Gertrude Stone: Trees in Prose and Poetry. Ginn & Co. 45 cents.
COMPARATIVE LESSON ON VARIETIES OF WINTER APPLES
KING, BALDWIN, NORTHERN SPY
Discuss the names, keeping and cooking qualities of the apples, and bearing qualities of the trees.
Provide each member of the class with a typical representative of each of the above varieties of apples.
Compare the three apples as to size, form, colour—including marks; hardness, length, and thickness of stem; depth of cavity at the stem end; depth and shape of the cavity at the calyx end.
Split each apple from stem to calyx and compare as to the thickness and toughness of the skin, the colour of the flesh, the size of the core, taste and juiciness of the flesh.
To the teacher.—All three are apples of fair size, the Baldwin being on the average the smallest of the three. All three are roundish, but the King is somewhat oval-round, and the Spy, conical-round. The Baldwin has a yellowish skin with crimson and red splashes dotted with russet spots. The King is reddish, shading to dark crimson. The Spy has a yellowish-green skin sprinkled with pink and striped with red.
The beautiful colours make all these apples very popular in the markets of American cities and in those of the British Isles; but the soft and easily damaged skin of the Spy makes it the least desirable as an apple for export.
All keep well and in cool cellars remain in good condition until April. They may be kept much longer in cold storage chambers, where the temperature is uniformly near the freezing point of the apple.