THE APPLE — ^VALUE OF— ORIGIN. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE APPLE {PTRUS 3fALUS), 



VALUE OF — ORIGIN — IMPROVEMENT BY HYBRIDIZATION AND SE- 

 LECTION ESSENTIAL QUALITIES. 



Value of the Apple. — This most ancient and important fruit 

 of the temperate zone is found and grows successfully wherever 

 civilization exists. It is largely cultivated throughout the whole 

 of Europe, portions of Northern Africa, Northern Asia, China, 

 Japan, Australia, South America, and in North America from 

 Alaska to Florida. The product of the Apple crop in a single 

 year in the United States alone has reached the enormous amount 

 of over 50,000,000 bushels, and probably 1,500,000 acres are 

 planted with Apple trees. Aside from the value of its fruit, the 

 wood is very valuable for making weavers' shuttles, and for other 

 purposes requiring hard, close-grained wood. 



Origin. — The fruit we now enjoy is so entirely unlike the 

 original type of the species as to be hardly recognized as belong- 

 ing to it, yet when the specific test is applied, i. e., that of its re- 

 production from seed, we find that the seedlings, even from the 

 most improved varieties, soon revert to the original form. It 

 undoubtedly originated from the wild crab of Middle and North- 

 ern Europe. The type of the wild crab is seen in many of the 

 wild seedlings common in neglected pastures throughout the 

 United States, the fruit of which is hard and often acid, and the 

 branches often tipped with sharp thorns. 



The improved varieties now in cultivation are the result of 

 the influence of improved condition of soil, climate, etc. Many 

 of, or, I might say, most of the best varieties known to us, are 

 chance seedlings, or sports, as they are called. No one can tell 

 whether they resulted from crossing by natural fertilization or 

 from a change in the germ due to superior surroundings of plant 

 food and climatic influence. 



Improvement in Varieties. — In considering the various 

 subjects of improvement of varieties, methods of propagation, 

 cultivation, pruning, etc., it will be my aim to deal in general 



^MOmTY LlHkAR) ^"^163 



