The Apples of New York. 149 



The identity of Albemarle and Yellow Newtown seems to have been re- 

 corded first by the late Franklin Davis in a letter from Staunton, Va., which 

 was published in the Horticulturist in 1857.1 Since that time most pomolo- 

 gists have accepted their identity, ascribing the slight variations which are 

 observable to local soil or climatic conditions. But in the absence of an 

 authentic record of the introduction of Yellow Newtown to Albemarle county, 

 many orchardists in the Piedmont and mountain regions have continued to 

 believe the Albemarle a distinct variety of local origin. Recent investigation 

 by Alessrs. H. L. Lyman and Samuel B. Woods,2 prominent citizens and fruit 

 growers of Charlottesville, Va., have resulted in an apparent clearing up of 

 the historical uncertainty and establishing a clear conn'^ction between the 

 supposed original Albemarle tree and the older variety. 



Green Newtown. 

 Tree. 



Tree a rather slow grower ar moderately vigorous, of medium size or some- 

 times becoming large. Laterals shorter, twisted, spreading and drooping 

 more than those of the Yellow Newtown. Form spreading or roundish, 

 rather dense. Twigs medium in length and thickness, pubescent near tips ; 

 internodes medium to rather long. Bark clear dark brownish-red, lightly 

 streaked with scarf-skin. Lnificcis quite numerous, medium or below, some- 

 what elongated, raised, rather conspicuous. Buds medium, broad, plump, 

 obtuse, free, slightly pubescent. 



Fruit. 



Fruit medium to very large, pretty uniform in size but rather variable in 

 form and coloring. Form usually roundish oblate and more o-r less angular. 

 As grown in Southeastern New York it often has an oblique axis and is some- 

 times decidedly elliptical, but in Western New York the tendency of the fruit 



existed for the benefit of the Crown on all imported apples. From this time the Albe- 

 marle Pippin has grown steadily in favor in the English markets. It is not unusual to 

 see them selling in the wholesale markets at Liverpool for two or three times the price 

 other American apples are bringing. A neighbor last fall sold his entire crop for $io per 

 barrel, and Mr. Whately, an English gentleman who recently returned from abroad, told 

 me that he saw Albemarle Pippins retailing at 36 cents a pound. 



^Horticulturist, 7:288. 1857. 



'Letter of April 30, 1898. As far back as 1765 there was a tree noted for its fine fruit 

 standing in a mountain hollow on what is now Mr. William Sutherland's land, in the 

 North Garden neighborhood. How this tree came here no one knows, but tradition has 

 it tliat it was a seedling, and from its stock came all Albemarle Pippins. 



The other account, and the most authentic one, is that which fixes the earliest intro- 

 duction at the time of Braddock's defeat. Dr. Thomas Walker, of Castle Hill, Albemarle 

 county, was the commissary officer of the Virginia troops with Braddock, and after the 

 disastrous defeat, when the remnant of the troops went into winter quarters in Phila- 

 delphia, he returned home, carrying in his saddle-bags cuttings of apple trees. These were 

 grafted at Castle Hill and became the famous Albemarle Pippin. 



These two accounts I find connected in this rather curious way. The land on which 

 the tree in the North Garden neighborhood stood was entered in the land office in 1741 in 

 the name of Mildred Meriwether, in whose lifetime parts of the tract were improved. 

 Mildred Meriwether was the stepdaughter of Dr. Thomas Walker, and what is more 

 natural than that the old tree on her land, supposed to be a seedling, was one of the 

 Walker grafts? There is little doubt that the first appearance of the Albemarle Pippin 

 was at Castle Hill from the grafts brought home from Pennsylvania by Dr. Walker after 

 Braddock's defeat in 1735- 



