THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
2 35 
There are a few inventive men engaged in 
the nursery business who are giving their 
INVENTIONS. attention to producing machines that will 
lighten the nurseryman’s labors and will 
assure him more success in the conduct 
of his business. Many will remember the stir made by the 
Reed Tree Stripper last year and the Reed-Bell Graft Wrap¬ 
ping Machine this year. It is claimed, and is undoubtedly 
true, that a firm, unyielding wrapping of a graft for the en¬ 
tire length of the splice will greatly reduce, if not do away 
with entirely, the hard “crown gall” or callous knot. Mr. 
Reed deserves great praise for his efforts to rid nurserymen 
of one of the most bothersome of their “growing troubles.” 
ADDRESSES We regret that our limited space pre- 
DELIVERED vents the publication of all the addresses 
AT THE made at the recent Convention. It is 
CONVENTION. our purpose, however, in the next few 
issues to publish as many of these as 
possible in each issue. Those members of the National 
Association who had the honor of preparing speeches will 
confer a great favor upon us by sending us a copy of the 
speech as made,—if they have not already done so. 
FRUIT AND PLANT NOTES. 
MAGNATE APPLE. 
(Synonyms: Magnet of .some; Stayman's Superior; Stayman’s No . 
i of some; Stayman’s No. 2 of some.) 
This promising early winter variety is a seedling of Wine- 
sap which originated with the late Dr. J. Stayman, at Leaven¬ 
worth, Kans., in 1866. After the original tree came into 
bearing it appears to have been considerably disseminated 
by the originator, in the form of scions for testing, from 
about 1884 until his death in 1903. While a number of 
descriptions and outlines of the variety made by Doctor 
Stayman are preserved in the extensive collection of such 
material bequeathed by him to the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, it is apparently impossible at this time to determine 
under what designation the variety was first disseminated. 
It appears to have reached Mr. J. W. Kerr, Denton, Md., 
in the winter of 1884-85 under the designation “Stayman’s 
No. 1” with others of Doctor Stayman’s seedlings in the 
form of scions from J. Silvanus Gordon, of Sergeantsville, 
N. J. Mr. Gordon had received the scions from Doctor 
Stayman a short time before. About 1887 it reached the 
nursery, of the Michigan Agricultural College, apparently 
direct from Doctor Stayman, under the same designation. 
In 1890, Mr. Benjamin Buckman, of Farmingdale, Ill., 
received scions of it from the Michigan Agricultural College 
orchard labeled “Stayman’s No. 1,” and in 1893 under the 
designation “Stayman’s Superior” he received scions direct 
from Doctor Stayman. Having fruited both and finding 
them identical, in 1901 he sent specimens of the fruit to 
Doctor Stayman for authentication of name, and received 
from him a strong expression of his conviction that the 
apple sent was in fact his “Stayman’s No. 2.” The original 
tree is reported by Mr. George H. Black, its present owner 
to be living still, though it was almost destroyed by a 
severe windstorm in September, 1905. Messrs. Stayman 
and Black propagated a considerable number of trees of it 
for their own planting in the winter of 1897-98 at Leaven¬ 
worth, Kans., where some seventy trees about 6 years old 
are now in bearing. 
The earliest publication of the variety appears to have 
been by Prof. L. H. Bailey in 1887, when, as “Stayman’s 
No. 1,” it was included with several others of Doctor 
Stayman’s seedlings' in a list of varieties growing at the 
Michigan Agricultural College. In 1896 Mr. Benjamin 
Buckman published the names “Stayman’s Superior” and 
“No. 1 Stayman’s ”in his “List of Fruit Varieties,” their 
identity not having been discovered at that time. The 
first commercial introduction of the variety appears to have 
been by Mr. J. W. Kerr, who catalogued it for the fall of 
1898 and spring of 1899 as “Stayman’s No. 1.” 
It is evident from Doctor Stayman’s notes and correspond¬ 
ence that at different times he had different names for the 
variety under consideration such as “Red Sap,” “Stayman’s 
Superior,” “Magnet,” and “Magnate,” and it appears 
strongly probable that scions were distributed by him for 
testing under all these names, as well as under the designa¬ 
tions “No. 1” and “No. 2.” His final choice appears to 
have been “Magnet,” but conflict of this with a previously 
published variety of Wisconsin origin causes the present 
adoption of his previously unpublished name “Magnate,” 
under which it was planted in nursery and orchard by 
Messrs. Stayman and Black. The Magnet apple listed in 
Bulletin 56 of the Bureau of Plant Industry is the Wisconsin 
variety, and the publication of “Stayman Superior” as 
synonymous with it in the revised edition of that bulletin 
appears to have been due to a misapprehension as to its 
identity. 
Description. Form round to roundish conical; size 
medium to large; surface smooth, but gently undulating 
and glossy; color rich yellow, washed with crimson over 
almost the entire surface and indistinctly striped with 
dark purple and covered with whitish bloom; dots variable 
in size, numerous, yellow or red; cavity regular, large, 
deep furrowed and but faintly russeted; stem slender, 
curved, short, rarely extending beyond the cavity; basin 
regular, of medium size and depth, and gradual slope, 
furrowed, and showing traces of bloom; eye medium, 
closed; calyx segments of medium size, converging, tube 
rather long and narrow; skin moderately thick, tenacious; 
flesh yellowish, stained with red, fine-grained, half tender, 
juicy; core small, conical, closed, clasping; seeds of medium 
size, plump, brown, numerous; flavor rich subacid; quality 
very good. Season, September to December in eastern 
Kansas, about the same as Jonathan. 
The tree is reported to be an upright open grower, loaded 
with wiry shoots, and requiring little pruning. The variety 
appears to be especially promising for the middle and 
northern portions of the region where its parent, the Wine- 
sap, succeeds. 
“I like your paper very much and think it one of the best 
of its kind.” W. E. Fryer, 
Minnesota. 
