June. 1 9 1 .5 
THE GARDEN M A G A Z I N E 
263 
superiority in any one character but be- 
cause it is uniformly good, indeed, much 
above the average in all characters. It is 
attractive in color and shape when well 
grown and while others far surpass it in 
quality yet at the proper stage of ripeness it 
is acceptable as a dessert apple, and for 
culinary uses it is excellent being fit for 
cooking long before maturity and having 
therefore a lengthy period of usefulness. 
The trees come into bearing young and bear 
regularly and abundantly but are short- 
lived, rather small in size, and subject to 
most of the ills that apple trees are heir to. 
It is an easily grown general purpose variety 
among the summer apples. 
A little later than the varieties so far 
named comes Williams , dear to the heart of 
New England apple-growers for more than 
a century and a half, having originated at 
Roxbury, Mass., in 1750. It is too tender- 
fleshed for market and should be planted 
only for the pleasure of choicely good fruit, 
its attractive bright red color and rich agree- 
able flavor giving it high rank among sum- 
mer apples. The trees are but moderately 
vigorous, but are hardy, healthful and 
fruitful, bearing apples which, while 
usually above medium size, are sometimes 
small and uneven unless the crop be 
thinned. 
Sweet Bough is far the best of the summer 
sweets — has no compeer. It is preeminent 
by virtue of its tender, juicy flesh and hon- 
ied sweetness, qualities which it possesses 
as it comes green and glossy from the trees 
and which it holds in whatever way pre- 
pared for the table. The trees are quite 
all that could be desired being inferior to 
none in point of speciousness and falling 
short if at all, only in hardiness. The 
apples are too tender for distant shipment 
but it is an ideal fruit for home use and local 
trade, the large size, glossy green color and 
the uniformity of the fruits making it par- 
ticularly pleasing in the market. It is not 
at all fastidious as to soils and thrives, too, 
in a great diversity of climates. 
Summer Rose is an uncommonly beautiful 
little apple — golden yellow with the smooth- 
ness and gloss of wax. It is of the very 
best quality and suited well enough for 
home use but quite too small and too easily 
bruised for even nearby local markets. 
Besides being an excellent dessert apple it 
is also very 
good for culin- 
ary uses all the 
more accept- 
able for either 
purpose since 
itfollowsEarly 
Harvest and 
Yellow Trans- 
parent filling a 
gap between 
the extra early 
and early var- 
ieties. It is 
one of the 
oldest named 
American ap Williams, a favorite New England 
pies having variety, hardy and prolific 
been grown in New Jersey in pre-revolu- 
tionary times. 
In its particular season Chenango is the 
apple of apples to taste, smell, and sight. To 
know the peculiarly delectable flavor and 
fragrance of Chenango is to want Chenan- 
gos thenceforth. It has a savor that puts 
it quite apart from other apples — a kind of 
rich and rare essence that one associates 
with tropical fruits. It is, too, uniquely 
beautiful in color and shape. The ground 
color is light golden yellow overspread and 
conspicuously striped and splashed with 
crimson and carmine, from medium to large 
in size and in shape a slightly ribbed, ob- 
long, cone with a truncated apex. The trees 
are early and regular bearers, hardy, 
healthy, long-lived, and usually are annually 
fruitful. The apples begin to mature early 
Early Strawberry, an ideal August apple for the garden 
but too delicate to ship and producing a high percentage of 
small specimens 
in September in New York and continue 
to ripen for several weeks. Chenango is 
too delicate to market but no variety can 
give more pleasure to those who grow apples 
for apples. 
Stump is almost a facsimile of Chenango, 
surpassing it in no particular, and falling 
a little short of it in looks and taste. 
Summer apples merge into fall apples 
with the ripening of Jefferis, Dyer, Haw- 
ley and Porter, four worthies which bring 
the season’s succession to a close in a true 
and most fitting climax. 
Jefferis is much more easily character- 
ized by its faults than by its virtues — is well 
nigh destitute of merits, save one, it is of 
Primate, cosmopolitan as to soil and climate. 
Yellow color, sprightly flavor 
very best quality. To name its faults first, 
the apples ripen unevenly, are not, except 
at their very best, attractive in color, and 
lack uniformity in both size and shape. 
Despite its failings it is most worthy a place 
in the home orchard because of its tender, 
crisp, aromatic, juicy flesh and its rich 
delicious flavor — a commingling of all the 
essences which united gratify the sense of 
taste in apples. The trees are usually 
satisfactory but are in no way notable. 
It is rapidly passing from cultivation and 
unless there is at once renewed interest in 
its culture will soon be but a memory to 
the older generation of fruit-growers. 
Dyer is another orchard delicacy almost 
out of cultivation. In the plantations of 
a generation ago it was notable for its 
creamy-white, tender, half-transparent 
flesh, rich, sprightly flavor and delicate fra- 
grance — in taste and perfume almost the 
quintessence of apple savors. It is a some- 
what handsome apple, large in size, rotund 
in form, and greenish yellow with a faint 
blush which sometimes deepens into a red 
cheek. Unfortunately, this fine fruit does 
not keep after picking and therefore cannot 
be enjoyed long, nor in quantity for the 
trees are seldom fruitful, nor often, as they 
bear but biennially. Dyer is supposed to 
be the old Pomme Royal of the French. 
Hawley, like Dyer, is fit only for the con- 
noisseur but to him is indispensable. It is 
a large apple much like the well known Fall 
Pippin, in fact seemingly made in the same 
mould and in color is the same pleasing 
commingling of green and gold. Few apples 
at any season surpass it in tenderness, 
juiciness, crispness and fineness of flesh or 
in richness and delicacy of flavor. To ob- 
tain it in full savor the apples must be 
picked from the tree at just the right stage 
of maturity as they quickly rot at the core. 
A generation ago Porter took rank in 
New England as the best of early fall apples 
for home or market, suitable alike for des- 
sert and culinary uses. Judged by quality 
alone it still holds its place at the head of 
the list but it is too tender to ship well, the 
season of ripening is long and variable, 
the crop drops badly, the apples though 
usually large vary greatly in size, and the 
color, a golden yellow is not now in fash- 
ion. Porter has come then, in the com- 
petition with newer sorts, to be an apple for 
the collector. 
I n conclu- 
sion, let all who 
have a culti- 
vated and dis- 
c r i m i n a ting 
taste encour- 
age the cul- 
ture of these 
choicely good 
summer ap- 
ples which 
nurserymen 
and fruit- 
growers have 
by common 
Chenango, delectably flavored and highly Consent dis- 
fragrant; apart from all other apples Carded. 
