STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 77 



apple, and all trouble and doubt disappears, and the future looks like 

 a rosy-tinted dream. 



In fact, it has become the panacea for all the ills our family is 

 heir to. It has superseded pills and paregoric, and doctors have long 

 since ceased to regard us with any degree of favor. The origin of 

 this apple is somewhat obscured by the mists of the past, but it is 

 supposed to have sprung directly from the spot of earth where the 

 first arrow of Jonathan rested from the bow which he drew to warn 

 David to flee from the wrath of his father. And from these ancient 

 days it has been handed down to us as the very best of its kind, and 

 Worder, in his ''American Pomology," classes it as the best winter 

 apples for either dessert or cooking. Its season with us, when prop- 

 erly handled, is from October to April. A friend of mine, who has 

 fruited it alongside of Ben Davis, says that it came into bearing 

 earlier than Ben Davis, and has since given hira more uniform and 

 regular crops of superior fruit. I do not expect to live long enough 

 to see it superseded by anything better, and those who have lived to 

 a green old age without having made its acquaintance have the sin- 

 cere sympathy of myself and family. 



But, returning to the subject of '' New Fruits," as I said before, 

 my experience with new varieties has been very limited, and that is 

 the reason, I suppose, that I have been selected to write up such an 

 important subject; but for two years I have fruited Moore's Early 

 grape with, -what I consider, the most eminent success. It appears 

 to be perfectly hardy, ripens ten days or two weeks before the 

 Concord, bears a very heavy, compact bunch of large, fine grapes of 

 good quality. So far, it has not been attacked by rot. 



At the same time' I planted Brighton, Worden's Seedling and 

 Pocklington, but, like many of my great undertakings in life, their 

 cultivation has resulted mostly in disaster. In fact, from the very 

 start, the omens in this enterprise appeared to be against me. I had 

 scarcel}" given my order to a smiling and persuasive tree agent, for 

 plants, when it began to rain. They arrived in dew time (or rather, 

 rain time) and as often as I thought of consigning them to their 

 future resting place, the thunders would roar, the lightnings flash, 

 and the rain come tumbling down kersplash. Finally, as the season 

 was rapidly passing away, 1 determined to hazard everything in an 

 attempt to put the dear little things where they would do the most 

 good. One afternoon, late in April, a ray of sunshine came dancing 

 gladly across my garden, and a sparkling thought danced playfully 

 across ray mind. I seized a spade in one hand and the bundle of 

 plants in the other and started out upon an almost bottomless sea of 

 mud, to locate a vineyard for the benefit of a long line of posterity 

 in general, and myself and«nimediate family in particular; but, alas! 

 alas! the " best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee." 



( N. B. — The latter thought is not original with me. It is taken 



