Vol. LXXIII.. No. 4243. 
NEW YORK. .MARCH 7. l!>14. 
WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR. 
UNCLE SAM AS A FRUIT JUDGE. 
Identifying Unknown Varieties. 
Many readers have asked us about the work at the 
Department of Agriculture, in identifying fruit varie¬ 
ties. The C. S. Pomologist has become much like the 
Supreme Court in his decisions in matters <>f this kind. 
There are many disputes about varieties, both between 
buyer and seller of the fruit, and also with nurserymen 
when tin* trees come into bearing. There is so much 
interest in this, that we asked Prof. Close, the Pomol¬ 
ogist, to give us an informal statement about his work. 
What follows is standard, 
and should be kept by all 
those who are interested 
in the matter. 
I take pleasure in tell¬ 
ing you something 
about the fruit identi¬ 
fication w o r k in the 
United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. 
We receive fruits of all 
kinds for identification, 
testing, etc., from near¬ 
ly all sections of the 
United States where 
fruit is grown, and the 
work of identification 
is increasing year by 
year as people learn 
that our office is really 
a fruit-naming clearing 
house, and we identify 
fruits free of charge. 
Apples a r e received 
every week in the year, 
and form the bulk of 
the identification work. 
October is the month of 
heaviest receipts, and 
often more than one 
hundred mailing boxes 
of fruit are received 
]>er day during the rush 
season. 
EQUIPMENT FOR 
IDENTIFYING VARI¬ 
ETIES—This office 
tains a vast 
water-color 
variet 
records, 
and fruit models to aid 
in this work. Back of 
all this equipment must 
be a wide knowledge of 
varieties throughout the 
country, and a discern¬ 
ing eye to detect the 
most minute character¬ 
istics of difference or 
similarity in the speci¬ 
mens at hand. Allow¬ 
ance must be made for 
varietal variations 
caused by sectional en¬ 
vironment, such as 
range in temperature, 
amount of rainfall and 
sunshine, elevation, etc. It is seldom safe to depend 
upon the external appearance only, for this varies 
more than the internal structure, as can be shown by 
our water-color paintings of cross sections of fruits. 
THE GOVERNMENT’S SHARE.—Mailing boxes 
and postal franks are sent to anyone who desires 
to forward fruits to us for any purpose whatso¬ 
ever; thus the fruit grower is at no expense in 
this respect. After the fruits have been critically 
examined, inside and outside, the fruit grower 
young orchards, too. for that matter, and is really 
a part of orchard reclamation. Some of the agri¬ 
cultural journals have been instrumental in awak¬ 
ening a lively interest in correct variety names, and 
many specimens come to us as a result of press 
notices that the Government identifies fruits free of 
charge. Most of the State Experiment stations send 
in their fruit puzzles, and we are indeed glad to 
be of service to them. There are not a few cases 
in which the nursery¬ 
men's labels do not fit 
the fruits produced, and 
we are asked to supply 
correct names. These 
misfits may be any¬ 
thing within or without 
the long list of varie¬ 
ties offered for sale. 
The so-called S u 1 z e r 
1 a w establishing the 
Federal standard bar¬ 
rel and standard grades 
for apples when packed 
in barrels, makes it ab¬ 
solutely necessary for 
fruit growers to know 
their varieties if they 
wish to conform to this 
law in packing for in- 
t erstate shipment. A 
few varieties have al¬ 
ready been identified 
for this purpose. 
AMOUNT OF FRUIT 
F O R IDENTIFICA¬ 
TION.—During the year 
1913 nearly 4,000 lots 
of fruit, representing 
perhaps 18,000 speci¬ 
mens. were received for 
identification. Each of 
these lots is a distinct 
variety, but this does 
not mean that there 
were 4,000 different va¬ 
rieties. because many of 
the varieties were re¬ 
ceived t w o or more 
times. There were, 
however, more than 300 
varieties of peaches for 
identification and veri¬ 
fication. Besides all of 
t h i s material we re¬ 
ceived hundreds of 
specimens for examina¬ 
tion. testing, etc., a 
g o o d many of these 
being seedlings. 
VARIETIES OF AP¬ 
PLES RECEIVED 
OFTENE8T.—It is in¬ 
teresting to know that 
during the last four 
months of 1913 there 
were 280 different va¬ 
rieties of apples received. Among these were some 
of the very old kinds like Water, Michael Henry 
Pippin. Cornish Gillifiower. Herefordshire and others 
whose names are seldom heard now. Strange as it 
may seem, the most common varieties are appar¬ 
ently least well known; at any rate, they are 
received here oftener than the others, but this is 
because they are more widely planted. The varie¬ 
ties received oftenest and number of times received 
during September. October. November and Deeein- 
given the names of the varieties recognized. We 
are unable to name all varieties sent in. but a 
large portion of these we believe to be seedlings. 
WHO SENDS THE * FRUIT AND WHY.—The 
general spread of agricultural education throughout 
the land, the great activity in land sales, the recog¬ 
nition of a vast fruit-growing industry, the recent 
apple craze, and the desire for a more intimate 
knowledge of what the farm is growing, seem to 
con- 
amount of 
paintings, 
y descriptions, 
reference books 
is 
IN BLOSSOM TIME. 
have caused both the old owners and the new own¬ 
ers to wish for true variety names, especially where 
neglected orchards are being reclaimed. The bulk 
of fruit for identification undoubtedly comes from 
these once neglected orchards. When the old or¬ 
chards were planted, nearly every variety avail¬ 
able was included, and as time passed the names 
became forgotten or lost. The correct naming of 
varieties now goes hand-in-hand with the rejuvenat¬ 
ing of old orchards, and with middle-aged and 
