370 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



and that iiumher would give 199,000 families. 

 The averag-e quantity of apples consumed by each 

 of these flimilies would beat least five barrels — 

 some families consuming three or four times that 

 number, and others, less. This would run the 

 number of barrels required for home consumption 

 in this single state, up to jihic hundred and ninety- 

 five thousand barrels. Now we have no means of 

 ascertaining, with anything like accuracy, how 

 many apples are annually produced in this State, 

 but have no idea that it is anything like that 

 amount. If each town in the State should pro- 

 duce three thousand barrels, it would still fall 

 short of the amount required to meet the demand 

 for home consumption. If these suppositions are 

 correct, no fears need be entertained that the sup- 

 ply of apples for many years to come will be great- 

 er than the demand for them. 



Allowing one barrel of cider to each family in 

 the State for the various purposes in which it is 

 used, for cooking, vinegar, &c., and it would 

 give 199,000 barrels — which at eight bushels to 

 the barrel would make one million five hundred 

 and ninety-two thousand bushels, or one hundred 

 and ninety-nine thousand barrels, making the 

 amount demanded in this State alone, for home 

 consumption, at the very lowest estimate, one mil- 

 lion, one hundred and ninety-four thousand barrels 

 of apples a year ! 



So far we have only spoken of what may be 

 used at home — the demand for exportation may, 

 and unquestionably wall be, much greater. Bald- 

 win apples are selling in San Francisco for twenty- 

 five cents each, and at thirty-five dollars per barrel ! 

 The orchards of New England will soon be re- 

 quired to meet the demands of this widely-extend- 

 ed and rapidly-peopled country; then the friendly 

 relations and the frequent communications between 

 this country and Mexico, will naturally open a 

 market for our apples there, in exchange for her 

 oranges and other commodities. Indeed, the 

 whole continent, down as far as people congre- 

 gate in cities, opens a boundless outlet for this 

 cheap and wholesome article of human subsistence. 

 If they attempt its cultivation, and the climate 

 should prove favorable at any point, it will long be 

 an experiment with them, and they must pass the 

 ordeal of borers, blight, accident, want of .system 

 and knowledge, and a thousand other difficulties 

 which it is hoped we are about emerging from. 

 All these will have their effect upon tiiem, as they 

 have had upon us, so that the youngest planter 

 here can have no cause of anxiety in relation to a 

 demand for his apple crop. 



New England is the great manufactory of ice, 

 and hrc railroads are the avenues through which it 

 passes to the nations of the East. Since this ar- 

 ticle of export has been produced, a way has been 

 opened to export our apples with it. Shipped 



equal, apples are transported into the far regions 

 of the rOast, and sold at handsome profits. It is 

 said that in hot climates they are preferred to any 

 other fruit, and are eagerly sought for wherever 

 they have been introduced. The ports of the Med- 

 iterranean alone will require a large supply, after 

 the trade at them is once opened. At this moment 

 a. vessel is being loaded with apples and ice, at 

 Charlestown, for Alexandria, in Egypt. 



In England, our apples are highly esteemed, 

 selling at from $8 to $12 and .$16 a barrel, and 

 by the hucksters at tenpence, and sometimes a 

 shilling each. The rapid communication between 

 this country and that afforded by our steamships 

 and packets, enables the exporter to get them there 

 in perfect condition; consequently they are fast be- 

 coming an important article of trade, and are des- 

 tined to become one of the principal sources of 

 profit to the farmer. An increased supply increas- 

 es the demand. Apples are higher in market in 

 the full-bearing year, than in the odd years when 

 the supply is much less, paradoxical as it may 

 seem. When the crop is large, the natural sup- 

 position is, that the price will be low; and ship- 

 pers entering into the business largely, keep the 

 prices up. A gentleman in New Hampshire in- 

 forms us that when his orchard came into bearing 

 some 30 years ago, the best market he found for 

 his apples was at Portland. This year he refused 

 $425, for the product of less than an acre and 

 three-quarters, to be taken on the trees ! 



While, then, we would not advise the farmer to 

 neglect his corn and grain crops, to invest extrav- 

 agantly in apple trees, we ivould recommend to 

 him to plant a few trees of the best varieties every 

 year; but not more than he can manure and culti- 

 vate with care. 



FALL TRANSPLANTING. 



Apple Trees may be transplanted in autumn 

 with perfect success, if they are treated properly. 

 If a hundred trees are planted, that number ought 

 to be expected to live. We have never yet lost an 

 apple tree transplanted in the fall, which was 

 moved and set again under favorable ciicuinstances. 



The holes to receive them should be six feet in 

 diameter, the soil thrown out upon the right and 

 the subsoil upon the left, making a depth of eigh- 

 teen inches, and the bottom of the hole dug and 

 pulverized a spade's depth more. Then, as the 

 surface soil is returned to the bottom of the hole, 

 mingle with it a small wheelbarrow load of well 

 rotted compost; this will fill the hole nearly to a 

 level with the surrounding ground, and prepare it 

 fiir the tree. If this part of the work is done a 

 week or two before it is intended to set the tree, it 

 will be something better. 



The next step, and one which requires the utmost 

 care, is, to take up the trees from the nursery, — 



with ice, where the tempVraiure is kept low andjand this never should be entrusted to inexperienced 



