42 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



The crop of fruit has been as follows : — In 1840 and '42, there 

 were a dozen barrels each year ; in 1844, there were fifty bar- 

 rels of picked apples ; in 1846, one hundred barrels ; in 1848, 

 one hundred and twenty-five barrels picked, and thirty-five of 

 good windfalls that brought in market from a dollar to a dollar 

 and a quarter per barrel, also a large quantity of poor apples 

 that were sold for cider apples. The apples that year, in this 

 county, were unusually wormy. This year there were two 

 hundred and sixty-seven barrels of picked apples, and thirty 

 barrels of good windfalls. 

 Danvers, Nov. 7, 1850. 



Supplementary Report on Fruit Trees. 



The committee were instructed by the trustees to take into 

 consideration the theory, that the "chance of life in a scion is 

 afliected by the chance of life in the original seedling which 

 began the species." It will be recollected, that it was distinct- 

 ly asserted in the address before the society in 1849, that " we 

 cannot prolong the existence of any particular kind of fruit, by 

 engrafting from old to young trees, beyond the natural life of 

 the original tree, or the time it would cease to bear fruit by 

 old age, if living." Doubts having been entertained by some, 

 of the correctness of this assertion, it was thought to be a fair 

 subject for inquiry. For if it be true, then before we begin to 

 cultivate particular kinds of fruit, however superior they may 

 be, we must inquire not only into the quality of the fruit, 

 but as to the time when it first came into being. It being 

 generally admitted that the age of the apple tree is about two 

 hundred years — our oldest fruits will have to give place to those 

 of later origin. The experience on our own shores is too 

 limited to furnish facts to answer this inquiry in a satisfactory 

 manner. 



On looking into English books, we find one of their most 

 celebrated apples, the Golden Pippin, spoken of by Evelyn as 

 early as 1660, as being greatly admired and much cultivated. 

 It has continued to be so ever since. Perhaps it will be said, 

 there is no certain evidence that the fruit now passing under 



