CRAB APPLE, OR CRAB. A term applied indis criminately to all small fruits of the apple, re gardless of species. Sometimes, however, it is confined to a class of small, long-stemmed fruits belonging to Pyrevbaceata.
Economically the apple is the most important fruit of temperate regions. It is grown over a wide area, prospering as far north as Scandi navia and as far south as the southern mountain districts of the United States. It has, moreover, been carried into the Southern Hemisphere, and now, with rapid ocean transit, New Zealand and Tasmanian apples are annually offered during April and May in the markets of London and San Francisco.
North America is the leading apple-growing region of the world, Apples are raised on a commercial scale from Nova Scotia south to Virginia and west to Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. They are also raised in Oregon and California. These several regions produce an annual aggregate product of one hundred million barrels. The great portion of this yield finds a ready market within the domain of North America; but a small fraction of the crop is annually exported, mainly to Liverpool, London, and Glasgow. The export trade is gradually increasing, and the Mediter ranean countries may be counted upon as a future market for American apples.
The apple is propagated both by budding, and by grafting time desired sort on young seedling trees, which are usually grown from seeds ob tained from apple ponmee at the eider mills. (See BUDDING ; GRAFTING.) Such seeds give a progeny variable both in hardiness and in habit of growth, and are therefore less desirable for stocks than seedlings grown from seeds of the wild Pyres males of Europe. Budded trees are preferred by most growers, as well as nursery men, in the southeastern and eastern parts of the United States. To the nurseryman, the chief advantage of a budded tree comes of its quick growth, which shortens the time during which money invested is non-productive. The root grafted tree is preferred by planters in the Northwest; such trees form roots from the scion, if a short piece-root is used. This, sooner or later, produces a tree on its own root, which in turn eliminates the uncertainty of the seedling root and, when "iron-clad" scions are used, gives a perfectly hardy tree. Grafting is again im portant for the purpose of converting bearing trees, of several years standing, from one variety to another.
Dwarf apples are grown as espaliers in parts of England. The dwarf trees are obtained by grafting the desired variety on Paradise or Doucin stocks. These are dwarf forms of Pyres
males. New varieties of apples are obtained by sowing the seeds of cultivated sorts. Seeds from such fruits are more variable than those from wild trees, and consequently more likely to give desirable offspring. This operation is one of chance; frequently thousands of seedlings are grown without producing one valuable tree. Apple trees grow large and endure many years. In planting an orchard. therefore, the trees should be- given ample room; 40 feet each way is close enough in New York and the New Eng land States, where the trees grow largest. Farther south, where the trees do not attain great size, and are shorter-lived, 33 to 35 feet apart each way is not too close. In the North west, trees should be planted even closer than this, for there they are liable to injury from sun scald and wind. Closely planted and low-headed trees serve as a mutual protection. Soils for the apple which have given the best crops and have prodnoed longest lived trees, are chiefly com posed of clay or clay-loam impregnated with gravel. Such land, situated so as to afford good air as well as land drainage, produces more regu lar crops of highly colored and highly flavored fruits than lower and heavier lands. Atmos pheric drainage is one of the best material safe guards against late spring frosts, and good land drainage assures a warm, congenial soil for the plant.
Two-year-old apple trees contain, in the air dried substance: nitrogen, 0.891 per cent.; phos phoric acid, 0.122 per cent.; potash, 0A-I per cent.; and water, 60.83 per cent. About ten tons of such matter is produced upon an acre of nursery stock. The fruit contains: nitrogen. 0.J3 per cent.; phosphoric acid, 0.01 per cent.; potash, 0.19 per cent. A ton of ripe apples contains, at the usual prices, about 91 cents' worth of valua ble fertilizing ingredients. Generally lands such as those above described, contain a sufficient sup ply of nitrogen for the needs of the tree, but as the, greatest demand in the ripening of the fruit and seed is made upon potash and phosphoric acid, these are the two ingredients most fre quently needed by the orchard. They are the ingredients. too, which can be made good only by the application of a manure of some kind, while if nitrogen be lacking, it can be made up by growing a leguminous crop, such as Canada peas, cow-peas, or beans, upon the soil and turn ing it under.