NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



Governor from his town residence to his orchard 

 farm. In front of his mansion-house, was placed 

 on a post his dial, which he brought from Eng- 

 land, which we rememhcr to have seen many years 

 ago, in our hoyhood. But of all this large orchard 

 and garden, where the Governor, it is said, lived in 

 a sart of feudal style, surrounded by his many ser- 

 vants and retainers, nothing remains to mark the 

 spot, but the old pear tree. This old and venera- 

 ble tree still contains considcrahle vigor, having 

 ourself cut grafts from it of eight inches in length, 

 last spring ; and it continues to bear considerable 

 fruit. I gave an account of this remarkable tree, 

 together with an engraving, in the 1st vol. of the 

 Farmer, on the 73 page. 



The cultivation of fruit trees, if we may credit 

 Josselyn, increased wonderfully in New England, 

 between the years 1G38 and 1073. Josselyn pub- 

 lished in 1675 his Two Voyages to New England, 

 where he says, to use his own language and or- 

 thography, "our fruit-trees prosper abundantly, 

 apple-trees, pear-trees, quince-trees, cherry-trees, 

 plum-trees, and barberry-trees. I have observed 

 with admiration, that the kernels sown or the 

 succors planted, produce as fair and good fruit, 

 without graffing, as the tree from wbence they 

 were taken : the country is replenished with fair 

 and large orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. 

 Woolcut, [a magistrate in Connecticut Colony] at 

 the Captain's messe [of which I was] aboard the 

 ship, I came home in, that he made five hundred 

 Hogsheads of syder, out of his own orchard in one 

 year. Syder is very plentiful in the countrey, or- 

 dinarily sold for ten shillings a hogshead. At the 

 Tap-houses in Boston, I have had an alequart 

 spiced and sweetned with sugar for a groat, but 

 1 shall insert a more delicate mixture of it. Take 

 of Maligo-Raisons, stamp them and put milk 

 to them, and put them in a Hippocras bag, 

 and let it drain out of itself, put a quan 

 tity of this with a spoonful or two of syrup of 

 Clove- Gilliflowers into every bottle, when you bot- 

 tle your syder, and your Planter will have a liquor 

 that exceeds passada, the Nectar of the countrey. 

 The Quinces, Cherries, Damsons, set the Dames 

 a work. Marmalad and preserved Damsons, is 

 to be met with in every house." 



Our ancestors grafted but few of their apple 

 trees, most of them being natural fruit, and used 

 in the making of cider. It was the practice with 

 farmers in early times, to select for the use of their 

 families the best and fairest of the fruit, growing 

 upon their ungrafted trees Cider, until within a 

 few years, was considered one of the staple pro- 

 ducts of New England. The old school books that 

 described the agricultural condition of our country 

 40 years since, used to inform us, that no farmer 

 considered his farm complete, without an orchard 

 f>r the making of cider. The Essex Agricultural 

 Society offered a premium fir cider fir many years, 

 but it was finally struck from their list of pre- 

 miums in 1839. In the transactions of the society 

 for the year 1835, we find the following lament 

 from the committee on cider, no one that year 

 having entered for premium a single drop. Hear 

 these witty and thirsty farmers. "The committee 

 on cider beg leave to report — that they have, most 

 of them, assembled after many weary miles of 

 travel, without finding a single glass of cider, 

 awaiting them to quench their parching thirst, or 

 exhilarate their drooping spirits. Fdled with the 



milk of human kindness themselves toward overy 

 member of the laborious, meritorious and honora- 

 ble society of agriculturists, without whose efforts 

 the general population of the world would neither 

 be able to eat good bread, nor drink good cider, 

 they accordingly exceedingly regret the society's 

 privation of this luxury on this memorable day. 

 The premiums offered by this society are liberal, 

 and your committee know no sufficient cause, 

 when there is plenty of good cider made in this 

 county, why it has not been brought forward." 



M( ist of the books on the cultivation of fruit trees 

 published 30 years since, contained large treatises 

 jn the manufacture of cider. One of the last of 

 these books, the American Orchardist, by Dr. 

 Thacher contains 38 pages upon the article of 

 cider. But thanks to the Temperance Reforma- 

 tion, cider is but seldom made or used as a bev- 

 erage in our community, and its mode of manufac- 

 ture is no longer to be found on the pages of our 

 fruit books. s. p. r. 



Danvers Naw-Mills, Dec. 9th, 1851. 



[to be continued.] 



SELECTION OF APPLES. 



Wishing some months ago to furnish a friend 

 with a select list for an orchard of one hundred 

 market apple trees, I was greatly surprised at the 

 narrow limits within which I was compelled to con- 

 fine myself. I was tempted to recommend to set 

 the entire orchard with the Baldwin only ; for this 

 has proved to be by far the most profitable market 

 apple hitherto cultivated in the Eastern States. 

 But there are obviously some objections — at least 

 so it seemed to my friend — to being confined to on- 

 ly one variety ; and so after a great deal of deliber- 

 ation, I recommended that one-half or more of the 

 hundred trees should be Baldwins, and that the 

 balance should consist of R. I. Greenings, Hub- 

 bardston Nonsuch, Roxbury Russet and Porter. 



I hesitated to insert the Roxbury Russet, be- 

 cause it is not a very good bearer, and the fruit 

 seems to be degenerating, three apples in four be- 

 ing knerly, wormy, or otherwise unmarketable. 

 Still I retain it as being the only late keeping apple 

 that I could recommend for general cultivation. 



We have many other fine apples, I am glad to 

 acknowledge. The Early Williams, for instance, 

 is a beautiful, large, excellent fruit, but it is a 

 mortal slow grower. The Early Sweet Bough is 

 large, handsome, productive, and the tree grows 

 well ; but, as for all other sweetings, there is only 

 a limited demand for it, most people considering 

 such apples as valuable merely for culinary pur- 

 poses. The Duchesseof Oldenburgh, Gravenstein, 

 Leland's Spice, Mother, Northern Spy, and Sutton 

 Beauty, all promise well, but none of them have 

 yet earned a well established reputation in this 

 section of the country. The Esopus Spitzenberg 

 and Peck's Pleasant, are apples of exquisite flavor, 

 but are not quite sufficiently productive. The 

 Ladies' Sweeting is handsomer than Danvers Win- 

 ter Sweeting, but its flavor is only second rate with 

 me ; and besides, they aro both " nothing but 

 sweetings." 



Had my friend been at all inclined to experi 

 menting, I should have recommended to him, as 

 particularly worthy of trial, Duchesse of Olden- 

 burgh, Leland's Spice, Gravenstein and Northern 

 Spy, especially the latter ; as we are actually en- 



