*ht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1 36 1 
The  Public  Will  Study  Apple  Varieties 
A  YOKED  VARIETIES.— The  public  is  be¬ 
coming  more  and  more  discriminating  in 
its  selection  and  use  of  varieties  of  apples. 
The  time  was  when  an  apple  was  an  apple, 
just  as  to  some  folks  all  cuts  of  meat  are 
nothing  but  meat.  There  was  a  time  when 
the  Ben  Davis  could  be  foisted  upon  a  host  of  un¬ 
suspecting  folks.  Today  the  trade  pays  a  premium 
for  Esopus,  Tompkins  King,  Grimes  Golden,  North¬ 
ern  Spy,  Delicious,  McIntosh.  Ortley.  Winesap,  Jon¬ 
athan  and  Stayman.  Boston  is  fond  of  the  Porter 
apple.  In  the  Carolinas,  Buckingham  is  preferred 
for  drying.  New  York  City  dislikes  a  yellow  apple, 
while  Chicago  is  fond  of  Grimes  Golden  and  Yellow 
Bellflower.  At  Christmas  time  there  is  a  cry  for 
the  tiny  Lady  apple ;  for  a  few  weeks  after  Labor 
Day  there  is  a  strong  demand  for  crabapples,  so  that 
the  grower  who  has  planted  Martha  holds  the  fruit 
in  storage  a  few  weeks  for  the  stronger  market  that 
is  but  a  few  days  away.  Northwestern  Greening 
often  brings  a  better  price  early  in  the  Fall  than 
does  Rhode  Island  Greening,  though  the  former  is 
a  much  lower  quality  fruit.  Yet  for  the  Rhode 
Island  Greening  there  is  always  a  steady,  uniform 
demand  on  the  part  of  those  who  know  its  virtues, 
so  that  later  in  the  season  the  price  is  usually  high. 
LOCAL  AND  FOREIGN  DEMAND.— New  York  is 
fond  of  the  Delicious,  Jonathan  and  Winesap.  not  so 
much  because  these  varieties  are  better  than  those 
grown  in  greater  bulk  nearby,  but  be¬ 
cause  they  are  largely  products  of  the 
Pacific  Northwest,  with  its  guaranteed 
and  pleasing  box  pack.  For  the  bar¬ 
reled  export  trade  the  Baldwin,  Yellow 
Newtown.  York  Imperial.  Ben  Davis 
and  Northern  Spy  are  preferred,  while 
the  box  trade  selects  White  Pearmain, 
Esopus,  Ortley,  Jonathan.  Yellow  New¬ 
town  and  Winesap.  England  likes  the 
small  apple  because  there  are  then 
more  apples  in  a  barrel,  and  each  in¬ 
dividual  fruit  can  consequently  be  sold 
at  a  lower  price.  Perhaps  in  this  fact 
lies  a  lesson  for  this  country,  for  too 
often  is  heard  the  chuckle  of  the  man 
who  gets  10  cents  apiece  for  his  big  red 
Wolf  River,  when  his  Gravenstein  went 
begging  at  two  for  5  cents. 
STEADY  DEMAND.— The  fruit  in¬ 
dustry  will  be  best  off  not  when  peak 
prices  prevail,  or  when  poor  varieties 
are  palmed  off  upon  an  innocent  con¬ 
sumer.  but  when  a  quantity  of  good  va¬ 
rieties  are  consumed  in  season  through¬ 
out  the  year  by  a  public  that  is  able  to 
purchase  fruits  at  a  reasonable  price. 
Unfortunately,  the  tendency  in  Amer¬ 
ica  has  been  to  produce  a  large  bulk  of 
apples  cheaply,  regardless  of  quality. 
The  result  has  been  that  a  few  heavy 
yielding  and  usually  low  quality  vari¬ 
eties  control  the  market.  Strange  as  it 
may  seem,  high  quality  and  high  cost  of 
production  are  usually  synonymous,  so 
that  the  high  quality  apples  have  been 
driven  from  the  market.  There  are 
dozens  of  varieties  of  grapes  finer  than 
the  Concord ;  Elberta  is  not  a  high 
quality  peach ;  Bartlett  is  not  the  best 
among  pears;  and  yet  each  controls  the 
'market  in  its  class  by  virtue  of  its  low 
cost  of  production  and  other  growing 
and  marketing  advantages.  Yet  now 
that  the  public  is  learning  that  fruits 
'  like  the  McIntosh  do  exist,  there  is 
noticeable  clamor  for  McIntosh,  while 
Ben  Davis  goes  begging.  And  this  in 
turn  points  ‘to  another  serious  error, 
in  that  McIntosh  has  been  sold  in 
March  at  upwards  of  $20  a  barrel  to 
consumers  who  thought  that  a  Mc¬ 
Intosh  was  just  as  good  then  as  it  was 
in  December.  Very  likely  the  unsus¬ 
pecting  purchasers  did  not  repeat  their 
order  another  year,  and  no  doubt  an¬ 
other  apple  consumer  became  “apple 
shy.” 
EDUCATING  THE  CONSUMER.— 
And  now  that  this  awakening  has  oc¬ 
curred,  it  is  a  job  that  belongs  to  the 
producer  and  to  .the  distributer  as  well 
to  help  educate  the  consumer  in  every 
way  they  can.  The  co-operative  associations  from 
the  Pacific  Northwest  have  already  set  up  posters 
telling  what  varieties  should  be  used  for  dessert 
purposes,  and  which  are  best  for  cooking,  which 
should  be  used  in  November  and  which  in  May.  The 
result  has  been  a  much  more  satisfied  and  greater 
consuming  public.  It  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction 
when  folks  use  Delicious,  Grimes  Golden,  McIntosh 
and  Winter  Banana  for  dessert  purposes,  and  when 
Arkansas  is  not  disturbed  until  the  month  of  March 
or  April  or  even  May  rolls  around.  There  will  al¬ 
ways  be  a  demand  for  “just  apples.”  but  the  signs  of 
the  times  point  towards  a  demand  for  particular 
varieties  of  apples  at  particular  times  of  the  year, 
and  if  the  Eastern  States  Apple  Exposition  accom¬ 
plishes  what  it  is  hoped,  then  the  consuming  public 
will  be  more  discriminating  than  ever  befox-e. 
H.  B.  TUKEY, 
Barringer ,  or  Pride  of  the  Hudson.  Fig.  G03. 
Two  Old  Apples  Worth  Remembering 
IN  Fig.  G03  is  shown  a  cut  of  an  old  apple  grown 
to  a  limited  extent  in  the  Hudson  Valley  under 
the  name  of  “Pride  of  the  Hudson,”  or  “Barringer.” 
It  originated  in  Columbia  County  and  has  not  been 
widely  distributed.  Mr.  Jacob  Barringer  of  Ger¬ 
mantown,  N.  Y.,  is  said  to  have  first  propagated  it. 
The  fruit  is  above  medium  to  large  in  size,  roundish 
conic,  somewhat  ribbed.  In  general  appearance  it 
much  resembles  a  highly  colored  Northern  Spy, 
though  it  will  not  keep  as  well,  usually  being  at  its 
best  in  early  Winter.  The  flavor  is  agreeable,  mild 
sub-acid,  and  of  good  quality.  The  tree  is  said  to 
be  a  good  grower,  thrifty  and  long-lived.  Where  the 
variety  is  well-grown,  the  highly  colored,  symmet¬ 
rical  fruits  are  beautiful. 
Another  variety  also  familiar  in  the 
Hudson  Valley,  and  which  was  origin¬ 
ated  at  Greenport,  Columbia  County, 
N.  Y.,  by  Richard  Delamater,  is  worthy 
a  place  in  the  home  orchard,  at  least. 
Locally  it  is  known  by  the  name  of 
“Derrick  and  Ann,”  though  the  recog¬ 
nized  name  is  “Richard  Graft.”  The 
fruit  is  something  the  same  style  as  the 
well-known  Gravenstein,  being  yellow, 
covered  with  stripes  and  splashes  of 
deep  red.  Its  season  is  September,  and 
the  tender  juicy,  aromatic  flesh  of  very 
good  quality  makes  it  deserving  of  a 
place  in  the  home  orchard,  at  least,  t. 
Three  Bunches  of  Grapes  on  Eight  Inches  of  Young  'l  ine.  Fig.  604 
The  Cortland  apple  here  illustrated  was  sent  us  by  Mr.  William  Ilotaling  of  Kin- 
derhook,  N.  Y.  This  is  the  exact  size  of  a  fair  sample.  The  flavor  is  not  so  high 
as  that  of  McIntosh,  but  in  other  respects  we  think  Cortland  is  equal  if  not 
superior. 
A  Quick  Production  of  Grapes 
DURING  the  latter  part  of  Septem¬ 
ber  T.  C.  Ivevitt  of  Passaic  Co., 
N.  J.,  brought  us  what  appeared  to  be 
a  small  rooted  grapevine  bearing  large 
clusters  of  Niagara  grapes.  A  picture 
of  this  vine,  with  the  root  system  and 
the  fruit,  is  shown  at  Fig.  604.  Mr. 
Ivevitt  says  that  this  vine  produced 
fruit  in  five  months  from  the  start 
and  he  explains  his  process  as  fol¬ 
lows  : 
“Take  a  leader,  last  season’s  growth, 
showing  15  buds.  We  may  grow  15 
young  well-rooted  bearing  grapevines, 
a  vine  that  will  bear  fruit  the  first  sea¬ 
son  transplanted,  and  continue  to  bear 
fruit  year  after  year.  The  method  now 
practiced  by  the  profession  is  by  cut¬ 
tings,  having  three  buds  to  each  cut¬ 
ting.  This  method  of  procedure  only 
gives  us  one  vine,  and  ive  are  not  sure 
each  cutting  will  grow.  Grown  under 
my  system  we  are  sure  to  have  each 
bud  to  make  a  well-rooted  young  bear¬ 
ing  vine,  which  gives  us  two  more 
vines  from  the  same  buds  or  cuttings. 
I  will  briefly  outline  my  method  of  op¬ 
eration  :  When  the  young  shoots  in  the 
Spring  have  grown  on  the  leader  about 
18  in.,  bury  the  leader  to  a  depth  of 
4  in.  Let  the  young  shoots  appear  all 
along  above  the  surface.  In  the  Fall 
you  will  find  each  bud  a  ivell-rooted 
bearing  vine,  as  shown  in  the  photo¬ 
graph.” 
Of  course  the  picture  of  the  vine  is 
greatly  reduced,  but  we  may  see  from 
it  how  the  roots  have  started  from 
around  the  bud  or  joint.  There  can  be 
no  question  about  the  productive  power 
of  these  little  stems.  In  a  way  this  is 
much  like  a  strawberry  runner,  since 
the  parent  plant  feeds  and  partly  pro¬ 
vides  for  the  new  vine. 
