50 PIOTOlllAt PRAGfiOAL PRUI'T QROWlM. 



Chapter VII,— Selections of Apples, 



It is profoundly gratifying that the demand for so wholesome a fruit as the 

 Apple is on the increase, but it is profoundly humiliating that our agents 

 have to run all over the vporld for their supplies. Perhaps some stickler for 

 accuracy will interpolate that the agents do not run very far, because the 

 oversea growers make haste to save them the trouble. Maybe ; but it oomes 

 to the same thing in the end— namely, another item of a cool million or two 

 ■which sleepy old John hands over to Uncle Sam or Cousin Cornstalk. 



When we meet Uncle Sam or Cousin Cornstalk in the flesh he generally 

 proves to be a good, kindly soul ; and if we must needs take money out of 

 our breeches pocket and put it in somebody else's, he might as well have 

 it ; but when all is said and done, we are an Apple-growing country in the 

 best sense of the phrase, and we ought to be able to supply our own tables 

 and markets. 



To some ears the statement that we do not pay sufficient attention to 

 choosing, growing, and marketing our Apples is, perhaps, getting a little 

 wearisome. We have heard it many, many times ; and the worst of it is 

 that we have heard it the oftenest from those gentlemen who never grew an 

 Apple except in an inkpot. All the same, there is truth in it. There is an 

 art in selecting sorts to suit the soil and district ; there is an art in growing 

 them ; and there is an art in selling them. 



In previous chapters I have touched on points of culture ; and I am 

 bold enough to think that if the hints about preparing soil, applying 

 fertilisers, and pruning which have been given are carefully followed, 

 healthy trees will be grown. Let me now chat about varieties. When a 

 beginner, or even an old hand for the matter of that, looks through a fruit 

 catalogue with a view to selecting a dozen or two of Apples, he tears his hair 

 in desperation. He finds ten, or even twenty, for every one that he requires ; 

 and what to put in and what to leave out raise a problem that he has 

 trouble in solving. The difficulty is increased by the fact that most of 

 the sorts included in the trade lists have something to recommend them. 

 We might perhaps throw them into grades as follows : — 



1. Apples that succeed with most people and in most soils. These we 

 might call first-class varieties. 



2. Apples that do fairly well with most people, and particularly well 

 with some. These we might call second-class Apples. 



3. Apples that do badly with most people, but are very good under 

 exceptionally favourable circumstances, such as Eibston Pippin. These we 

 might call third-class Apples. 



Does someone cry out upon my presumption in relegating so delicious 

 an Apple as the Ribston to the third class? I reply. What is the good of 

 all its marvellous quality if the tree dies of canker? We have made fetishes 

 of old Apples, and glorified them in spite of serious defects. It is time to 

 stop this sort of thing. 



Now, taking one thing with another, it is obvious that the average 

 planter is likely to get the best results if he makes his selections out of the 

 first-class varieties. He may perhaps miss one or two suitable sorts by 

 turning a blind eye to the others, but in the long run he will come out rig-ht. 

 First, therefore, for the roll of honour. 



