Chapter IV: Part 4

(4) _Conditions_: Refers to the degree of ripeness. An apple
to be in perfect condition should be firm for the variety
and free from the withering that comes when apples are
picked too green or when the fruit is over-ripe or has not
been stored properly.

(5) _Freedom from blemish_: All specimens should be free
from blemishes of all kinds. One should look particularly
for (_a_) marks of fungous or other disease, including
stippin, (_b_) injury from insects of all kinds, (_c_)
mechanical injury, including loss of stem. Unmistakable
evidence of codlin-moth injury or San Jose scale should
disqualify a plate. Other blemishes are considered important
in about the order named: Side worms, scab, stippin,
curculio or red-bug, skin punctures, bruises, stem pulled,
russet (not typical for variety) and limb rub. The extent of
scab spots should be considered. Minute spots are not as
serious as some other blemishes, while spots which deform
the apple should disqualify the plate.

_Other information_: Five specimens constitute a plate,
except when the rules of the contest or exhibit state
otherwise. Any variation from this rule disqualifies the
plate.

When a plate is not labelled with the correct variety name,
it should not be judged, but is disqualified and if possible
the correct name is applied. If one specimen on a plate is
not as labelled, the whole plate is disqualified.

In some judging contests, the plates are not labelled with
the variety name, and the contestant is supposed to make the
identification.

_Precaution_: Avoid pressing the specimens with the thumb
and finger so as to bruise the fruit. The degree of firmness
can be determined by gentle pressure with the inside of the
whole hand.

Defects, apparent or otherwise, should not be probed with
the finger nail, pin, or other hard object.

Special care should be exercised to replace all specimens on
the right plate.

Having in mind these definite criteria, the reader will know what is meant by a "good apple" and also a good apple-tree. Measurements of perfection aid us to estimate the deficiencies.

* * * * *

He who knows the apple-tree knows also its region. The landscape is his in every blessed year; he sees the chariots of the months come down from the distances and pass by him into the twilights. Clouds are his and the repeating shadows on the hills. The morning when the blossoms are laden with the fragrance of the night, high noon when the bees are busy, the gloaming when the birds drop into the boughs, these are his by divine right. The smell of new-plowed fields is his, with the urgent promise in them. Seed time and harvest, as old as the procreant earth and as new as the latest sunrise, are his to conjure. The verities are his for the asking, the strong things of cultivated fields and of wild places. And mastery is his, that comes of the amelioration of the land and the education of the tree. All these are everyman's, and yet they are his alone.

INDEX

PAGE

Acid phosphate 45

Age of apple-trees 98

Alternate bearing 42

American Pomological Society 66

Apple-scab 95

Appleseed, Johnny 61

Arsenate of lead 95

Australia, Apples in 97

Bacteria 12

Bark of apple-tree 11
of cherry 11
of elm 11
of pear-tree 11

Bearing year 42

Black Gilliflower 73

Bloomless apple 75

Bolting trees 88

Bridge-grafting 88

Brush pile 27

Budding 50, 51

Buds 15, 19, 27

Calyx-tube 26

Canada, apples in 98

Canker 12

Cherimoya 8

Cherry, bark of 11

Christophine 8

Cider, treatise on 62

Cion-grafting 50, 79

Citrus fruits 8

Cleft-grafting 82

Coconut 8

Codlin-moth 12, 89

Custard apple 8

Diseases 46

Distance apart 43

Double apples 74

Doucin stocks 57

Downing, quoted 54, 67

Dwarf apple-trees 54

Elm, bark of 11

Endicott, Gov. 61

Enriching the land 45

Exhibitions 108

Fertilizing 40, 44, 45

Fig 8

Flower, structure of 20

Folger and Thomson, quoted 98

Fructicetum 78

Fruit-spurs and bearing 42

Fungi 12

Girdles 87

Graftage 49, 79

Grafts 81

Guava 8

Harvesting 102

Hillsides for orchards 44

Hogs in orchards 45

Hypanthium 26

Insects 46, 89

Judging apples 108

Knots 11, 85, 87

Land for apples 42

Langley, Batty 82

Lawson, William 82

Leaf-arrangement 29

Lichens 11

Lime-sulphur 95

Linnaeus 62

Lintner, J. A. 89

Malus 62

Mamone 8

Mango 8

Manning, mentioned 67

M'Mahon, quoted 66

Medlar 75

Mending trees 85

Moench, cited 75

Mound-layering 55

Muenchhausen, cited 75

Natural trees 51

New Zealand, apples in 97

Nitrate of soda 45

Origin of apple-tree 60

Ornamental apples 64

Ovary 20

Paint for wounds 86

Papaya 8

Paradise stocks 57

Parkinson, John 58

Pasturing 45

Pear, bark of 11

Phosphate, acid 45

Phyllotaxy 29

Picking apples 102

Piece-roots 50

Pistil 20, 26

Plant-breeder 51

Planting 42, 43

Plant-lice 12

Pollen-tube 20

Pollination 40

Pomegranate 8

Propagation of apple-tree 48, 54

Pruning 36, 40, 86, 104

Pyrus baccata 63
coronaria 63
diocia 75
Ioensis 63
Malus 62, 63
Soulardii 64

Receptacle of flower 26

Regions for apples 97, 99

Repairing trees 85

Root-grafting 50

Roots 43

Scale insects 12

Scale of points 108

Score-card 108

Seedless apple 74

Seedling trees 48, 51

Seeds, planting 48

Sharrock, Robert 81

Sheep in orchards 45

Sheepnose 73

Sod in orchards 44

Soil for apples 42

Spraying 40, 91, 95, 104

Star-apple 8

Stigma 20

Stocks 49

Storing 105

Struggle for existence 47

Style 20

Surgery 86

Surprise 73

Sweet-and-Sour 73

Thinning 38, 39

Thomson and Folger 98

Tilling 40, 44, 47, 104

Tree surgery 86

Varieties 66
list of 70

Water-core 74

Whip-graft 50

Wilder, mentioned 67

Wormy apples 89, 102

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes

Some illustrations have been moved from their original positions to avoid breaking up the text, and to put them in numerical order.

Variations in spelling and punctuation have been retained from the original book except for the following changes:

Page 51: Both instances of "varities" changed to "varieties".

Page 74: "occuring" changed to "occurring".

Page 75: "dioecious pyrus" was originally typeset with an oe ligature.

Page 91: "foilage" changed to "foliage".

Page 93: "analagous" changed to "analogous".

Page 94: "or" changed to "nor". "investigatior" changed to "investigator".

Page 100: "gravly" changed to "gravelly".

Page 113 (Index): "Appleseed, Johny" changed to "Appleseed, Johnny". "Bark of Cheery" changed to "Bark of Cherry".

Page 115 (Index): "Linnaeus" changed to "Linnaeus" to match text.