NEW VARIETY OF WINTER APPLES. 29 



At a meeting of the Trustees in June last, they requested 

 the Committee to obtain information, so far as possible, as to 

 the origin and value of this (said to be) new variety of fruit, 

 and report thereon. Consequently, your Committee applied 

 for information to individuals, and have received the follow- 

 ing fi'om W. H. B. Currier, trustee of the Society from Salis- 

 l)ury, embracing information that lie has received from J. H. 

 Hill, trustee from Amesbury, to whom we had previously 

 written. The information seems to be to the point; and the 

 letters contain, as we think, much valuable information. 



It appears from the statement that tlio apples in question 

 are really the Red Russet, and that they originated by a cross 

 of the Baldwin and the Roxbury Russet. The particulars 

 may bo had by reading IMr. Currier's letters, which we shall 

 consider part of this report, which are as follows : — 



Saliseukt, Mass., July 17, 1880. 



To Mr. Jos. Howe. 



il/// Dear Sir, — Yours of the 2(1 inst. received. I regret that I was 

 not present at the last meeting of the Trustees, allhougli I might not have 

 been abl^i to satisfy the inquiries niad;i concerning tlio apple you speak 

 of. The whole matter had been talked over with Mr. Hill some mouths 

 since, who has gathered many facts. Hill visited the farm where Mr. 

 Lucy purchased his ajiples, and at the time they were stored in tlie cellar. 

 Hill pronounces them tlie " Red Uusset," and lias raised them for several 

 years. They originated on tlie farm of Aaron Sanborn of Hampton, N.H., 

 wlio had an orchard of Uusset trees; and Mr. Lewis Sanborn gi'afted 

 them into Baldwins. Tlie number of trees grafted I did not learn; but 

 all the trees bO grafted, but one, bore Baldwin apples. From this one 

 gi-aft originated tlie lied Russet. This was about the year ISIO, as near 

 as can be ascertained now. Therefore it was what fruit-meii sometimes 

 class as a " sport," — a very unusual thing in fruit-culture, but common 

 among plants, — and from which arc obtained many new and choice varie- 

 ties, to obtain and preserve which requires much care in propagation 



Tlie Red Russet is remarkable for its keeping qualities under certain 

 conilitions. It requires a cool cellar, and the apples must be headed up 

 tight, or they are liable to "shrivel." It is a great bearer and good 

 grower; but I am informed it has one "out:" it bears ouly every other 

 year. 



The gentleman who raised the apple is dead; but the facts were 

 gleaned from his family, who only remember the grafting of the orchard, 

 and its results. One fact I failed to learn, whether all the grafts upon 

 the one tree were of this variety, or only one or more of tliem. 



I incline to the opinion given by Mr. Hill, who says he has compared 

 the apples raised on the original tree of Mr. Sanborn with those shown 

 by Mr. Lucy. 



