LUTHER BURBANK 



the apple is a well-developed fruit. There are 

 varieties of almost every supposable size and color 

 and flavor and degree of early or late ripening, 

 as the case may be, and of keeping quality. Yet 

 it would be going much too far to say that nothing 

 remains to be done. There are plenty of oppor- 

 tunities for the plant developer in dealing with 

 this fruit, as I shall attempt to show in a moment. 



But before taking up that aspect of the matter 

 in detail it will be worth while to clarify the sit- 

 uation by a few words of comment as to the eight 

 thousand varieties of apples that make such an 

 imposing array on the pages of the cataloguer. 

 VARIETIES VERSUS INDIVIDUAL TYPES 



The average purchaser and consumer of fruit 

 probably has very vague notions as to what is the 

 real status of the particular variety of apple that 

 especially appeals to him. 



He finds his favorite fruit be it Baldwin or 

 Northern Spy or Greening or Gravenstein or what 

 not in the market year after year at a given sea- 

 son. He sees that each fruit is always of approxi- 

 mately the same size, and color, and flavor. The 

 differences between the named varieties are so 

 radical that they could not possibly be overlooked. 

 A greening apple, for example, bears much less 

 superficial resemblance to a snow apple than it 

 bears to a quince; and the average purchaser 



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