THE BEST EARLY APPLE FOR YOU 
E. L. D. SEYMOUR 
Seventeen Reliables for the Home Garden Selected for Their 
Delectability and Other Good Qualities—Apples from July 
Till Autumn, Sweet or Sour, Red or Yellow as You Will 
Editors’ Note: Even the littlest garden has room for an Apple tree, and why restrict our so-called “ornamental” plantings to such things as the 
Japanese Maple, exotic and often out of place, or the native Dogwoods, lovely as they are? The Apple, so long relegated to the lowlier companionship of 
orchards, has a trio of graces—a beauty of blossom and fruit, a comforting air of domesticity, a shapeliness that should endear it to every home-builder. And 
though you may have to depend upon markets for your winter supply of fruit, there is no reason in the world why you should be deprived of a delectable 
harvest of your own through midsummer months and the early fall. So look about you now, visit your neighbor’s garden and the near-by orchards, sample 
and select the fruits that please you best and order trees well in advance of this autumn’s planting time. 
E ARLY apples are doubly welcome because of the in¬ 
trinsic excellence of many summer varieties and also 
because they begin the season’s apple feast. More¬ 
over the summer apple is largely a home garden pro¬ 
position because of its lack of shipping qualities. 
The lovers of really sweet apples seem fewer to-day than 
formerly, but for those who remain there are two choice early 
sweetings. Bough or Sweet Bough, ripening ordinarily late 
in July, has had attributed to it “all the good qualities which 
should recommend a fruit for general cultivation.” Somewhat 
above medium size, of a clear, transparent yellow, tender and 
surpassingly sweet, it is a fitting reward for the impatient apple 
lover who “simply cannot wait” for October apples. The 
tree bears rather early in life, but, with care, lives to a ripe old 
age. Where unduly exposed to severe weather, it occasionally 
suffers winter injury, or succumbs to attacks of branch canker, 
but if we compare the early apple to the early spring flower, 
isn’t it logical to give it a sheltered, kindly location? Some time 
in August, Golden Sweet (the old Connecticut Orange Sweet¬ 
ing), ripens to continue the supply. It is smaller, somewhat 
more tender, but oh, so juicy, of such a melting sweetness, and 
as handsome a yellow fruit as you could wish. 
S UPPOSE, though, that your inmost soul craves a good sour 
apple? Not the sort that puckers your mouth, but a genial, 
brisk acidity. Well, for you there are three to choose from— Red 
Astrachan and Tetofsky of Russian extraction, and Summer 
Pearmain, of earliest American fruit growing memories. The 
first is really a rich yellow but so generously splashed with crimson 
as to appear almost wholly red. It ripens from late July till 
September, being at first splendid for cooking, then, later in the 
season, excellent for dessert use. It is, however, very perishable 
both in storage and shipment. Tetofsky is smaller, with fewer 
red markings, of about the same season, a heavier cropper and 
remarkably hardy. Never really give up the hope of growing 
apples until Tetofsky succumbs to the rigors of your climate. 
This variety is often compared with Yellow Transparent, than 
which it is hardier and a little 
earlier, but by which it is 
somewhat excelled in size and 
quality. Summer Pearmain, 
described by American horti¬ 
culturists as early as 1817, is 
one of the varieties that have 
encountered the nurseryman’s 
prejudice, for it is a slow 
grower in the nursery and not 
a profitable commercial apple. 
But it is of the best quality, 
with a rich, mild subacid 
flavor suited to both table and 
culinary uses, and well adapted 
for amateur cultivation. More¬ 
over its season continues for 
about two months, obviating 
the necessity of picking and storing the whole treeful of fruit at 
one time. 
O F THE medium flavored or “subacid” early varieties I can 
recommend an even dozen of which 1 do not find a single 
unfavorable criticism unless it be that they are “slightly small 
and not sufficiently good keepers for commercial growth.” 
But for home cultivation this objection becomes negligible. 
Benoni, an attractive, small, red apple is a favorite of the 
middle and northern fruit sections, where it ripens through 
August and September. An excellent dessert apple, it yields 
fair to good crops biennially with much regularity. Jefferis 
combines with a juicy aromatic fruit that is eatable in Septem¬ 
ber and keeps until January, a rather vigorous and disease re¬ 
sistant tree, of uneven ripening qualities. Another hardy 
vigorous tree gives us, in the Livland Raspberry, a handsome 
tender-fleshed fruit, which has been called better than Yellow 
Transparent (later mentioned) for eating, though not for cook¬ 
ing nor in its earliness. 
No matter how simple our wants nor how easily satisfied, the 
best of us have preferences. So with these apples, which, though 
they thrive in nearly all localities, occasionally exhibit desires 
for special conditions. For instance, Chenango, or Chenango 
Strawberry, a sturdy, vigorous tree, bearing a clear yellow 
and red mild flavored fruit, gives the greatest returns when 
grown on a rather heavy sandy loam, and when pruned to an 
open top. This medium early apple is on the whole of very 
good quality and deservedly popular. Early Harvest does not 
belie its name, being one of the first, if not the first, ripener of the 
season. Its uneven size and ripening and poor handling qualities 
are more than balanced by the excellent flavor, the early season, 
the strong growth, the early bearing and almost annual cropping. 
Give Early Joe a warm, gravelly soil and annual spraying to 
defeat its tendency to scab, and it will reward you while still a 
young tree with a very satisfying, small, dull red and russet 
apple, of tender, crisp, juicy flesh and fine flavor. This tree 
makes comparatively little growth, and is especially adapted to 
the restricted conditions of a 
backyard garden. 
A hardy, productive variety 
and an almost annual cropper 
is Early Strawberry. The 
small deep red apple supplies 
in August a fruit of delicious 
quality, not good for selling or 
handling, perhaps, but simply 
great for eating—whether in 
pie, pudding, or right off the 
tree. Garden Royal deserves 
more recognition than it has 
obtained. The tree is hardy, 
and a very reliable bearer from 
an early age. The deep yellow 
crimson striped fruit ripening 
about August, is tender, aro- 
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Good Early Apples for the Home Garden 
Sweet Bough, late July, yellow, sweet 
a Golden Sweet, August, yellow, sweet 
Red Astrachan, late July to Septem¬ 
ber, yellow heavilv splashed crimson, 
1 tart 
Tetofsky, late July to September, 
s greenish yellow with lighter red 
a markings, tart 
Summer Pearmain, late July to 
1 late September, yellow striped red, 
mildly tart 
□ Benoni, August and early September, 
yellow striped red, medium flavored 
Jefferis, September, pale yellow mot¬ 
tled with red, medium flavored 
Livland Raspberry, August, waxen 
white striped light crimson, almost 
JJ sweet 
Chenango Strawberry, late August 
: through September, clear yellow and 
red, medium flavored 
Early Harvest, late July and August, 
yellow, medium flavored 
Early Joe, August to September, 
pale yellow striped dark red, medium 
flavored 
Early Strawberry, August, red, me¬ 
dium flavored and especially de¬ 
licious 
Garden Royal, August and Septem¬ 
ber, yellow-crimson, pleasantly acid 
Porter, September to November, 1 
yellow, medium flavored 
Primate, August and September, light 
green or yellow, medium flavored 
Summer Rose, July and August, J 
very pale yellow splashed red, medium p 
flavored 
Yellow Transparent, late July and 
August, clear yellow, mildly tart 
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