4 OCTOBER 1946, Page 15

Resistant Apples There is general agreement that Cox's Orange Pippin

is the best eating (to use our odd idiom) apple ; but there is no agreement about the next on the list. On one, that seems to me wholly admirable, there is violent disagreement ; it is Laxton's Superb. I hear of one large and expert' grower who is re-grafting all his large orchard of Superbs. One friend considers it a thoroughly second-rate apple, though to most of our palates it is delicious. With me it bears freely and regularly, if left unpruned, and the flavour at least suggests a Cox ; and is more pleasing than a Ribstone or a Charles Ross. If there were a general vote, which varieties would come second or third to a Cox? I should be inclined to vote for a St. Everard among mid-term apples and D'Arcy Spice among long keepers, but this last is a shy bearer and difficult to grow. I see —in the Countryman—that Mr. Bush, that outstanding authority, has added to his earlier list of varieties that excel as frost-resisters. The tale now runs Crawley Beauty, King Edward VII, Court Pendu Plat, Royal Jubilee, and to some extent Newton Wonder—all these because they blossom late ; but among early bloomers Ellison's Orange, James Grieve, Worcester Pearmain, Laxton's Superb and Wagener are also given good marks as frost-resistant.