ORCHARDS OF NEW-ENGLAND. 



it may be said, that great attention has already been given to this subject, and that 

 vast quantities of apples are already produced in New-England. Let us see how this mat- 

 ter is. By the census tables of 1840, it appears that the " products of orchards in New- 

 Hampshire, was greater, in proportion to its population, than that of any other New- 

 England state, except Connecticut, and nearly equal to the jiroduct of that state; and that 

 Chester, in Rockingham county, gave a larger product than any other toto7i, (by which 

 your southern readers must understand toionship,') in the state, with one exception. Now, 

 I happen to know all about that good old town, for there I was born and bred, and taught 

 to plant trees, and love them too; and although, with a population of only 1,300, it stands 

 almost first as a fruit grower, it will be seen that its product is trifling, compared with 

 what it might and should be. A citizen of that place, Avhose business calls him into 

 all parts of the town, and who personally gave me the results of his inquiries, has care- 

 fully taken an account of the marketable winter apples produced there, in the present 

 year, 1850, noting the name of the producer, and the kind and quantity of fruit raised by 

 each. lie has taken an account of a little more than ten thousand bushels, equal to four 

 thousand barrels, of which nine-tenths are of the Baldwin Apple, The Baldwin bore 

 bountifully this year, throughout this state, while other varieties bore but little. I think 

 the whole crop this year is not much, if any, over the average of other years. One fur- 

 ther fact will enable me fairly to present my view, and that is, that one single orchard, in 

 the town referred to, covering onlj^ two acres of land, produces annually, on an average, 

 eight hundred bushels of first rate winter apples, equal to about one-twelfth of the whole 

 product of one of our best fruit growing towns; so that it seems that twenty-five acres 

 of well cultivated trees, might produce as much as that whole township, of some 25,000 

 acres, now produces, and yet their crops of this year would give to ench man, v/oman, 

 and child of the town, about twenty bushels of winter apples. 



A comparison of the facts I have stated, will give some idea of the adaptation of our 

 soil to the culture of the apple, and I think, clearly show that we have as yet, made but 

 a beginning in this branch of cultivation. I suppose that any land in New- Hampshire, 

 except an occasional dry, sandy, pine-plain, which will yield thirty bushels of Indian corn 

 to the acre, ma}*, with the same annual labor and manuring, produce three hundred bush- 

 els of winter apples, of the best quality, worth almost as much per bushel as the corn, 

 ^fost of us are ready to admit, that corn at the north, cannot be raised with profit. We 

 are losing all confidence in the potato crop, and ovir manufacturers are sagely shaking their 

 heads, and saying that Ncw-Englanders must leave agriculture to the west and south, and 

 " devote their behavior" to cotton-mills and the mechanic arts. Now I believe, sir, that 

 the cultivation of the apple alone, may be made a source of more profit to New-England, 

 in twenty-five years, than all her present manufactures; and I trust the day is far distant, 

 when the sturd}^ sons of the Puritans will leave their fair fields, on the mountain sides, 

 and in the river valleys, and grow pale and degenerate in the pent-up factories and work- 

 shops. 



No portion of the world is better, and I think none so well, adapted to this fruit, as 

 New-England. Our Baldwin Apple is in perfection about the middle of January, and our 

 Russets are in eating until June. Indeed, we often see the old j^ear's fruit of our or- 

 chards, side by side Mith that of the new year. So, after the apples of more southern 

 orchards have decayed, we have the market to ourselves. Steam navigation renders ex- 

 portation to the whole world, easy for us, and the home consumption, as well as foreign 

 must increase beyond the supply, for a generation to come, at least 



But I did not propose to write an essay, only to say enough to attract more attent 



