VOL. LXXXIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
333 W. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 12, 1924 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. .Tune 26. 1879. at the Post NO. 4790 
Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3. 1879. 
The Curious “Sweet and Sour” Apple 
A short time ago I heard of a curious kind of apple 
on the farm formerly owned by a resident of this town. 
I asked him about it and he gave me a description and 
history so far as he was able to. The tree bears apples 
some "of which appear to be Greenings in flavor and 
color, while others have the flavor and color of Pound 
Sweets, and still others are both Greening and Pound 
Sweet. The last named are yellow or green by streaks 
and each streak retains the flavor of the Greening or 
of the Pound Sweet with a distinct division line. The 
tree is said to be from a graft which came from Cato, 
ent tastes—sour and sweet. The part which is sour 
is not very tart, nor the other very sweet. Two ap¬ 
ples, growing side by side on the same limb, will be 
often of these different tastes; the one all sour, and 
the other all sweet. And, which is more remarkable, 
the same apple will frequently be sour one side, 
end, or part, and the other sweet, and that not in 
any order or uniformity; nor is there any difference 
the curiosity by supposing that some chemical sub 
stance develops in some cells of the tree that does 
not develop in others, and that this material is re¬ 
sponsible for the manufacture of sugar, so that if ii 
is not present in certain cells then there is little 
sugar formed there. Sunlight or temperature mighl 
be responsible for the variation in the appearance of 
this chemical substance. But this is hardly good 
Ayrshire Cow Burtha T. 
Owned by C. H. Bartlett, of Steuben Co., N. Y. Born March 12, 1920; yearly record, 12,144 lbs. milk; 506.41 lbs. butterfat. 
X. Y. Can you give any information as to how such 
hybrids are produced? R - c - J - 
Jefferson, N. Y. 
N OLD-TIME ODDITY. — There has always 
been a great deal of discussion over the 
origin of this peculiar variety of apple, commonly 
called “Sw'eet and Sour,’’ “Bower’s Apple,” or 
“Compound.” It was first recorded in American 
horticultural literature in 1817 iu William Coxe’s 
work on fruit trees. From a description made 
at that time and reproduced by James Thach- 
er in 1822 we may gather that the variety 
under discussion is the same. “There is now 
growing in an orchard lately belonging to my hon¬ 
ored father, the Reverend Aaron Whitney, of Peter¬ 
sham, deceased, an apple tree very singular with re¬ 
spect to its fruit. The apples are fair, and when 
fully ripe, of a yellow color, but evidently of differ- 
in the appearance of one part from the other. And 
as to the quantity, some have more of the acid and 
less of the sweet, and so vice versa. Neither are 
the apples, so different in their tastes, peculiar to 
any particular branches, 'but are found promiscu¬ 
ously, on every branch of the tree. The tree stands 
almost in the midst of a large orchard, in a rich 
and strong soil, and was transplanted there 40 years 
ago. The only solution that I can conceive is, that 
the corcula, or hearts of two seeds, the one from a 
sour, the other from a sweet apple, might so incor¬ 
porate in the ground as to produce but one plant: 
or that farina from blossoms of those opposite qual¬ 
ities, might pass into and impregnate the same 
seed.” 
IMAGINING THE CAUSE.—One might let his 
imagination run away with itself and try to explain 
“imagining” and certainly without an ounce of evi¬ 
dence in support of it. 
EFFECTS OF GRAFTING.—On the other hand 
there have been some very interesting experiences 
in grafting that may explain the occurrence of this 
apple. If a tomato plant is grafted onto the night¬ 
shade and a wound made at the point of union, it is 
possible to get a union of the tomato and the night¬ 
shade in such a way that one-half of the plant will 
be tomato and the opposite half nightshade—the two 
plants growing together perpendicularly. Moreover, 
it is also possible to have the nightshade growing 
within the tomato; that is, the nightshade plant is 
covered with several layers of cells from the tomato. 
Or the reverse may be accomplished so that the to¬ 
mato is covered with several layers of cells from 
the nightshade. If. then, a bud from the center of 
