194 THE AMERICAN APPLE ORCHARD 



niercial advantages in handling early fruit, such as 

 saving the expense of storage. 



9. Medium ripening autumn sorts also have their 

 place and take the lead in certain sections. In north- 

 ern sections where first early sorts cannot compete 

 with southern grown stock, and where late-keeping 

 winter apples cannot be produced to best advantage, 

 such sorts as Wealthy and Mcintosh may be highly 

 profitable. These fall varieties fill a large gap in 

 the market between the southern earlies and the stand- 

 ard winter apples. The market is more closely limited 

 than for late winter stock, and the fruit must be skill- 

 fully handled; but the experience of many men in 

 many dififerent parts of the country shows that this is 

 an attractive commercial field. 



These suggestions apply specifically to the choice of 

 varieties for commercial growing. The selection of 

 varieties for the home fruit garden is discussed in an- 

 other connection, page 186. 



REMARKS ON PARTICULAR VARIETIES 



It will be noticed that the list of commercial vari- 

 eties is a very short one. Most of the standard market 

 varieties are grown over a wide range of territory. 

 Indeed one of the capital reasons why they are stand- 

 ard market varieties is that they will succeed under 

 many skies and on a diversity of soils. Ben Davis 

 is the prince of all these varieties, and comes the near- 

 est to being the universal apple of anything yet dis- 

 covered. But Jonathan, Grimes and Red Astrachan 

 are successful market apples in two-thirds of the states 

 in the union. 



There is now an evident tendency toward length- 

 ening the list of commercial apples. This is manifest 



