The Holbrook news., 1909-06-25
MENACE TO THE APPLE TREE.

MENACE TO THE APPLE TREE. Speculation as to What Might Hap
 pen if All Apples Were COreless.
 We have already viewed Colorado's new coreless apples from several posi- tions, one of which also brought King Edward into the field of vision, engaged in the kindly task of expressing the emotions experienced by him "after taking" but the subject is a large one, as well as interesting, says the New York Times, and it may be worth while t. take another look at 1t. The ques- ton, is the coreless apple better than the apple with a core? was answered with a vehement affirmative by the king, and as he, in the course of his long and active life, has tasted most varieties of most fruits, including, if there is anything in rumor, some de scribed by the specialists as "prohib- ita," his verdict is weighty one, if not absolutely final, and it's no wonder that the ingenious pomologist has taken pains tQ publish the royal commenda- ton of his apple fast and far.
 But while He have now as little doubt as he thnt the eoreless apple is good-to eat-second Thoughts on the subject have raised in our minds a few doubts if in the long run it will prove advantageous for men or for apples to turn the latter so far away from the way in which nature intended them to go.
 Coreless means seedless, and seedless means doomed to an extinction that may be remote, but it is as sure as sure can be. Were all apple trees ren- dered seedless, the duration of the spe- cies would be limited to the time dur ing which, without the invaluable aid of crossing" the trees then alive could continue to send up from their roots a constantly deteriorating series of new shoots. Into that sad condition some cruel accident of environment has al- ready thrown the banana, and if to- day something's frost, an insect or the like-should kill all the banana plants there never would be any more of them, in this world at least.
 Persistent propagation of the potato from It's tubers alone has had upon that precious fegetable an effect that already is alarming many of its most thoughtful friends, and they foresee the necessity, in a not very distant future, of going back to the miserable little nubbins that grow wild in Mexico and developing them over again into the treasure houses of starch that do so much toward feeding the world-a long and costly task. We are not really frightened by the Colorado mans apple or by the kings approval of it, but the situation is not quite as simple as it seems, and it will be well to keep in mind the fact that "cores' have uses as well as inconveniences.
 French Gardeners Sell Extra soil.
 Suppose that a gardener has a plot of ''raw" ground to be put under culti- vation. How does he go about it7 Ernest Poole, writing in Success Magazine" describes the process as follows: First, the entire surface is covered with stable manure, mixed old and new, in such huge quantities that even when pressed down it makes a bed nearly a foot in depth. On top of this he spreads a second layer, about six inches deep, of the richest soil, which is also mixed with manure So the ground has now an artificial sur face of from fifteen to eighteen inches deep. It is all one hotbed.
 And not only warm. The loam thus made becomes in time too rich AL most every year the maraicher takes off the top layer. replacing it with new earth and manure, and the old rich loam is either used in making new beds in his own garden or else is sold at high price. I read in one report of three-acre plot where more than two hundred and fifty cubic yards of old loam was sold each year.
 With such treatment, the primitive condition of old Mother Earth is prac- tically of no account. In the gardens which 1 visited, threading my way along nine-inch paths, the garden rose almost to my knees on either side quite artificial beds of earth. With very slight pressure I could force my cane down a foot or more, and then it struck as though against a rock.
 His Day of Reckoning.