COMMON APPLK-TKEE. ^| I \ 
Du Hamel under the name of "Pomme d'or," "Reinette d'Angleterre," and 
"Grosse Reinette d' Angleterre." Pippins were probably very little known n, 
England until towards the close of the XVIth century. Fuller states that one 
Leonard Maschal, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Henry VJII., brought them 
from over sea, and planted them at Plnmstead, in Sussex. They were called 
pippins because the trees were raised from the pips or seeds, and bore the apples 
which gave them celebrity, without grafting. 
The fine cider orchards of Herefordshire began to be planted in the reign of 
Charles I. The adaptation of the trees to the soil was soon discovered, and they 
spread over the face of the whole country. The cider counties of England lie 
something in the form of a horse-shoe, round the Bristol channel, the best of 
which are in Worcester and Hereford, on the north of the channel, and 
Somerset and Devon on the south. Of the varieties of the cider apples, the 
" Redstreak," and the "Sline," were formerly the most prized; and the cider 
of these apples, and the perry of the "Squash Pear," were celebrated throughout 
the kingdom. Some of the orchards occupy a space of forty or fifty acres, the 
produce of which is very fluctuating, and the growers seldom expect an abun- 
dant crop oftener than once in three years ; and in a good year, an acre of orchard 
will produce about six hundred bushels of fruit.* 
The introduction of the common apple-tree into the North American colonies, 
dates back to the earliest periods of their settlements. In the middle, northern, and 
some of the western states, no branch of rural economy has been pursued with 
more zeal, and few have been attended with more successful and beneficial re- 
sults, than the cultivation of orchards. It was not undertaken on an extensive 
scale, however, until about the commencement of the present century, when experi- 
ence had taught the hardy yeomanry of the soil, that " the moderate use of cider, 
as a common beverage, was highly conducive to sound health and long life." It 
appears from Dodsley's London "Annual Register," that in the year 1768, the 
Society for promoting Arts, &c, at New York, awarded a premium of ten pounds to 
Thomas Young, of -Oyster Bay, for the largest nursery of apple-trees, the number 
being twenty-seven thousand one hundred and twenty-three. Between the years 
1794 and 180S, Mr. William Coxe, of Burlington, New Jersey, enriched his lands in 
that vicinity with extensive orchards, containing in the aggregate several thousand 
trees, which occupied a space of seventy or eighty acres ; and within and since 
that period, numerous other orchards have been planted in various parts of the 
country, equaling, and even surpassing them in extent. Among the largest, and 
perhaps the most select, are those of Mr. Robert L. Pell, of the county of Ulster, 
New York, which have been planted about twenty years, and are said to contain 
twenty thousand trees. America, too, has given birth to several valuable varieties 
of apples, which enter extensively both into her foreign as well as her domestic 
commerce, and are eagerly sought after in almost every civilized country of the 
globe. The most celebrated, and unquestionably the best variety extant, for ship- 
ping and for winter use, is said to have been the spontaneous production from a 
seed, more than a century and a half ago, in Newtown, on Long Island, near New 
York, and is wel' known by the name of " Newtown Pippin." The original tree 
stood' on the estate owned at present by Mr. John J. Moore, of that town, and for 
a long time its fruit was called " Gersliom Moore Pippin," in honor of its former 
proprietor. After enduring for more than one hundred years, it died, in about 
the year 1805, from excessive cutting and exhaustion. Its scions were in great 
request by all the principal amateurs and orchardists of the day, and engrafted 
trees of it are still to be met with in the neighbouring towns, which have stood 
* See Library of Entertaining Knowledge, article, '-Apple." 
