1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
743 
SPENCER SEEDLESS APPLE AT HOME. 
In view of the fact that the Spencer Seedless apple 
is being widely brought before the fruit-growing public 
as a coreless, seedless apple with excellent commercial 
qualities, immune to the attacks of Codling moth, and 
since for all of its excellent qualities is being dis¬ 
tributed at the extraordinary price of $2 to $2.50 per 
tree, I took the pains to look up everything I could 
about the tree while traveling in Colorado and Utah. 
According to Mr. Spencer the tree was originated in 
Grand Junction, Col. Here the original tree now stands. 
For some time it attracted little notice, 
until a traveling man, or so the story 
runs, agreed to help Mr. Spencer place 
the apple on the market. A Seedless 
apple nursery was established in Provo, 
Utah, which is the center of the great 
fruit-growing section of that State. The 
young trees were first offered to the fruit 
growers of Idaho, Utah and Colorado 
at the same price at which they are now 
being unloaded on the eastern men. In 
response to various inquiries the horti¬ 
culturists of the State began investigat¬ 
ing the apple. They reported it as com¬ 
paratively worthless. The Horticultural 
Board of the State of Utah denounced 
the apple in strong terms, and many other 
western societies did the same, with the 
result that but few of the apples were 
sold in that section of the country. 
The Spencer Seedless apple, which I 
had an opportunity of examining and of 
obtaining photographs of apples from the 
parent tree shown in Fig. 315, is a medium¬ 
sized apple of a dull green, so thor¬ 
oughly overlaid with a dull, unattractive 
red that the ground color shows but little. 
It i;; on the whole unattractive in appear¬ 
ance. 1 he skin is extremely tough and 
thick, being almost twice as thick as an 
ordinary eatable variety of our standard 
eastern sorts. The flesh is very coarse 
and granular, being almost as granular as a gritty pear. 
The flavor is,—well, to express it in the words of Prof. 
R. S. Northrop, Horticulturist of the Utah Station: 
“You can get a slight acid flavor if you chew long 
enough.” Concerning the chief claim to favor, the 
seedless character of the apple, the claim of its intro¬ 
ducers is, for the most part borne out. But the apple 
is not coreless. The core, in fact, is one of the most 
prominent parts of the apple, being larger and thicker 
in proportion to the size of the fruit than in ordinary 
apples. Since it is the heavy carpels which make the 
seeded apples objectionable, it will be readily seen that 
in this respect the Seedless 
apple has no advantage over 
the seeded ones. If it is 
eaten the core is still there, 
if it is designed for cooking 
the core must still be re¬ 
moved. The apple is adver¬ 
tised as Codling-moth proof 
by its introducers, and so 
one might well believp, who 
had tried to bite through the 
tough skin. As a matter of 
fact the apples are as badly 
infested by the Codling-moth 
as any uther variety, the 
photograph, reproduced in 
Fig. 315, showing a worm 
hole at A, the worm having 
entered through the side of 
the apple. As will be seen 
by the picture, the calyx cup 
is exceedingly deep and open. 
In many of the specimens 
it extends fully a third of 
the diameter of the apple. 
This affords an ideal entry 
for the worm, as it would be 
very difficult so to spray the 
apple that the poison would 
be inclosed in the cup. 
The nursery at Provo, 1 HE 
Utah, contains about 250,000 
trees, one-year-old and two-year-olds, most of which 
have been sold to parties in the East for $2.50 per tree. 
These young trees are the one redeeming feature of 
the Seedless apple that I have been able to find, unless 
it is that it is a long keeper, because the flesh and 
skin are so tough and hard that it cannot spoil. It 
is a particularly sturdy grower in the rich bottom 
lands of the Provo River, where it receives plenty of 
water by irrigation. The one-year-old trees stood from 
six to eight feet high, with an abundant glossy green 
foliage; they were the finest one-year-old apple trees 
I have ever seen. There is no doubt that under the 
favorable conditions existing there the variety would 
make an excellent shade tree. There is a question, 
however, which every eastern grower should consider 
carefully before he invests in these trees, and that is 
whether these irrigated trees will thrive under the less 
favorable eastern conditions. 
The status of the Seedless apple in the West can 
be summed up as follows: As a commercial variety 
it is a failure, the apple possessing only one qualifica¬ 
tion which would recommend it to a grower or a 
shipper of apples. It is a good keeper. On the other 
hand it is unprepossessing in appearance, poor in 
IN A VIRGINIA CORNFIELD. Fig. 316. 
quality and flavor, and possesses a large and tougn 
core and a tough, unpalatable skin. Moreover the 
trees have not been tested for eastern conditions, and 
it would seem as if a fruit grower could wisely let 
the other man pay the $2.50 for the privilege of test¬ 
ing the trees, unless he thought it worth the price as 
a curiosity. p. b. fletcher, b. s. ag. 
BOXED APPLES IN MONTANA. 
Prof. Judson’s articles on packing apples in boxes 
were read with much interest and profit. We use the 
same package here in Montana, but on a much smaller 
YELLOW TRANSPARENT APPLE IN MONTANA. 
scale. We have no fruit growers’ union, and do 
not employ the most advanced methods, yet have 
learned some things which may be of profit to eastern 
growers. For choice varieties and early sorts the 
bushel box is undoubtedly the ideal package. For 
low-grade fruit and poor quality varieties we would 
recommend the barrel, since it does not pay to pack 
such apples in boxes. Consumers usually do not care 
to buy more than a bushel of early apples at a time; 
such apples are generally tender, and are badly damaged 
by handling, which is why they would best be packed 
in boxes. Choice late varieties always command better 
prices in boxes. It is easier to sell a box for $1.50 
than a barrel for $4.50. 
The first essential in packing apples in boxes is the 
right kind of a box. There are several kinds and sizes, 
but we believe the best is the one described below, 
which is the one generally used throughout the Pacific 
Northwest, where the highest-priced apples in the world 
are grown. The end pieces are lOJ^ x 11*4 x inches; 
surfaced on both sides. The side boards are 10*4 x 19^4 
x 3 /$. There are four top and bottom pieces, each 
5j4 x 19J4 x J4> and four cleats llj4 x 3 /i x J4- The 
latter are nailed on top of the bottom and top boards, 
which they help hold in place, and also 
serve to hold the boxes apart, so they 
will not press against the bulge when 
packed together. The top and side pieces 
may be surfaced on one or both sides. 
The latter may be made of two boards 
grooved together. Threepenny nails are 
used for putting the box together, four- 
penny for nailing the cleats. Material 
for these boxes retails at 10 cents each, 
but we get them at the sawmill for $8 
a hundred. 
A good apple packer must be a good 
judge of form and size, able to estimate 
correctly the form and size of an apple 
at a glance. He must select apples in¬ 
stantly which will not vary one-eighth 
of an inch in length or width from what 
they should be, for if the apples are not 
exactly the right size they will not fit 
well in the box. There are a good many 
more ways of packing apples than those 
mentioned by Prof. Judson. Apples 
grow in such an infinite variety of sizes 
and shapes that it requires an equal 
variety of ways of placing them in the 
box in order to make them fit snugly. 
The fruit is usually placed blossom end 
down in the box, but sometimes the 
apples fit better when laid on their sides. 
This change gives just twice as many 
variations in packing. The number may 
be doubled again by placing the apples with the stem 
pointing crossways, instead of endways with the box. 
Additional variations may be made by placing one or 
two layers of apples on end and the other layers on 
their sides, or each layer may be packed entirely dif¬ 
ferent. Sometimes it is necessary to vary the posi¬ 
tion of the apples in a single layer, placing one row 
on, end, another on side—any way to make them “come 
out right.” While it is allowable to vary the position 
of the apples in a layer or row it is not best to lay 
every individual apple the way it seems to fit best. 
Find out by trying which is the best way to pack 
one kind of apples and then 
pack each box the same way, 
selecting apples of the same 
size for a given layer or row, 
or entire box, if possible. 
Keep the apples as level as 
possible in the box, so the 
cover boards will touch each 
apple on the top row. The 
apples in the middle should 
be slightly larger than those 
at the end, as the fruit will 
be held more firmly if the 
top and bottom boards are 
sprung out a little. This 
bulge should be about a half 
inch on bottom and top. 
Some apples are a great 
deal easier to pack than 
others. Wealthy and Duchess 
are easy packing varieties, 
while Transparent and Ben 
Davis are very difficult to fit 
in boxes. We sold 107 boxes 
of Transparents this year for 
$1.10 to $1.25, and 43 boxes 
of Duchess for $1.25 to $1.50, 
these being the top prices. 
Down in the famous Bitter 
Root Valley, near Missoula, 
1' 1G - Transparents brought only 
35 cents a box, Duchess 50 
and 60 cents. We sold Wealthy last year for $1.50 
and McIntosh Red for $1.75. The latter is the leading 
commercial apple in Montana, and is said to attain 
greater perfection here than in any other locality. We 
do not irrigate here in the Flathead Valley. Fig. 317 
shows clusters of Yellow Transparent apples as they 
grow here. o. H. barnhill. 
Flathead County, Mont. 
No doubt next year we shall see the usual crop of politi¬ 
cal spell-binders who ought to turn their attention to the 
held open to them as farm help. 
