Choice Summer Apples — By U. P. Hedrick, Hor E? P l«t N st«io»' ,u 
VARIETIES OF UNUSUAL MERIT THAT ARE NOT GROWN BY THE COMMERCIAL MAN BECAUSE 
THEY “DON’T PAY”, BUT WHICH THE HOME GARDEN MUST RESCUE FROM EXTINCTION 
Early Harvest, the first to ripen and quite above the 
average in quality 
S UMMER apples are out of fash- 
ion. Yet there are a score or 
more of them, each with a beauty 
of color and form of its own and 
each with a distinct and delicious flavor 
and aroma that make the apples of this 
season choicest to eye or palate. But the 
apple is now a money-making crop. Sum- 
mer apples are seldom moneymakers as 
they pass rather too rapidly from maturity 
to decay and cannot be handled in the 
markets because of their delicate skin and 
tender, juicy, flesh — characters which do 
not in the least detract from but rather 
add to their quality. 
Not only are summer apples out of fash- 
ion but we are losing the varieties. They 
are passing from cultivation or are being 
relegated to the limbo of the catalogue. 
It is useless to appeal to the commercial 
fruit-grower for the 
preservation of these 
choice summer apples. 
But the connoisseur, 
he who wants the best 
and is not content 
with mediocrity, who 
insists on tender- 
fleshed juicy, rich, 
refreshing apples, 
must resurrect and 
give a second period 
of probation to the 
summer worthies. 
The pageant is headed by Early Harvest 
which as the earliest of summer apples and 
as one suitable for either culinary uses or 
dessert held a welcome place in every home 
collection before apple growing was wholly 
commercialized. It is true that the fruits 
are not large but they are acceptable in 
size and taking all of the characters that 
please the eye there is no discount on ap- 
pearance, the color, pale yellow with a faint 
blush, and the well rounded form, making 
the apples rather handsome. The flesh 
while not very firm is fine, crisp, tender and 
juicy, a little too mild and yet very agree- 
able. The trees are quite above the average 
in vigor, fruitfulness, hardiness and health. 
In the markets Early Harvest is elbowed 
to the rear as an extra early apple by Yellow 
Transparent which is larger, firmer and 
a better culinary fruit but not nearly as 
good for dessert, for, though pleasantly 
sprightly and at the right stage of ripeness 
rather refreshing, it lacks the full rich flavor 
of Early Harvest. The apple is rightly 
named “Yellow Transparent,” its golden 
color and transparent flesh making it 
uniquely beautiful. This variety has the 
advantage, too, in being hardier of tree 
though it sometimes fails where Early 
Harvest succeeds because of greater sus- 
ceptibility to blight. Y’ellow Transparent 
comes in bearing earlier, but the trees do 
not live as long and never attain as great 
size as those of its rival in season; it is the 
early apple par excellence where hardiness is 
a prime requisite. 
A half dozen noteworthy apples follow in 
quick succession these two extra early ones 
of which, perhaps, Early Strawberry is 
next in ripening. This is a beautiful bright, 
deep red, strawberry colored apple, almost 
a perfect sphere, though a little conical, 
with yellowish flesh often streaked with red, 
pleasantly acidulous, sprightly, rich, aro- 
matic, and altogether most delectable in 
quality. The trees bear early, are hardy 
and exceptionally vigorous, healthy and 
fruitful. The apples are too delicate to 
ship. 
Specimens of Red June are ripe even 
before Early Strawberry can be eaten but 
the main crop comes later and some do not 
mature until late fall, covering a longer 
period of ripening than any other summer 
apple — a great asset in a small orchard. 
Red June is one of the beauties of the 
orchard — the small, deep, solid red, round 
apples, uniform in size and shape, making it 
perfect from an aesthetic standpoint. The 
beauty is more than skin deep, too, for 
flesh and flavor are as unique and tempting 
as form and color. Cut through its red 
skin and a flesh of snowy whiteness, rimmed 
and stained with crimson is exposed — juicy, 
sprightly, rich, aromatic, exceedingly good 
and wholly different from the flavor of any 
other apple or fruit. Red June is grown in 
full perfection only in the South though 
well worth trying as far north as the Bald- 
win is hardy. 
Early Joe ripens with or soon after Early 
2G2 
Yellow Transparent comes into bearing earlier than Early 
Harvest but does not live as long 
Strawberry. Its crisp, tender, juicy, aro- 
matic, richly flavored flesh is universally 
liked by apple connoisseurs and the small 
fruits, striped with red, are exceedingly at- 
tractive as well as highly flavored. Unfortun- 
ately, the tree is among the “unmanage- 
ables” being slow of growth, attaining only 
medium size, seldom fruitful and producing 
many undersized and malformed fruits. 
And yet by virtue of its exceptionally high 
quality and alluring appearance, Early Joe 
ought to be in every home orchard. This 
variety originated in 1800 in Ontario 
County, New York, growing in the same lot 
of seedlings that produced two winter apples 
also famous for quality, Northern Spy and 
Melon. The culture of Early Joe is chiefly 
confined to the state of its nativity but it 
can and ought to be grown wherever its bet- 
ter known congener, Northern Spy, suc- 
ceeds. 
Primate is another 
choicely good apple 
coming in at this sea- 
son of the year and so 
different from those 
thus far named as to 
hardly be a rival. It 
is a pale yellow apple, 
usually slightly 
blushed, with white, 
crisp, juicy flesh, a 
little too sprightly for 
some, but generally 
conceded to rank from good to best in 
quality. The trees are vigorous and bear 
reliably and abundantly ripening their 
fruit over a period of several weeks, but 
seem, unfortunately, to be inviting prey to 
canker fungi and are often short-lived from 
this disease. Primate is cosmopolitan as to 
soils and climate, and is very generally 
grown in the apple regions of America often 
making a profitable variety for commercial 
plantations especially for neighborhood 
trade. 
Red Astrachan is the standard red sum- 
mer apple for home use and market in the 
United States and Canada, a place it holds 
not because of high quality nor of great 
Red Astrachan, standard red summer Porter, high quality and a joy to the Jefferis, superb quality fruit but in 
apple for market and home collector other respects deficient 
