Account of a Crab Apple Orchard. 191 



Vredensburgy July 18, 1813. 

 Dear Sir, 



Having had the pleasure to receive your letter of 

 the 28th ult. I proceed to answer your enquiries rela- 

 tive to the kind of fruit, of which the cider you allude 

 to is made by me ; some of those questions would 

 have required dates, which 1 do not possess, to render 

 the answers perfectly correct ; I shall, therefore, with 

 the assistance of my son, who now has the entire ma- 

 nagement t)f my farm, endeavour to give you such in- 

 formation, as our joint recollections afford. 



Queri/ 1. As to the species of apple ? 



Answer. That is entirely of the Virginia crab. 



Query 2. The number of trees ? 



Answer. The whole number of trees is two hun- 

 dred and forty, but the actual bearing trees do not ex- 

 ceed two hundred, for having some years ago, for the 

 purpose of preserving the ground in a loose state, and 

 also to procure some produce from the soil, sowed it 

 with red clover, such numbers of ground mice were 

 harboured therein, as effectually to destroy not less 

 than forty trees : those have been replaced, but the 

 young ones are not yet in a perfect bearing state. 



Query 3. The extent of ground ? 



Answer. That we suppose to be about five acrest 



Query 4. How long planted ? 



Answer. We suppose about twenty two years. 



Query 5. The distance the trees are from each other? 



Answer. That is twenty feet, but is much too close; 

 all the orchard in \vhich we have since planted, the 

 trees are thirty three feet apart, which I consider as 

 the shortest distance that ou^rht to be l:)etween them. 



