BY BYRON D. HALSTED, SC. D.
In our study of the food products of the earth, we now come to a consideration of some of our leading fruits. All of the four given above are furnished us by a single order of plants, namely: the Rose Family, or Rosaceæ.[1] This order not only contains the “Queen of Flowers,” but the “King of Fruits;” it is, in short, a royal family among plants, without which we should be deprived of much that is very beautiful, and more that is exceedingly useful. We are dependent upon the cereals for our flour, but what would flour be without some fruit to mix with it in the formation of a very long list of our most highly prized viands? Apple pies, peach dumplings, blackberry puddings and strawberry shortcakes all have their ardent admirers, and happy is the housewife who can make them to perfection.
The Apple.—Well might the apple be the fruit to tempt mankind. The schoolboy feels this when before him stands a neighbor’s tree loaded with the golden spheres of ripeness and sweetness. Well might Solomon with all his wisdom acknowledge the beauty and worth of this best of fruits when he writes: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Downing, in his classic work on “The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America” says: “Among the heathen gods of the north there were apples fabled to possess the power of conferring immortality, which were carefully watched over by the goddess Iduna,[2] and kept for the special dessert of the gods who felt themselves growing old.” Apples may not confer immortality, but they lend new charms to life, and we should guard this fruit as did the sleepless dragon the golden apples in the orchards of Hesperus.[3]
If the “tree of knowledge” is not an allegory, and it bore apples, we have the antiquity as well as ancient edibility of the apple at once established. The origin and first home of the apple, like all the fruits, flowers and vegetables in cultivation before the time of human records, is all obscurity, and speculation has free course in seeking for the early history of the apple. This fruit was extensively cultivated by the Romans, and is widely diffused through all parts of the temperate zone.
The apple tree is one of slow growth and medium size, though there are some specimens in this country of great dimensions. The head is low-spreading, and the flowers sweet and beautiful. The blossom, as well as the fruit that follows it, is famous in story and in song. The kinds of apples are very numerous, and the number is increasing every year. The genus Pyrus,[4] to which the common apple belongs, has several species, including the mountain ashes, common chokeberry, and several kinds of crab apples, and last, but far from the least, the pears. The orchard apple is thus seen to be in the midst of good company.
Apples are classified in various ways; that by J. J. Thomas, in his “American Fruit Culturist,” is as follows: Three divisions are made upon the time of ripening—as, summer, autumn, and winter apples. Under each of these are two classes, namely: sweet apples, and those with more or less acidity. Under each of these six classes are two sections, viz.: color striped with red—color unstriped. The three points in this classification are season, taste, and color of skin. For example, the apple before me is a summer fruit, sweet, with skin not striped. It belongs in the second section of class one of the first division. It is the sweet bough. Again, the apple is striped, acid, and winter; by referring to the descriptive list we find it is northern spy, king of Tompkins, or Wagener. The characteristics of the groupings above given are not properly distinct. As Thomas says: “Summer apples gradually pass into autumn, and autumn into winter apples. A few … possess nearly a neutral flavor between a dead sweetness and slight acidity. Again, apples classed with those that are striped, sometimes present a nearly uniform shade of red.” So much interwoven are the colors, periods of ripening, etc., that Downing discards all classification and arranges his descriptive list alphabetically. In describing apples and similar fruit the word base is used for the stem end of the fruit, and apex the blossom end. The primary forms of apples are: oblate, roundish, conical, and oblong. The last report of the American Pomological Society[5] catalogues three hundred and thirty-seven varieties of apples, with the standing of each in the several states and territories. From this tabulation we select the following varieties as among those that proved the best: For summer, early harvest, red astrachan, sweet bough, American summer, Carolina June, and Oldenburg; for autumn, fall pippins, Porter, maiden’s blush, Gravenstein, late strawberry, sops of wine, and primate; for winter, Baldwin, Ben Davis, Hubbardston, Rhode Island greening, northern spy, and farmer’s. These sorts are not equally good everywhere, but taken all in all they are among the leading sorts. There may be some varieties of only local reputation that do better in their native section than any here mentioned. Some apples are adapted to the warmer climate of the southern states, while others are suited to the cold regions farther north. The wealthy apple is a fine illustration of the latter; it is especially suited to New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Colorado.
Apple trees are raised from seed sown in autumn, and remain in the seed bed for two or three years, when they are removed in the spring, with their tap-root or main root cut to the nursery rows. The following autumn they are budded with the desired variety. The well ripened bud is inserted in the bark of the twig, near the ground. The growth from the bud afterward forms the tree top. The trees may be set in the orchard the third year after budding. The soil best adapted for an orchard is a strong loam containing abundant limestone or calcareous matter. The soil should be kept mellow by frequent cultivation, until the trees are of considerable size. It must be remembered that the trees are of first importance, and they should not be starved by lack of richness in the soil or by the growth of exhausting grain crops.
There are many insect enemies to the apple tree, the leading among which are the borers, American tent caterpillar, canker worm, bark-lice and codling moth. The methods of treating each one of these pests have been well worked out, but space forbids our giving them in this connection.
It is important that apples be gathered with care, especially if to be sent to market. The reputation of American apples in the English market has suffered greatly from carelessness in picking and packing. Fruit sells more by appearance than anything else, and therefore the packages should be neat and the contents uniformly good. Apples are employed in various ways beside cooking. They are the source of much cider that afterward by fermentation forms the best quality of vinegar.