, which he considers a much more expedi- 

 tious and equally as certain a process as that of 

 grafting. 



An account of a singular apple tree, producing fruit of opposite 

 qualities ; a part of the same apple being frequently sour, and 

 the other sweet : in a letter from the reverend Peter Whitney, 

 published in the memoirs of the American academy of arts and 

 sciences, vol. i. 



" THERE is now growing, in an orchard lately 

 belonging to my honoured father, the reverend 

 Aaron Whitney, of Petersham, deceased, an apple 

 free very singular with respect to its fruit. The 

 apples are fair, and when fully ripe, of a yellow 

 colour, but evidently of different tastes sour and 

 sweet. The part which is sour is not very tart, 

 nor the other very sweet. Two apples, growing 

 side by side on the same limb, will be often of 

 these different tastes; the one all sour, and the 

 other all sweet. And, which is more remarkable, 

 the same apple will frequently be sour one side, 

 end, or part, and the other sweet, and that not in 

 any order or uniformity ; nor is there any difference 

 in the appearance of one part from the other. 

 And as to the quantity, some have more of the acid 

 and less of the sweet, and so vice versa. Neither 

 are the apples, so different in their tastes, peculiar 

 to any particular branches, but are found promis- 

 cuously, on every branch of the tree. The tree 

 stands almost in the midst of a large orchard, in a 

 rich and strong soil, and was transplanted there 

 forty years ago. There is no appearance of the 

 trunk, or any of the branches, having been engraft- 

 ed or inoculated. It was a number of years, after 

 it had borne fruit, before these different tastes 



