354 State Horticultural Society. 



the tree came into bearing the fruit, from its unattractive appearance in 

 the fall, was not gathered. Mr, Johnson was an invalid and spent most 

 of his time during the day sitting at a window watching the country 

 people as they passed to and fro on their trips to York. 



He had noticed the school boys of York visit this particular apple 

 tree in the spring for several years, kick away the leaves, fill their pockets 

 with apples, returning Vvoekly until late in the spring. On one occasion he 

 gent a farm hand to secure some of the apples and to his surprise Mr. 

 Johnson found them to be of a bright red color and of good quality — 

 when other late-keeping varieties of his orchard had been wilted and 

 insipid. 



Calling Mr. Jessop in as he pased on his way to his nursery, Mr. 

 Johnson presented him with some of the specimens that had lain on the 

 ground all winter. Mr. Jessop, impressed with the good keeping quali- 

 ties of this variety, propagated it under the name of Johnson's Fine Win- 

 ter, The merits of this variety not being generally known, Mr. Jessop 

 propagated many trees for which he had no sale and when they became 

 too large for nursery stock he pulled them up and threw them in a ravine 

 near the Baltimore and York turnpike. The farmers who at- 

 tended the York market, on returning home filled their wagons with 

 these trees and planted them on their lands. Mr. Jessop being informed 

 of this fact by a farmer whose lands adjoined the nursery, replied: "Well, 

 if they will not buy trees to plant I am glad that they will take those for 

 nothing." By this means York county led the way in propagating this 

 variety, which* has been worth thousands and thousands of dollars annu- 

 ally. 



A basket of this variety of apples having been sent to A. J. Down- 

 ing, America's most noted pomologist, by Mr. Jessop, their receipt was 

 acknowledged by a letter from Mr. Downing in which he said: "It is 

 the Imperial of late keepers, and as it originated near York, I would sug- 

 gest York Imperial as an appropriate name." Johnson's Fine Winter 

 and York Imperial are one and the same variety. After Mr. Jessop's 

 death the nursery was taken charge of by his son, Edward. Mr. Edward 

 Jessop had in his possession the letter from A. J. Downing from which 

 the above extract was obtained by the writer of this article. In 1863 

 after a lengthy search I located the stump of the original tree in a corner 



