PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 325 



compound variety; some seasons they will be nearly all sour, resembling 

 the Rhode Island Greening, and at others a yellow, sweet apple, of very 

 fine flavor. When the perfect compound apple grows, it is something of a 

 triangular form, the ridges being sour, and the flat sides sweet." 



Mr. Geo. W. Dean of Westfield, Geauga county, Ohio, says that he has 

 this sweet and sour apple; " that it is of no account, except as a curiosity, 

 and has been the occasion of endless lies. Elliott says ' it is the result of 

 diseased propagation.' I wish he had told how he knew. It is idle to 

 believe it could have been produced by any mechanical process of budding 

 or grafting. I know this sweet and sour apple well, and believe there is 

 but one kind. It bears a strong resemblance to the Rhode Island Green- 

 ing, both in the wood and fruit, and that is probably the parent of it. I 

 would like to know its origin and cause. Is it possible that the pollen 

 from a sweet apple blossom could be so mixed with the pollen of a sour 

 apple blossom at the time of fertilization as to produce the result ? The 

 apple is not always one-half sweet and the other half sour. It is some- 

 times one-sided. In that case the largest part is sour, but there are gen- 

 erally ridges from base to crown, and invariably the ridges are acid, while 

 the hollows are sweet. One year ours were smooth, and then there was 

 no trace of acid about them." 



Mr. Thos. P. Boyd says such apples are very common throughout the 

 Genesee Valley. 



Mr. J. L. Aldrich, of Greenville, R. I., gives the most positive testimony 

 to prove hybridization in the blossom that I have ever seen. He says: " I 

 have a Teft Sweeting tree in one of my orchards which has occasionally 

 borne apples, one side of which had the smooth, light colored skin and 

 intensely sweet flavor of the Teft Sweeting; and the other part (the sweet 

 and sour sides being separated by a distinct ridge) the rough, dark skin of 

 the Pearmain Russet; the rough side having also the exact taste of the 

 Russet. Now, the imperfect ripening of one side of these apples could 

 hardly account for their external appearance, even if it did for their fl?.vor, 

 for the two kinds of apples are very dissimilar in appearance as well as 

 taste. Russet trees stand within fifty feet of the sweet apple tree. I have, 

 in several instances, shown these mixed apples to those who were incredu- 

 lous in relation to such freaka of nature; and, after tasting the opposite 

 sides of the fruit, they all agreed with me in the opinion that part of the 

 fruit was the genuine, unmixed sweet apple, and the other part as clearly 

 sour. The line of demarcation between the sweet and acid parts has in all 

 cases been sharply defined by a slight ridge. Several other instances of 

 apparent hybridization of different kinds of apples have occurred in my 

 orchards. Two trees, a Rhode Island Greening and a Roxbury Russet, 

 stand close together, the limbs on the opposite trees touching each other. 

 Last autumn, a bushel or more of the apples on the side of the Greening 

 tree next to the Russet so closely resembled the latter apple in appearance 

 and taste, that those who helped to pick the Greenings could hardly dis- 

 tinguish them from Russets; they were mixed in all imaginable forms, both 

 of the difterent kinds being on the same limbs. I have picked the apples 

 on this tree for the last ten or twelve years, and have never before observed 

 such an apparent mixture of fruit on it." 



