Hierloom Apple Tree

Designs using USDA Pomological Watercolors from the
National Agriculture Library Digital Collections
 
On display are merely 85– of the over 15,000 varieties of apples once grown in the United States.

Commercial orchards in the U.S. grew about 14,000 unique apple varieties in 1905. By the late 1990s, U.S. commercial orchards grew fewer than 100 apple varieties—and just 11 of them accounted for 90 percent of grocery-store sales. Experts estimated 11,000 heirloom varieties had gone extinct.

︎︎︎ atlasobscura.com

Two details of apple cards