The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-05-13
Is The SEEDLESS
APPLE A FAKE"
COMPARISON OF 1T WITH THE
NAVEL ORANGE
CoreIess, BIoomless and Wormless-
opinion Expressed That 1t May
Eventually Monopolfze the Mar
kets of the World.

A few weeks ago the ISLANDER
published news item which stated
that a nursery for the propagation
OF the Spencer seedless apple would
probably be established near Everett.
There seems to be wide divergence
OF opinion among pomologists as to
the prospective value of this variety
of apple. The american Farmer, y
published at Indianapolis, says of it:
'The so-called 'seedless apple has
already been proven commercially
valueless and little better than fake.
1t is not even novelty, as the same
old 'seedless apple was known in
Virginia forty years ago. Those who
want a poor apple merely because it
is seedless are welcome to pay So
each for the trees, but if they do
they will be bit. It is merit and
flavor and selling qualities that are
wanted in an apple and not some
thing whose only recommendation is
that 1t is freak.
This is prehaps the view of an ex-
tremist who might have condemned
just as radically the seedless orange
before it's great commercial value
was established beyond all question.
For the benefit of horticulturists and
others in this county who may be in
terested in the question the ISL
ANDER publishes the following de-
scription of the Spencer apple, writ
ten by A. Frederick Collins, which
recently appeared lin the Scientific
American.
Everyone is familiar with the
seedless or navel orange, but the
seedless apple is new fruit on the
market.
This marvellous Improvement of
the common apple, would seem to in
dicate that the new apple will event
ually monopolize the markets of the
world, for reasons which the appended
data clearly point out.
'sBy way of illustration, it may be
said that the seedless and coreless
apple follows closely the analogue
presented by the seedless orange,
and is in fact prototype of the lat
ter. When the seedless orange was
introduced to the public, it was re-
garded in the light of a horticultural
wonder, for if there were no seeds,
by what uncanny method was their
kind propagated.
"Shrouded in mystery such as
this, it required some time for the
matter-of-fact virtues to impress
themselves and the real merits OF the
| fruit to become known; but once
eaten, its subtle qualities were for
gotten, and it's advantages were
quickly appreciated, and from that
day to this the old-fashioned variety,
with its multiplicity of seeds, has suf-
fered severely, having been almost
driven from the market, and left al
but out of the race. Now let us as
certain the real difference between
the two varieties of oranges, as the
comparison will serve a useful pur-
pose when the old and the new species
Iof apples are being similarly consld
cred. The reason seedless oranges
are universally preferred to those
that contain ovules is not because
any saving is effected, but simply
that the seeds are in the way. The
| ordinary apple presents a wholly diff
ferent aspect, for the seeds are en-
closen in hard pockets that repre-
sent at least one fourth Of the apple
/ and which cannot be utilized in any
way as an article Of food, whereas il
the seedless variety these disagree
/ able features are entirely eliminated
Still what is more to the point o
economy, apples without seeds arr
also wormless, for it is well known q
growers that worms in apples obtall
their sustenance not from the meat
but from the seeds; hence it IS evi
dent that if 8 worm was hatched in
seedless apple, it could not live.
sThe beginning Of the seedless ap
nle dates back only few years, ant
therefore its history IS necessarily
fbrief. All the credit for the propa
lpation Of the apple thus far belong