108 HOME FRUIT GROWER 



criminating grown-ups. Best cooking Apples should be decidedly more 

 acid and more pronounced in flavor than the dessert kinds, because 

 heat dissipates part of the acid and the volatile oils upon which flavor 

 depends. They should be capable of cooking evenly to a tender, not 

 necessarily "mushy," consistency. For cider it is customary to use the 

 cull fruit, but a product of finer quality may be made from fruit of 

 the tart varieties rather than the sweet ones. 



The Apple will thrive on practically all well-drained soils except 

 very dry and sandy ones. It does best on strong and heavy loams. 

 "A deep, strong, gravelly, marly, or clayey loam, or a strong sandy 

 loam on a gravelly subsoil, produces the greatest crops and the highest 

 flavored fruit, as well as the utmost longevity of the trees." 



In the southern half of the United States the trees will generally 

 do best when planted on western or northern slopes so as to reduce the 

 effect of the Summer sun; in the northern hah" and in Canada other 

 aspects may be preferred. 



In planting Apple trees always remember that you are making 

 an investment for at least two generations and that, therefore, the 

 conditions for dividends in the form of crops must be made as favor- 

 able as possible. First, place the trees far apart. While varieties 

 differ in their spread and in their height it is wiser and safer to exceed 

 the maximum distance between trees than to approach the minimum; 

 for trees so liberally treated will be far lower-headed and therefore 

 more easy to prune, spray, etc., than closer set trees. The space 

 between may be utilized while the trees are small, as already sug- 

 gested. (Page 34). 



APPLE VARIETIES TO COVER THE WHOLE SEASON 

 (Arranged in relative order of their beginning to ripen, from 



Midsummer to Midwinter, the season of each extending from two 



or three weeks, mostly with early kinds, to three or four months, mainly 



with the late ones). 



MIDSUMMER 



EARLY HARVEST. Pale yellow, medium sized, tart, tender fleshed, good 

 dessert or cooking variety, highly valued by hornets, wasps and boys! 

 Fruit scabs badly unless sprayed well. Tree moderately good grower 

 and fairly long lived. Almost an annual cropper. 



PRIMATE. Medium sized, pale yellow or whitish, often pink cheeked. 

 One of the earliest really good dessert kinds. Ripens during long season 

 -^-sometimes eight weeks. Tree good grower, reliable biennial, some- 

 times annual, bearer; rather tender in some sections, but generally 

 thrifty, fairly long lived and productive. 



SWEET BOUGH. One of the choicest sweet Apples. The yellow, luscious 

 fruits ripen unevenly during four to six weeks. Tree rather precocious, 

 long lived, but in unfavorable locations sometimes injured by cold and 

 canker. 



