SEEDLESS APPLES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 68 (Supplement)

SEEDLESS APPLES

The following statement, taken from the London “Daily News,” is receiving widespread, publicity. “The wonderful seedless apple tree has now been put upon the market, over ten nurseries having been devoted to its propagation in the United States and Canada. The,tree gives promise of completely revolutionising the apple growing districts of the new and old worlds. The value of the coreless apple to the housewife is at once apparent. The trees are almost blossomless, so that they have little to fear from spring frosts. The annual loss to the fruit growers of the world from late frosts and oodlin moth cannot be less than £5,000,000: but by the introduction of the new apples this will be prevented. The absence of seed makes the fruit

wormless, because the voracious apple worm lives cn the seed. The trees of the famous seedless orange now to supply the American and English markets came originally from six cuttings. The start with the seedless apple has been made on a far more extensive scale —with 2000 trees—so that in a. few years immense stocks will be available. There are something like 20.000,000 apple trees in the United Kingdom. Of these, over 10.000.000 consist of old and useless varieties, and their owners will not he affected by the arrival of the coreless apple tree. Specimens of the new fruit may be expected in England this year Already orders for trees are pouring in from all quarters, and several British fruit tree propagators are anxious to control the sale in Great Britain.”

Dr Holtze, was questioned on the above subject by a representative of tho “•Garden and Field,” and his views, as published by our contemporary, are as follows;—

The doctor smiled when the writer mentioned that the paragraph stated that the coreless, or, more correctly, the seedless, apple was new, and said that as long ago as during the first century of the Christian era Pliny describes an apple as being seedless. The doctor then went on to say that during the middle ages .several authors speak of the seedless apple under the name of Fig appie, as it was then erroneously thought that the apple had no visible flowers. This arose through the fact of the flowers having no petals, and were therefore overlooked by the ignorant. However, this theory has now been exploded. In the orchard catalogues of the monks of the Grand Chatreux, in 1736, this apple is called Sans Pepins (seedless). About 100 years ago- in various volumes of “Sicklers Deutsche Obstgartner,” two seedless apples are repeatedly mentioned, one of which, a German variety, is stated to ripen in August, and the other, the one mentioned by tire French monks, ripens .in December and January.

Andre Leroy, the noted French pornologist, in his Dictionnaire de Pomologie, vol. 3, page 304, describes this apple under the name of Figue d’hiver with the synonyms of Sans Pepins, Sans pluea-Ir. A’Trochets. and Adam’s Apple, the latter name given to it because it was thought that Adam brought this apple from Paradise. Leroy gives a, lengthy description of the apple with a drawing of the outline, and states that although the name flowerless is incorrect, the quality of the fruit is second .rate as a dessert apple, but good for cooking. The name Sans Pepins is quite correct, as nothing is apparent in the -way of seeds exoept a number of minute black spots hardly perceivable by the naked eye. Dr Holtze, continuing, said that it is not impossible that the apple mentioned in the paragraph is a new variety, but the claim put forward that it will resist the ravages of codlin moth is ridiculous, as surely the codlin moth would not have the sense to discriminate between a seedless and an ordinary apple, therefore seeing the claim put forward that it resists frost and the codlin moth makes me think

that it is the old apple put forward as a novelty by unprincipled men for the pu pb e of gain ; as Johann Gotlob Roth, schoolmaster, in 1798 offers in the following advertisement appearing in “Sicklers Deutsche Obstgartner:— “l have for sale a few young trees of the apple which neither flowers nor seeds, is described in the 215th number of the “Xieipziger Zeitung” of 1705.” This Rotli also claims that his apple, not having flowers, has not suffered from the frost. The writer having asked the doctor if it had been shown that the moth had attacked this apple, the doctor read the following letter, published in ‘Sicklers Deutsche Obstgartner,” wherein a certain Dr Henning writes in the following strain: — -t l send hereby two fruits of tbe fig apple, or apple without flowers ; my little tree liad nine or ten fruit; however, all we.e worm eaten except the two I send hereby.” Then you do not think appie of any extraordinary value? —No, and I should be very sorry to see anyone misled into throwing away his money by importing this apple. We have five trees of the seedless apple at the typical orchard, Mylor, under the different names I have already mentioned; however, none of them have yet fruited, but the description of their wood and foliage tallies with that given by Stickler and Leroy, so that I have little doubt but tnat cur trees are correct. The writer then asked tlie doctoi if seedless fruit were a novelty, but the doctor said not at all; we have the 6eedless Mandarin, the seedless v\ ashiugton Ncivelj fsoe-dlcss pineapples? bananas, several seedless pears, seedless medlar, seedless plum, seedless grapes, such as Sultanas and currants, practically seedless cucumbers, etc.