September, 1890. 
159 
ORCHARD 
GARDEN \ 
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our latitude and season, regardless of the 
variety of stock or the condition of its ma- 
turity, that we may have to deal with. I 
would protest against the ignorance or in- 
difference of such dealers as to the ultimate 
success of the stock which they deliver, who 
know or should know, that they demand it 
from the grower at a season of the year 
when success is more than uncertain. I 
would protest against the grower submitting 
to such demands. If we have the true in- 
terests of our business and profession at heart 
we must also care for the interests of the 
farmer and planter, who is our ultimate 
customer, and who sets the plants that we 
produce. 
Throughout the greater portion of our 
country, fall is undoubtedly the best season 
of the year for transplanting trees, shrubs 
and vines. Aside from the physiological 
reasons favorable to that season, there are 
many others which render fall planting de- 
sirable. The soil is then generally in the 
best condition, the farmer has more time 
and can give better care and attention to the 
planting, than when the rush of spring work 
is upon him. The earth about the newly 
set tree will become firmly settled by the 
late fall rains and winter snows, the roots 
will become established in the soil, the un- 
avoidable bruises will heal over, and when 
the first warm spring rains come, long before 
the ground has become sufficiently dry for 
proper preparation of spring planting, your 
fall set trees will push and grow into new 
life and vigor, provided always that you 
have furnished a tree, shrub or vine that 
was properly matured, both top and root, 
when taken from its bed in the nursery row. 
Do not let us counteract the advantage of fall 
planting: do not let us injure the fame of our 
profession and our own tine business inter- 
ests by an undue haste, by an unseemly greed 
to pocket a few paltry dollars, just because 
we are told that if we will not do it, some 
other fellow will. If we will all set our face 
against a practice which seems unwise for 
ourselves, and unfair for our customers, we 
can easilj r remedy the evil. — G. E. Meissner, 
before the Am. Association of Nurserymen. 
Early Apples. 
It is a great mistake to suppose there is no 
profit in early apples. The frequent advice 
given in agricultural and horticultural jour- 
nals, to beware of planting “too many" trees 
of these perishable varieties, is well meant; 
but it should be more intelligent and dis- 
criminating. I cannot believe, while I am 
selling my second quality of Yellow Trans- 
parents at $1.00 a bushel, and selected ones 
at $1.00 a hundred, that I am not doing a 
good business. Though I have some fifty 
trees of this variety in bearing, all heavily 
laden this year; yet the fruit is so greedily 
taken in our village of two thousand people 
that I am obliged to decline orders from 
other and larger places, which would take 
ten times as many . 
The truth is that with early apples, as 
with every other good thing, there is ■room 
enough up high.” Fine, well grown speci- 
mens, properly put upon the market, al- 
ways command a ready sale. But they are 
tender and require as careful handling and 
packing as any soft fruit. To be profitable, 
they must not only be well grown and well 
handled. The seller must know his market, 
and his market must know him. He must 
make no mistakes, and ship no poor fruit. 
It is as important to the fruit grower as to 
the butter maker that his goods should be 
up to the mark every time. 
My advice to growers handy to a good 
market is to grow the finest early fruit, and 
offer it in the most attractive shape. The 
trees must be healthy, and rightly pruned 
from the start, so as to give the fruit in all 
parts of the tree an equal chance. The 
ground must be rich and mellow; the fruit 
must be thinned, at least twice, and when 
the time comes to market it everything 
must be ready, and the business rushed. A 
first-class peach grow T er would be a first- 
class early apple grower. The varieties 
must be understood and well chosen, and 
they must be shipped so as to reach the deal- 
er ready for immediate sale. — T. H. Hoskins. 
The Best Early Varieties. 
Beauty in fruit is more important than 
size; but I think beauty and size are more 
important than very high quality. It is not 
often that all three are found together. I 
feel sure that there, can be no mistake in 
planting the Yellow Transparent as a first 
early, followed by Early Strawberry, Sops 
of Wine, William’s Favorite, Primate, and 
Early Joe. A little later is Garden Royal, 
perhaps the best of them all in quality, and 
inferior to none in attractiveness. Porter 
is a fine apple for September, and Graven- 
stein follows it admirably. 
Yellow Transparent bears very young, 
is very productive, but not long lived; and 
may be set as close as 15 by 20 feet. High 
culture, with thinning, brings the fruit 
very near in size to the Porter, and its ap- 
pearance is then superb. Though the flesh 
is tender, this apple is a good keeper and 
shipper for one of its early season. It should 
be gathered for market just as the pale 
green begins to change to yellow. At that 
stage, if well handled, it is good for ten to 
fifteen days. 
Early Strawberry has to me every ap- 
pearance of being a Siberian Crab hybrid, of 
which there are a good many unrecognized 
examples to be found. It has the long 
stem, the green calyx, the delicate coloring 
and the peculiar texture and aroma of this 
class of apples. Its origination in the vi- 
cinity of New York city, where the Siber- 
ians have been long planted for ornament, 
favors this view. Several of the hybrid 
Siberians which originated in Montreal, 
(notably the Montreal Waxen, grown gen- 
erally in the States by the erroneous name 
of Montreal Beauty, given to it — though be- 
longing to another apple of the same class — 
by Ellwanger & Barry.) have the same 
marks; but none of them reach the same 
high grade of dessert quality. The North- 
field Beauty of Vermont, ( not Downing’s 
apple of that name,) is however, quite equal 
to the Early Strawberry in quality, and 
double its size — though grown from a seed 
of the small Yellow Siberian. The Wealthy 
also had the same origin, being grown from 
a Siberian crab seed, from a garden in Ban- 
gor, Me., in which the Fameuse (Snow 
apple) was growing near the crab tree. 
Though so small, Early Strawberry, if well 
grown, finds a very ready market. I think 
there has never been as many grown as 
could be sold about any of our large cities. 
Sops of Wine was described by me in the 
last issue of Orchard and Garden. I can 
only repeat here that it has proved a profit- 
able apple whenever well grown. 
Williams’ Favorite has much about it 
to suggest the idea that it is a seedling from 
Sops of Wine, but with the same treatment 
it is a larger apple, more conical than Sops 
of Wine, with the same rich red, but 
without its white dots. It has not the pe- 
culiar spiciness of that apple, and is softer 
and more juicy, with a mild, agreeable fla- 
vor. When carefully grown, on soil that 
suits it, there is no apple that brings more 
money where it is known, or sooner be- 
comes a “favorite” where it is introduced. 
It requires a strong rich soil, and is partic- 
ularly a garden apple. 
Primate is an apple widely appreciated, 
and it succeeds as well in lower New Eng- 
land as in the Middle States. Its origin is 
not known, but it has long been cultivated 
under a variety of names. The tree is vig- 
orous and vary productive, and the fruit is 
of full medium size, — greenish white, with 
a crimson blush, and in quality superior to 
any above named. Though an August ap- 
ple, it often keeps well for two months 
later. The flesh is white, very tender, re- 
freshing. and but mildly acid. 
Early Joe is almost as small as Early 
Strawberry, but more flattened in shape. 
Like most choice early apples, it requires 
high culture to bring out its merits; but 
when well grown it is a pretty and salable 
fruit, being both juicy and vinous, though 
not unpleasantly acid. 
Garden Royal is an apple all too little 
known. It does not succeed everywhere, 
and never where neglected; but when well 
treated it is a showy little fruit that is even 
better than it looks. It is a specialty of 
growers about Portland, Me., and is in sea- 
son with the elsewhere little known Fulton 
pear, a Maine seedling of high merit. The 
two are often seen on the stands together, 
and are a lovely couple, surely. — T. H. Hos- 
kins. 
Choose a cool day for picking apples and 
put them in a cool shed, out of the sun, un- 
til they are barreled. The moisture which 
gathers upon the surface of the fruit is the 
result of condensation from the atmosphere 
when the apples are exposed to a higher tem- 
perature, as from hot days to cool nights. 
The popular notion that apples “sweat” 
from within is erroneous. It is not safe to 
put in the barrel a single dropped apple no 
matter how sound it may look. 
