Vol. LXI. No. 2720 
NEW YORK, MARCH 15, 1902 
$1 PER YEAR 
THE RUSSET APPLE. 
A GOOD THING GOING OUT OF DATE. 
Don't Let It Die Out. 
There are a number of varieties of apples in this 
country passing under the general name of russets. 
Most of them are closely related, and might be prop¬ 
erly put into one group. Their most striking charac¬ 
teristic is their thick, leathery, rough greenish-russet 
skin, but they are also remarkable for firmness of 
flesh, high flavor and late-keeping qualities. It is 
strange that a group of apples having such strikingly 
valuable qualities, considered from the standpoint of 
commercial fruit growing, should have gone so much 
out of fashion of late years. To be sure the market 
demands a red apple, as we are often told, but the 
other qualities which I have mentioned as character¬ 
istic of the russets, are 
equally in demand in 
the large fruit markets. 
Rhode Island Greening 
keeps its place near the 
head of the list of 
choice market sorts in 
spite of the fact that it 
is not a red apple. It 
has been able to hold 
its place largely by rea¬ 
son of its reputation for 
high quality. The un¬ 
excelled value of the 
russets seems, however, 
to have failed to save 
them entirely. 
There are a great 
many russets grown in 
this part of the coun¬ 
try. Nearly all of the 
old orchards have a 
strong sprinkling of 
them. American Gold¬ 
en Russet (Bullock) is 
a particular favorite, 
and thrives exceeding¬ 
ly; bears regularly and 
abundantly. The fruit 
is large for this variety, 
and of extra quality, 
and keeps as well as 
Ben Davis, or better. It 
is a great surprise 
therefore, that the buy¬ 
ers should be so per¬ 
sistently opposed to it. 
As soon as a block of 
russets is approached 
the buyer’s face begins 
to fall, and the price goes down at the same time. 
They bring one-third to one-half less than Ben Davis, 
very much less than Fameuse, and not more than 
one-half, and often not more than one-quarter as 
much as Spy or Spitzenburg; all this, in spite of the 
fact that the stock is irreproachable in every respect 
except as to color. Under the circumstances, it is not 
surprising that the trees are rapidly being grafted 
over to other varieties in Maine and western New 
York, and other sections where russets have been 
considerably grown in the past. In this part of the 
country the old tops are being filled chiefly with Mc¬ 
Intosh, Spitzenburg, Sutton, etc. Russet trees make 
fine tops for grafting, so that there is every induce¬ 
ment to this business of working over the old or¬ 
chards. If present conditions continue, a russet 
apple will be a rarity 10 years from now. 
I have already said that the American Golden Rus¬ 
set is the most popular in this country, but the other 
varieties are extensively grown, especially Roxbury 
(see Fig. 67). The best apple growers seem to prefer 
Roxbury. The tree is larger, stronger, and the fruit 
is larger. One of the russets which has been very 
well known in northern Vermont and Quebec In the 
past is Pomme Gris. This is an old French apDle, 
probably of American origin, however, which was 
considerably grown among the French habitants, 
and has always been greatly prized by them. It is 
a very small apple, specimens varying from an inch 
to two inches in diameter, but it keeps unsurpassably, 
and is of high quality. Since better methods of 
orchard management have been coming in, and 
grafted trees have grown to be more common, Pomme 
Gris has lost its sway. What is said to be a separate 
variety is known through this section as Swazie 
Pomme Gris. I have had the opportunity to compare 
authentic specimens of the two varieties side by side, 
so as to ascertain accurately their differences, but it 
seems that Swazie Pomme Gris is larger, judging by 
the usual standards of size, and is a better variety. 
An interesting local variety of this class is grown in 
a few orchards in Grand Isle County, Vermont, under 
the name of Sailee Russet. It originated, so far as is 
known, with a Frenchman, who had a farm on Cum¬ 
berland Head, Clinton County, N. Y., just opposite 
Grand Isle, about 100 years ago. It resembles Rox¬ 
bury considerably, and though a good variety, Is not 
superior to that old and well-known sort. While l 
am speaking of russets, I might say that the old- 
fashioned Cheeseborough Russet is occasionally found 
in old orchards. It makes a beautiful, fine, strong, 
tall, spreading, thrifty tree, and bears a fair crop of 
very large conical russet apples approximately every 
other year. The quality is poor, however, and the 
variety not to be recommended. Red Russet, Hunt 
Russet and Golden Russet, of western New York, are 
practically unknown in this State. f. a. waugr. 
Vermont. 
ORIGIN OF THE ROME BEAUTY APPLE. 
ITS EARLY HISTORY. 
Introduction and Naming of this Valuable Fruit. 
The statements in some of the journals recently 
concerning the origin of the Rome Beauty apple 
(which is now awakening considerable interest in 
the East) are correct, in part. It was a seedling at 
first, as new fruits generally are. It had been grafted, 
however, among a lot of other seedlings, but was 
saved to make its own growth and produce its own 
fruit by an accident. The lot of young trees among 
which it was found, was purchased from the Put¬ 
nam Nursery, at Marietta, O., by a Mr. Gillett, grand¬ 
father (probably) of the late Capt. H. N. Gillett, long 
one of the leading fruit growers of the southern part 
of the State, and taken by him to his farm in Rome 
Township, Lawrence 
Co., Ohio. The varie¬ 
ties were from the list 
brought by the Put¬ 
nams from their New 
England home, when 
they established the 
nursery at Marietta, 
about 1796: Roxbury 
(or Putnam) Russet.. 
Honey Greening, Coop¬ 
er, Prolific Beauty, etc., 
most of which have 
been laid aside in mod¬ 
ern times. Among the 
lot was one with a 
thrifty, fine-looking 
sprout which had been 
overlooked in the nur¬ 
sery and not cut off, as 
it should have been—a 
kind of double tree. On 
examination it was 
found that the sprout 
came out below the 
graft, and that the 
point of union had been 
set sufficiently below 
the surface in the nur¬ 
sery, so that the scion 
or graft had sent out 
roots of its own, and in 
consequence both graft 
and sprout were sup¬ 
plied with roots and 
could grow independ¬ 
ently of each other; 
and they were accord¬ 
ingly cut apart. The 
sprout—the seedling— 
was handed by Mr. Gillett to his son with the remark: 
“Here is a ‘Democrat’; plant it and see what it will 
do.” Being a Federalist in that old time—80 years 
ago, or over—and party spirit running high, he class¬ 
ed the seedling apples (mostly sour and knotty) as 
“Democrats”! So the nice-looking sprout was plant¬ 
ed, and in due time became a splendid “Democrat,” 
the celebrated Rome Beauty. And thus by the over¬ 
sight of a nurseryman and the discernment of a 
planter, a fine fruit was saved from oblivion. 
As to the name; Capt. Gillett, on introducing it to 
the old Ohio Pomological Society, proposed to call it 
Gillett’s Seedling, as it was common at that day to 
attach the word “seedling” to new fruits; “Fink’s 
Seedling,” for instance. But it was objected, that as 
Mr. Gillett had not raised the young tree, the name 
would be misleading. The late Dr. Barker, of Mc- 
Connelsville, O., who was much interested in fruit cul¬ 
ture, and was probably familar with the history of 
the original tree, advocated the name “Democrat,” 
THE ROXBURY RUSSET APPLE—A GOOD OLD FRIEND. Fig. 67. 
