Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-07-04
SUCH is THE CONCLUSION OF
HORTICULTURISTS.
VARIETYKNOWN FOR YEARS
Has No Merit in a Commercial Way
Professor Sandsten Says 1t Will
Keep Well for Nobody Will Eat 1t
Make Good BasebaII-VaIuabe
Only as a Novelty.

ion is the theme Of a recent discus
sion contained in pamphlet by the
Wisconsin stete horticultural society
The discussion has been called forth
by the fact that during the past three
years novelty bearing that name
mas been widely advertised and trees
Of the variety are being offered for
sale in this state at two dollars per
tree.
{ Upon the general question of the
actual existence Ga the variety the
Country Gentleman is quoted as fol
lows:
The wide public notice which the
so-called seedless apple is now en-
, Joying is founded on two considera
tiOns-irst. it is being Iavishly ad-
Vertised by the company organized
to exploit it, and, second, the public
generally accepts it as a genuine
novelty. 1t is hardly fair to find fault
with the promoters of the scheme
for advertising the seedless apple, at
least not so long as they keep outside
the limits of fraud but the public
always snort of memory-shouId be
warned against the notion that the
seedIess apple is something new and
wonderful
This apple, like the stoneIess plum
has been known to pomologists for
more than two centuries. The seedIess
apple was known before 1928 at lat
est, for in that year it was described
by the French pOmologist, Lelectier.
In several of the old herbaIs. the
seedless and bloomless apple is des
cribed, and in one case it is we'll ill
ustrated, early in the 18th century,
Moreover, these old authors refer 20
still earlier writer's, like Pliny and
Theophrastus, as describing the
seedIess and bloomIess apple, so that
it seems certain that it has been
known since the beginning of. the
christian era.
The variety came to light again In
1868 in Virginia but the outbreak
that has led up to the present situa-
ton was in 1890 when a Mr.. G. w.
Robinette of Flag Pond, Va, first 0e-
came a promoter of the variety in a
commercial way. 1t does not appear,
however, that he made a great sue
cess of his plan. More recently the
Spencer Seedless Apple company Of
Grand Junction, Colo. has appeared
with the announcement "the world
greatest discovery in horticulture" and
the discussion has been upon the
merits of the variety and whether or
not it is not the same as that grown
at Springville, Wisconsin by Mr.
Charles Waters, now of White Sal
mon, Wash. Upon this question Mr..
Waters says:
In the early sos l received a few
scions from Virginia called "blOom-
less, coreless, and seedless," and
grew them in my nursery at Spring
vile, Wis. The scions could not en-
dure the cold winter, none living to
bear fruit About the year 1879 I
sent few root CRAFTS to the Jewett
nursery and on coming there in 1884
found the CRAFTS in his orchard but not
yet bearing. After bearing a few
years Mr.. Jewett top-worked them to
other kinds-saying that they were
not commercial apples. Later he grub
bed them out. In 1890, when l went
to Grand Junction Colo, [ furnished
j. F. Spencer with a start of the same
seedless apples, but when | left there
in 1896 | heardnothing of his having
created a seedless. His trees in his
orchard had not fruited yet. The
question now is this: is the Spencer
Seedless the same which |, Charles
Waters, furnished J. F. Spencer IN
1890 and is it a commercial apple
, To the first question l would say that
| sent apples last year to Mr.. Taylor
hOrticulturist, Washington, D. c., the
, Rural New Yorker, Wisconsin State
Agricultural college and the WisCon
sin State Horticultural society. From
. each of these | received a letter stat
, ing there is no doubt but the Spencer
seedIess is Identical with the apples
, I sent and grown from the same
!, stock taken to Mr.. Spencer.
Secondly, is the apple 1 refer to a
commercial apple? When the Spencer
coppany's first booklet appeared on
the wonderful development Of the J
F. Spencer apple, was certain thai
the Spencer apple mentioned was no
: thing but my Virginia seedless-for
had known John Spencer since the
2 day he was born in April 1848.
first wrote a decoy letter to the
Spencer Company stating that there
was a seedless growing at White
Salmon, Wash. and that there could
be grown many thousand of these in
a few years. Then L had friend OF
mine copy this letter, sign his name
and give a nearby postoff1ce address
as the supposed address of the writer
l In short time this letter was ans
wered in this manner: Please send
some of the apples and perhaps they
will be big money to US all l did not
take the hint and join them in their
enterprise, but if I had there would
have been less talk about the way it
has now turned out"
, Mr. Waters declares that the Spen.
!. Ger stock is the same as he grew IN
I Wisconsin years ago and worthless
for commercial purposes and that
even as novelty the trees are not
worth 81. the price asked by the