The Apple-Tree Part 9

The _bloom_ may be wiped from apples, but in no case should polished specimens be given the preference. Some exhibits have special rules regarding polishing of apples.

(4) _Conditions_: Refers to the degree of ripeness. An apple to be in perfect condition should be firm for the variety and free from the withering that comes when apples are picked too green or when the fruit is over-ripe or has not been stored properly.

(5) _Freedom from blemish_: All specimens should be free from blemishes of all kinds. One should look particularly for (_a_) marks of fungous or other disease, including stippin, (_b_) injury from insects of all kinds, (_c_) mechanical injury, including loss of stem. Unmistakable evidence of codlin-moth injury or San Jose scale should disqualify a plate. Other blemishes are considered important in about the order named: Side worms, scab, stippin, curculio or red-bug, skin punctures, bruises, stem pulled, russet (not typical for variety) and limb rub. The extent of scab spots should be considered. Minute spots are not as serious as some other blemishes, while spots which deform the apple should disqualify the plate.

_Other information_: Five specimens const.i.tute a plate, except when the rules of the contest or exhibit state otherwise. Any variation from this rule disqualifies the plate.

When a plate is not labelled with the correct variety name, it should not be judged, but is disqualified and if possible the correct name is applied. If one specimen on a plate is not as labelled, the whole plate is disqualified.

In some judging contests, the plates are not labelled with the variety name, and the contestant is supposed to make the identification.

_Precaution_: Avoid pressing the specimens with the thumb and finger so as to bruise the fruit. The degree of firmness can be determined by gentle pressure with the inside of the whole hand.

Defects, apparent or otherwise, should not be probed with the finger nail, pin, or other hard object.

Special care should be exercised to replace all specimens on the right plate.

Having in mind these definite criteria, the reader will know what is meant by a "good apple" and also a good apple-tree. Measurements of perfection aid us to estimate the deficiencies.

He who knows the apple-tree knows also its region. The landscape is his in every blessed year; he sees the chariots of the months come down from the distances and pa.s.s by him into the twilights. Clouds are his and the repeating shadows on the hills. The morning when the blossoms are laden with the fragrance of the night, high noon when the bees are busy, the gloaming when the birds drop into the boughs, these are his by divine right. The smell of new-plowed fields is his, with the urgent promise in them. Seed time and harvest, as old as the procreant earth and as new as the latest sunrise, are his to conjure.

The verities are his for the asking, the strong things of cultivated fields and of wild places. And mastery is his, that comes of the amelioration of the land and the education of the tree. All these are everyman's, and yet they are his alone.