VARIETIES OF APPLES. 21 



have one hundred and four dollars and eighty-eight cents 

 every year. These ten trees bore, two years ago, over 

 seventy barrels of picked apples. "We have called apples 

 worth fifty cents a barrel ; but this is much below their 

 average value. The average price received for apples from 

 an orchard of twelve hundred and fifty trees, — of which six 

 hundred were Baldwin, four hundred Roxbury Russets, the 

 remaining two hundred and fifty of different varieties, — 

 by a fruit-grower near Rochester, N.Y., from 1871 to 1877 

 inclusive, was two dollars eighty-six and two-thirds cents 

 per barrel. 



If by this it is shown that one can afford to grow apples, 

 the first thing to be considered is the soil and location. An 

 orchard of any kind does better on high ground than on low, 

 for various reasons. The fruit-buds are less liable to be 

 injured in winter by thawing and freezing : they will be kept 

 from starting as soon in spring, so that there will be less 

 danger of injury from late frosts. High ground is usually 

 well underdrained ; and this is important, for fruit-trees of 

 any kind will not do well where there is stagnant water in 

 the soil. A wet soil is to be avoided, also one that is very 

 sandy : for a tree cannot put on a healthy growth on a wet 

 soil ; and in a very sandy one, if it grows at all, it will be 

 short-lived. Land that will grow good corn will usually 

 grow good apples. 



Now comes the question of variety ; and here is where 

 many make a great mistake. If one wants to raise apples 

 for his own use, he should plant so that he will have them 

 from the earliest to the latest ; but, if one intends to grow 

 fruit for the market, he should select only those which bear 

 large crops, and will sell well. The best varieties to plant in 

 this section, where we have a poor market for early apples 

 (if one intends to raise fruit to sell), are Baldwins, Roxbury 

 Russets, and Rhode-Island Greenings : these three varieties 

 will produce more fruit than any other three varieties grown 

 about here. The Baldwin will yield more fruit per acre 

 than any other variety we grow. It has one advantage in the 

 market over many other varieties, on account of its color ; 

 for a red apple, as a general rule, sells better than one of any 

 other color. If the soil is suited to the Roxbury Russet, so 

 that it will not grow knurly (as the russet, to produce good 



