Here are four late apples to add to the list that appeared in the Summer Pomona.

ASHMEADS KERNEL (Mid October). About 250 years ago Dr. Ashmead of Gloucester, England discovered an apple seedling tree in his yard. He left it to grow and eventually it bore full crops of tasty russet apples. They would keep unusually well into the new year. He called it his "kernel" which is the same as "seedling" or "pippin". Since then it has always found its lovers who cherish and propagate it. In recent blind taste tests at the Royal Horticultural Society February meetings it has consistently scored "Best in Taste". Hardy and rugged, it is rather resistant to scab and easy to grow, else it would not have survived until now.

SANDOW (Mid to End October). This is a glorious survivor of early Canadian apple breeding efforts and was selected in Ottawa in 1912 from among hundreds of seedlings of the Northern Spy apple. Though similar to its parent in shape, creamy flesh colour and long keeping quality, it has a fuller flavour, is hardier, and redder and less troubled by scab. For years Sandow was wrongly suspected of contracting the deadly fireblight disease but it has now been cleared and found to be less susceptible than McIntosh.

MELROSE (Mid to End October). Another rugged man-made variety which has almost everything going for it: superb taste, shapeliness, productivity and outstanding keeping quality. Its downfall in commercial circles is its colour and finish. They say that its red is too dull and cannot be machine polished to a gloss. For the apple gardener, this cross of Red Delicious and Jonathan is too good to be missed.

FREYBERG (Late October). This sounds like a German apple but hails, like its stepbrother Delco, from New Zealand. It honours a Governor General from down under. I recommend this offspring of Golden Delicious and Cox Orange Pippin rather than its parents: the flavour is sprightlier and more sophisticated than that of its mother. The fruit is larger and better looking than its father and, in spring, it is juicier than both. Georges Delbard, a French gourmet and nurseryman describes it as "a veritable cocktail of flavors with the merest touch of Anise and producing a juice that combines the taste of apple, pear and banana". It is a great apple to close the season with.