THE NORTHERN SWEET APPLE. 



317 



white, fine grained, juicy. Flavor very 

 rich and sweet. 



Mr. Battey gives us the following ac- 

 count of this apple :— This fine variety, 

 though it has been cultivated for some 50 

 years in the vicinity of the place where it 

 originated, appears to have been very lit- 

 tle disseminated* The only bearing trees 

 known to the writer, are to be found in his 

 immediate neighborhood, and in some parts 

 of Chittenden and Addison counties, in the 

 state of Vermont. Why a fruit of such 

 merit should so long have remained in com- 

 parative obscurity, is to be accounted for 

 only from the fact, that for many years the 

 true Golden or Orange Sweet, of the cata- 

 logues, was imagined by those acquainted 

 with this fruit, to be identical with it. 



The Northern Golden Sweet is unques- 

 tionably one of the best autumn sweet ap- 

 ples known. Having been perfectly fami- 

 liar with it for the last 20 years, I have no 

 hesitation in saying that I consider it de- 

 cidedly best, among the best of its class and 

 season. Some other sorts may possess cer- 

 tain peculiar advantages which this class 

 does not, — as of early maturity, or late 

 keeping ; but in point of quality — of intrin- 

 sic excellence — it is, in my estimation, un- 

 rivalled by any other sweet apple of any 

 season,* with which I have had the good 

 fortune to become acquained. The deep 

 golden colour of its skin, and its brilliant 

 red cheek, give it a charm for the eye of 

 the amateur which is seldom surpassed. 

 As evidence of its good qualities, it may be 

 stated that the fruit, though coming at a 

 time when several other good sorts are in 

 eating, sells readily here at one dollar a 

 bushel, when the ordinary price of other 

 good varieties is but 50 cents. 



In the nursery, the tree grows with about 



• Mr. B. must allow us to except the Ladies' Sweeting, 

 which, when in perfection, is to our taste the finest of al! sweet 

 apples for the dessert. Ed. 



medium vigor ; but the branches are rather 

 weak, and much inclined to droop. Older 

 subjects are no less remarkable for the pen- 

 dant habit of the terminal shoots, which are 

 closely filled with spurs or bearing wood. 

 The tree comes into bearing very young, 

 and is one of the most regular and abun- 

 dant bearers that I know. Its season of 

 maturity is from the middle of the 9th 

 month to the 1st of the 11th month. 



The history of this variety is briefly this. 

 Some 50 or 60 years ago, Nathan Lock- 

 wood, of Westchester county, N. Y., on 

 his removal to St. George, Chittenden coun- 

 ty, Vt., took with him, as usual in such 

 cases, seeds, from which he raised trees 

 and planted an orchard. In this orchard 

 stood the tree, from which all others of this 

 variety, so far as my knowledge extends, 

 have been derived. The place is now 

 owned by Nathan Lockwood, jr., son of 

 the above, who has been deceased many 

 years. The original tree having been de- 

 stroyed, and no sucker having sprung from 

 its roots, the only remaining source of in- 

 formation relating to its origin (if any there 

 be,) would seem to consist in some record 

 left by the elder Lockwood, or in family 

 tradition, or in the memory of some of the 

 older inhabitants of the neighborhood, who 

 may have had a knowledge of the circum- 

 stances. With the aid of N. Lockwood, 

 jr., I have for a year past been seeking 

 after such information ; but all I can learn, 

 is the traditional account that " the old man 

 used to say the kind came from his native 

 place." Whether the " kind came" in a 

 seed or a scion, no one can tell. For my 

 own part, I have no doubt that the original 

 Lockwood tree was a seedling ; since, had 

 such a variety existed some fifty or sixty 

 years ago in Westchester county, it must 

 have come to the knowledge of nursery- 

 men in the southern part of the state, and 



