Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-10-12
Pathological Irregularities.

People have become meaSuraDly hardened 10
Irregularities in almost every department OF life,-
animal, vegetable or human. That large and
respectable family in the genealogical race, the
apple, has been known to be a little sour and
Grabbed in of its members but 1t h rs hitherto
maintained an untarnished name. Dr.. ii. A.
Cutting Of Lunenburgh, curator OF the state
cabinet, has enquiring mind, as the state
of Vermont and the rest OF mankind knows. He
is close observer of anything that is in heaven
above, that is in the earth beneath, or that is
in the waters under the earth" II the denzens of
these kingdoms are guilty of any irregularities
the doctor Is SO sure detective they are invari
ably found out and held up to the public gaze.
Some ten fifteen years ago he detected
sweet and some sour apples dwelling together
upon the same tree under circumstances calculated
to create scandal in all appleton. Not only werea
part Of the apples all sweet and part all sour,
but part also were half sweet and half sour the
dividing line between the sweet and the sour halves
being clearly marked to the sight and to the taste
The doctor fully exposed the irregularity in the
life of this member of the apple family at the
time in the columns of the WATERMAN, and got
soundly abused for his trouble by press and peo-
pie, the pomologists in particular pommeling him
without mercy for alleged libel of the apple tribe,
even the venerable Smithsonian Institution i'm
peaching not only his character as man OF
truth and veracty, but his intelligence also.
rhe doctor bore all this trbulation like martyr,
and having neglected to fortify his discovery
with legal proof patiently awaited the coming
again of seed time and harvest to bring shame
and confusion upon his skeptical assailants Unfor
tunately, the tree being young, fact which per-
haps might explain and paate its early indiscre-
tions did not survive the frosts of a winter,
and 80 the doctor was left without the anticipated
| evidence with which he would have silenced the
SCOTS and jeers of the unbeevers, and 50 the
reputation of the apple family for orderly lives
| has ever since remained unimpeached
But during all these years the doctor has had
his eye on them, convinced that what had hap
pened in the orchard in Lunenburg had happened
| before in some place, and would somewhere hap
pen again. Last week the Doctors patient vigils
| were richly rewarded. On an apple tree in the
orchard of Seth Griffith, South Hero, he learned
that there was incontestible confirmation of his
dscredited arragnment of the apple race for gros
Irregularities Visiting the tree he found it laden
with apples a part OF which were very sour, a
part very sweet and third part were half sweet
and half sour Specimens of this hybrid fruit
were shown at the WATcHMAN office last Thurs
day and examined and tested by many witnesses.
The specimens exhibited were picked from a
cluster at the end of limb. The sour apple was
similar In shape, size and color Greening, but
, | very tart; the sweet was smaller, of a golden
| color and very sweet. The specimen in which
these two qualities were united was curiosity
The fine line of demarkation between the swee
and the sour was clearly Defined the sweet and
; the sour sections were of the color and quality Of
the all-sweet and the all-sour specimens and thu
difference was AS marked on each side close Il
the dividing line as in the remotest portions
Furthermore, as the al-sour was larger than thu
all-sweet, this distinction was also maintained il
9 the mongrel the sour section being reativel,
e larger than the sweet section. These apples wer
representatives of the entire product of the tree
n which was about equally divided between thes
three varieties In this feature, however, til
, product Of the tree has not been uniform,-
some years there will be more sweet than sour, o
g rice versa, and in the mixed specimens there wi
o be sweet or sour section larger or smaller tina
a quarter shot into the body Of the apple. ID
Cutting has bought the fruit of this tree, and In
! trenched behind conclusive verihcation OF hi
B. original statement and theory of these anomaou
s proceedings in the apple family, he will convinc
q all skeptics of the facts by producing irrefragabl
y proof The tree is graft, the parent tree bearin
fruit Of similar characteristics These facts seel
y, to Dr. Cutting to refute some OF the pet theorit
II of pomologists as to the unchanged character {
1T reproduction in the fruit kingdom,-a matte
,e which we leave them to fight out. The fac
he above detailed are indisputable.