Crab Apples

Yesterday I eluded to autumnal shots being held in reserve for when I really needed them.  Well today I need one of them.

We had a visitor coming in the afternoon but I thought they won't be long I will take a blip after they have gone.  Wrong the scheduled 1 - 1 1/2 hours stretched into 3 leaving little time.  So I resorted to the Crab Apples growing in the hedge between us and the field.

Crab Apples (Malus sylvestris) are one of the ancestors of the eating apple.  Interestingly there are now over 6,000 varieties of eating apple.  What I want to know is why haven't they developed domestic varieties to carry as many fruit as a Crab Apple does.