1877.] ESSAY ON THE APPLE. 7 



the tree of excellent habit ; ia fact no apple seems to thrive better with 

 reasonable cultivation ; and its season is from September to January. 



The "Worcester Spy, also originating here, has some desirable qualities, 

 but after ten years trial we cannot recommend it for general cultivation. 



The Leicester Winter Sweet, had its origin in Leicester, and was 

 brought into notice by the late J. Milton Earle. It is proving after fair 

 trial, to have many desirable qualities and worthy of cultivation. It is 

 the most showy of the Winter Sweet apples, and especially good for 

 baking. 



There are of course many other varieties of apples of both foreign 

 and native origin, that will repay well for good cultivation; among these 

 are the Red Astrachan, Williams' Early Red, Duchess of Oldenburg, Sweet 

 Bough, Gravenstein, Maiden's Blush, Pumpkin Sweet, Fameuse, Bald- 

 win, R. I. Greening, Yellow Bellefleur, Roxbury Russett, which are very 

 generally cultivated. In almost every town in the county there exist 

 some apples of decided merit, which have not been brought into general 

 notice, that seem to thrive well and bear abundant crops, and if more 

 generally disseminated would prove valuable acquisitions. But we have 

 already varieties enough, unless the new ones prove better than the old, 

 and but few apples probably will ever be introduced superior to the 

 Duchess of Oldenburg, Williams' Early Red, Gravenstein, and other 

 popular varieties in their respective seasons. 



Good care should ever be adopted in the cultivation of fruit, but the 

 treatment should vary with the condition of the soil and other surround- 

 ing circumstances. The orchardist who succeeds well with his trees in 

 grass, in land of great depth and fertility, should not recommend or pre- 

 scribe grass for orchards in thin and impoverished soil. The man who 

 has a shallow soil and has injured the roots of his trees with the plough 

 because they are near the surface of the earth, should not object to the 

 thorough manipulation of deep soils. Therefore it is absolutely neces- 

 sary for each and every grower of fruit to diligently and patiently study 

 his situation and surroundings, if he desires the best results to reward his 

 labor. Fruit trees exposed to bleak, and especially to drying winds at 

 the time they are in blossom, are likely to be damaged by drying and de- 

 stroying the adhesive qualities of the pollen of the flower, and wafting it 

 from, and beyond the uses which IS'ature intended it to serve. Thus 

 shelter is as important to the orchard as is good cultivation ; and without 

 shelter, crops are more uncertain, and many orchards failures. Shelter 

 from winds is very easily obtained by belts of trees surrounding the or- 

 chard, and no better tree can be found than the European Larch for that 

 purpose, at least for this county. If set at the same time of the orchard, 

 its rapidity of growth gives the orchard complete shelter before the trees 



