VARIETIES. 69 



which will render it perfectly clear. It may be bottled now, or 

 any period before the blossoming of the apple or afterwards, late 

 in May. When bottling, fill the bottles within an inch of the 

 bottom of the cork, and allow the bottles to stand an hour before 

 the corks are driven in. They should then be sealed, and kept 

 in a cool cellar, with clean dry sand up to their necks ; or laid on 

 their sides in boxes or bins, with the same between each layer. 



VARIETIES. The varieties of the apple, at the present time, 

 are very numerous. The garden of the Horticultural Society, 

 of London, which contains the most complete collection of fruit 

 in the world, enumerates now about 900 varieties, and nearly 

 1500 have been tested there. Of these, the larger proportion 

 are of course inferiour, but it is only by comparison in such an 

 experimental garden that the value of the different varieties, for 

 a certain climate, can be fully ascertained. 



The European apples generally, are in this climate, inferiour 

 to our first rate native sorts, though many of them are of high 

 merit also with us. The great natural centre of the apple cul- 

 ture in America, is between Massachusetts bay and the Dela- 

 ware river, where the Newtown pippin, the Spitzemberg, the 

 Swaar, the Baldwin, and the yellow Belle Fleur, have originated, 

 and are grown in the greatest perfection. The apples raised on 

 the very fertile bottoms of the western states are very large and 

 beautiful, but as yet, owing to the excessive luxuriance of growth, 

 are far inferiour in flavour to those of the same quality, 

 raised on the strong, gravelly or sandy loams of this section of 

 the country. New varieties of apples are constantly springing 

 up in this country from the seed, in favourable soils ; and these, 

 when of superiour quality, may, as a general rule, be considered 

 much more valuable for orchard culture than foreign sorts, on 

 account of their greater productiveness and longevity. Indeed, 

 every state has some fine apples, peculiar to it, and it is, there- 

 fore, impossible in the present state of pomology in this country, 

 to give any thing like a complete list of the finest apples of the 

 United States. To do this, will require time, and an extended 

 and careful examination of their relative merits collected in one 

 garden. The following descriptions comprise all the finest 

 American and foreign varieties yet known in our gardens. 



In the ensuing pages, apples are described as regards form 

 as follows ; round, or roundish, when the height and the diameter 

 are nearly equal ; fat, or oblate, when the height is much less ; 

 oblong, when the height is considerably more than the diameter ; 

 ovate, (egg-shaped,) when the blossom-end is narrowed and 

 rounded ; conical, when the fruit is oblong and somewhat coni- 

 cal on its sides. Pearmain-shaped is a short or flattened cone ; 

 and Calville-shaped signifies a ribbed or furrowed surface. 



