THE APPLE CROP. 121 



tion of the apples or give any encouragement to any individual 

 in relation to the raising of apples. 



But I will remark upon one point which was touched upon 

 by my friend Mr. Hyde, this morning, namely, this dry weather 

 theory, as affecting the apple crop. I have heard it broached 

 before. Gentlemen have said to me, that owing to the two dry 

 seasons that we had in succession, the tissues of the wood were 

 not sufficiently matured, and consequently the fruit buds were 

 not in a state to bring forth fruit, although they would blossom. 

 I thought, at first, that possibly there might be something in 

 that ; but I remembered distinctly that I had a row of Hubbard- 

 ston trees, on the upper side of an orchard, which I planted 

 some seventeen years ago, and on the dryest part of the whole 

 ground, which gave me, last year, the best crop I ever had. 

 There certainly had been no water carried there by any artifi- 

 cial means. I have no doubt the ground there suffered 

 immensely, and the trees suffered, by the drought of the preced- 

 ing year, yet they gave me this large crop. There was no 

 extra cultivation. It is true, the land was cultivated twice or 

 thrice during the season. I do not let the grass grow round 

 the trees, and cultivate the ground to keep it in a tolerably 

 loose condition about the trees, and all over the surface, tliat is 

 all. Tlien in the same orchard there was one Minister tree, 

 which I planted for experiment, and which had not failed, up 

 to tliat time, to produce excellent crops in alternate years — it 

 had not overborne, but just enough to have a good substantial 

 crop, and they grew very large. Gentlemen wlio have been in 

 the habit of attending our exhibitions for the last ten years will 

 remember seeing some very large Minister apples wliicli I 

 exhibited on several occasions on the table here. In 1866, this 

 Minister tree produced the largest crop it ever had. They 

 were small apples, to be sure, but there was not room for them 

 to grow. I went and pulled off a bushel when they were the 

 size of walnuts, but I did not get off quarter enough. The 

 crop, consequently, was almost a failure, because of the inferior 

 size, and quality also. They were never so inferior in quality. 

 Then I had other varieties which produced excellent ci'ops. 

 "What I call the Russet Sweeting, for instance, known in some 

 localities as the Cathead, in some as the Ladies' Sweeting ; an 

 apple resembling the New York Russet more than anything I 

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