C 189 ] 



Account of a Crab Apple Orchard^ by Henry Wynkoopy 

 Esquire^ of Bucks County, 



Read August 10, 1813. 

 Belmont, July 24, 1813. 



Sir, 



I send, for the Society, a letter from my old and 

 much esteemed friend, Henry Wynkoop, Esquire, 

 in answer to some questions I troubled him with, re- 

 lative to his orchard. He gives a highly encouraging 

 account of the profitable produce of two hundred trees, 

 on five acres of ground. I will endeavour to obtain 

 the history of the Virginia Crab. Most of the orchards 

 in my neighbourhood, as well as my own, have long 

 been declining. I have spared no pains in endeavours 

 to render them flourishing : but have not succeeded to 

 my wishes. They are planted in every soil and situa- 

 tion. Some are cultivated, i. e. sown with grasses and 

 grain. All well manured, save one, which is in a soil 

 by no means poor, but it has not been disturbed by 

 the plough, for many years. The trees are of all ages, 

 from seventy or eighty years, to twelve and fifteen. In 

 the grounds kept loose and rich, they bear abundantl}^ ; 

 but ripen and fall too early for winter use as fruit, or 

 for cider. I have no Crabs ; but have every variety 

 of other sorts. The oldest kinds, such as Pippins, Van- 

 devers, Spitsenbergs, &:c. which, in my youth, were 

 fair, inviting, and plentiful, are now forbidding, knot- 

 ty, and scarce. Such is the case in Europe, with their 

 old fruit trees ; as may be seen in Marshals account 



