II 



THE APPLE 



THE COMMON APPLE {PyVUS fHalus) 

 THE SIBERIAN APPLE (PyvUS laccato) 



The apple is at once the most important and the 

 most widely disseminated of all the large fruits, being 

 found more or less in all the temperate regions wher- 

 ever civilization exists. Its fruit may be had in a fresh 

 condition, without special preserving applications, from 

 August to June, and by the aid of modern cold storage 

 rooms the year around. Its hardiness, its productive- 

 ness, the ease with which it is grown, the great variety 

 of uses made of it, and its nutritive value, leave it 

 without a peer. 



In its original wild form the fruit of the common 

 apple, Pyrus malus, is small in size, often very acid or 

 bitter and indigestible, and growing on thorny, irregular 

 trees. By favorable natural conditions, or by cultiva- 

 tion, it has been improved until we have the large, 

 vigorous, upright tree, entirely free from thorns and 

 producing large, delicious and easily digested fruit. 

 The Siberian apple {Pyrus haccata) has contributed 

 something to the cultivated varieties, as the common, 

 yellow and Eed Siberian crab, and the numerous hybrids 

 with P. maliis, the Oldenburg, Gravenstein, Eed Astra- 

 chan, etc., and the Russian varieties that have in the 

 past few years been introduced in the hope that they 

 might prove hardier in the extreme North than the old 

 varieties. Most of the vahiable varieties, however, tliat 

 are largely grown, are supposed to be pure seedlings 

 from the first species. 



