THE APPLE-ORCHARDS. 97 



APPLES. 

 BERKSHIRE. 



[From the Report of the Committee on Apples.] 



The apple blessing has been an abundant one this season, 

 and the exhibition at the fair has been correspondingly large 

 and fine. The finest fruit was exhibited by the farmers 

 living at the base of the Taconic range of mountains, where 

 the wash from the decomposing rocks has made a soil pecul- 

 iarly well adapted to fruit-culture, and where the mountains 

 afford protection from blasting winds, and the slope is favor- 

 able for genial sunshine. To these natural advantages 

 Messrs. Curtis, Candee, Spurr, and other fruit-culturists of 

 this favored locality, have added close observation and care- 

 ful cultiu'e, and the result is fine fruit and first jDremiums. 

 AH parts of the county made a good exhibition of apples 

 this year; and Berkshire has shown herself cajjable of com- 

 peting, in the production of this most valuable of fruits, with 

 the most favored parts of the country. The Mississippi Val- 

 ley may furnish larger specimens ; but they are not so saccha- 

 rine and high-flavored as those grown on our own sunny 

 slopes. This is manifest to the taste of a connoisseur, and is 

 apparent to any one who compares the cider made from East- 

 ern and Western apples. That made from the latter has the 

 watery appearance and flashy taste of our September cider, 

 and lacks the body, color, and flavor of the November article, 

 such as discriminating Eastern farmers put up for their own 

 use. 



The complaint has been made this fall, that apples are 

 superabundant, that the supply is greater than the demand, 

 and that it does not pay to raise apples. We have no sym- 

 pathy with such croakers. Some folks would complain, as 

 did the Israelites of old, if the heavens should rain down 

 abundant food. Tliis would damage the market for wheat 



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