32 



4. Varieties destined for making distilled liquor should show a minimum density 

 of 1.070 and 15.5 per cent of sugar, the richer the better. The other characters noted 

 do not play an important role in this category. 



If the density and sugar content given in the first category are only 

 medium for French fruits, in what category can one place German and 

 many American and English cider fruits ? The French have adopted 

 a high standard in quality of fruit, and the chemical analyses reported 

 by the numerous investigators bear them out in this position. Do 

 these qualities result from peculiarities of soil, or have these century- 

 old seedling races of French apples acquired certain characteristics 

 which can now be perpetuated in other lands by ordinary propagation ? 

 Can their seedlings, when grown in other countries, become the founda- 

 tion stock of seedling races of apples which will show such wonderful 

 richness in saccharine matter and tannin as their parent stocks? 



After thirty years of study along what these French investigators 

 seem to consider preliminary lines, but which has yielded already the 

 best technical literature in the world on the subject, the Association 

 Francaise Pomologique appointed a commission, composed of its best 

 scholars and cultivators, to undertake a critical study of al 1 the data, 

 and also to conduct an original investigation of all promising French 

 cider fruits with a view to correcting the nomenclature and establish- 

 ing a standard list with authentic information as to quality and char- 

 acter of fruit and character of plant, so that cultivators shall have :i 

 definite guide to aid them in making plantings. The fruit of each 

 variety selected for the standard list Is reproduced in color for the 

 bulletin of the association and modeled for the permanent collection. 

 After four years of study this commission has made considerable prog- 

 ress. On its organization at Mans in 1898, the commission adopted 

 the following outline of points on which the varieties of fruits should 

 be judged: 



(1) Vigor of plant. 



(2) Natural resistance of same to fungous and insect attack. 



(3) Fertility (productiveness). , 



(4) Quality, based upon the richness of the fruits in useful substances, but, above 

 all, upon its known practical value as a cider fruit. b 



Out of the immense number of French cider fruits the commission 

 decided that only 40 or 50 varieties of apples should be admitted to the 

 permanent list, and 8 or 10 of pears, and that each subsequent year 

 not over 5 or 6 varieties might be added to the list, and that these 

 must be voted upon for three successive years before they could be 

 considered as finally accepted. Up to the present the records only 

 show 36 varieties of apples definitely admitted, and of these but 12 

 have yet been voted for reproduction by colored plates and models. 



a Condensed free translation from Proceedings of International Congress, Paris, 

 1900, pp. 48-50. 

 &Bul. de 1'Ass. Fr. Pom., 16: 35. 



