32 



of excellence quite as perfect as any growing within it, restricted 

 only m kinds dependent for perfection on more favorable thermal in- 

 fluences than pertain to our latitude. 



If, as supposed, the sour puckery Crab be the progenitor of all 

 our toothsome varieties of the apple, surely we may congratulate 

 ourselves that our natural aids of soil and climate, combined with 

 care and skill in cultivation, have given us the valuable treasures that 

 present themselves so abundantly in our towns and orchards. And 

 these native treats are of more lasting value than the imported ex- 

 otics We greet the orange and the banana on their periodical com- 

 ing, but scarcely miss them after their brief sojourn. They are 

 tempting and unimportant luxuries. But what New Englander tires 

 of his Gravenstein, Jersey Black, Maiden's Blush, Kussett, Northern 

 bpy or Greening ? They are seasonable— almost essential— contribu- 

 tors to the health and comfort of himself and familv for eig-ht or 

 nine months of the twelve. 



In the canvass of their department your Committee met a few new- 

 comers, strange to some of us, at least, under the names attached to 

 them— one of these, a large, late fall apple— had puzzled even the ex- 

 hibitor, who had labled it " Name unknown." The " Hyslop " was 

 another clever stranger unbooked by either Cole or Downing Still 

 another specimen called the "Clyde Beauty," none of us recollected 

 to have met before on the shelves, but its qualities, both external 

 and internal, recommended it tofavorable mention. As neither of 

 the above authors mention this fruit, but the latter does describe a 

 specimen called the "Beauty of Kent" with characteristics quite 

 similar to this, we queried whether they were not the same fruit 

 under different cognomens. The " Duchess of Oldenburg " figured 

 favorably among the lately adopted ; while several of our old ac- 

 quaintances such as the Sops-in-wine, Fall juneating and Fameuse, 

 seemed, by lengthened intimacy with Berkshire soil and air, to have 

 notably improved m size and fairness over their namesakes of years 

 ago. We recognized, for the first time on exhibition here, the Rambo 

 —& _ popular western favorite, which one of us had last eaten in Vir- 

 ginia forty years ago. 



±v> I^ B T 11 en x ou ^ h 1 f ? r those having abundant room and a fancy in 

 that direction, to multiply varieties of fall and winter apples. But 

 the utility of so doing may be doubted in case of those <kinds whose 

 natural habitat is not New England. For instance, we have never 

 seen the Bell Flower here of the size and perfection it attains in 

 Ohio. The Roxbury Russets, brought hither from its home near the 

 sea, doubles and trebles the thickness of its rind and degenerates in 

 size^ and flavor. Hon. Marshal P. Wilder, the great pom ologist, 

 many years since, while on a visit to our county, was captivated by 

 the excellence of our Jersey Black. He procured scions and grafted 

 several trees on his^estate at Dorchester, Mass. After his trees had 

 comemto bearing the writer, happening at his home, asked him con- 

 f^r 11 ^ Berkslur A t "Ration. « O," said he, " it is a dead fail- 

 ure I have grown the apple, but it is no such fruit, either in size or 

 quality, as I ate in your county. I am convinced," he continued, 



