Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-01-13

should become enfeebled or feel
themselves growing old.
Supposed to have originated from
the wild crab that grows everywhere /
in Europe stunted tree with very
small, inedible fruit-it has proved
the most susceptible of all fruits to
variations and improvement in every
directions and under the eve and
hand of man, as well as spontaneous
ly, in the force of chance seedlings
from highly developed stock 1t is
conceded that in no country has the
apple been brought to such perfection
as in the United States. from which
the King of England and other roy
alties and mobiles order their annual
supplies.
No other fruit, while retaining all
its specific and distinctive characters.
exhibits such endless diversities of
size, color. texture, form and flavor,
SO that at apple shows" crowds
stand in amazed admiration over its
beauty
No other fruit has its keeping quail
tiles. 1t has in its different varieties
'all seasons for its own" and it's cul-
mary uses could scarcely be enumer-
ated, while eaten raw or cooked it is
always wholesome and delicious.
In very warm or very cold climates
the apple deteriorates, tending to be-
come soft and insipid in the former
and hard and acrid in the latter,
where it is represented by the Cher
ian crab and other forms scarcely
edible, unless cooked.
The apple tree Cyprus molus) be-
loved of poets and artists and all
lovers of the beautiful is rather
low, wide-spreading species, with
luxuriant foliage, dark, glossy, green
above, and whitish or somewhat
rusty, and more or less downy be-
meath. In its blossoming season it
is unexcelled by any tree in delicate
loneliness and fragrance, though
rivaled in these qualities by our ma
tive crab (P. coronaria), whose floral
beauty is not, however, succeeded by
a fruit crop of any estimable value
The arts of budding and grating
have, from time immemorial, been
practiced to a greater extent on the
apple than on other fruit trees, often
for the purpose of securing from the
same trees fruits of various colors
and qualities.
The older method of top grating
is now mostly superseded by the
splicing of scions onto roots or sec
tons of roots at a season when the
multiplication of desirable varieties
could not be done out of doors. Top
grating, either by splicing" whip
or cleft" insertion, is resorted to in
the case of well-grown seedlings or
where a tree upon coming into bear
ing does not prove satisfactory and
scions from good varieties are to be
worked into the limbs.
Pruning and training, which are
among the pet hobbies of the Old
World gardeners. are not found as
practicable upon the sturdy apple
tree as upon those of more plant
habit, and are employed by American
orchardists only to admit light and
air to the interior of the top and to
check too exuberant vegetable growth
and thus promote heavier bearing.
The art of dwarfing, which has
been carried to such astonishing ex-
tremes by the Chinese and japanese
has in this country been attempted
upon but few varieties of apples. the
most notable success in this line be.
ing the propagation of the Bismarck
dwarf. introduced from New Zealand
and some others of naturally low and
compact growth, the scions of which
are garfield upon the roots of what
is known as Paradise stock. valueless
except for this purpose.
The earlier American orchards
! We're grown mainly from seeds AS
space in the small sailing vessels
OF 300 years ago could scarcely be
afforded for. bulky packages. and
trees. even in a dormant condition
: would have had difficulty in surviv.
ing in moldy holds for such lengthy
voyages.
; Throughout the middle west seed
i iings were started in hundreds OF
localities by that benevolent and
provident eccentric, Johnny Ample.
seed, and it has always been a matter
OF surprise as well as of congratula.
ton to all concerned how many OF
our most excellent varieties origi.
mated from those widely scattered
seeds
Within the 1acf Inn ,-oo.o -, A.