NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 55 



fruit; in the early days, however, and even within the last 

 half century, the fruit of these seedling- apples was called 

 •'common" fruit, which indicates the abundance of such 

 trees at that time. Such apples were used chiefly for feed- 

 ing to stock and for cider making, being on that account 

 often called cider apples. The surplus, if there was any, 

 was allowed to rot because there was no profitable way of 

 disposing of it. 



At the beginning of the last half century large nurseries 

 became more numerous, the newer orchards were planted 

 with grafted trees, and the seedling trees were no longer 

 used for this purpose. In many parts of New York, 

 especially in the eastern two-thirds of the State, there are 

 still seen portions of the primitive seedling orchards, vary- 

 ing in age from fifty to one hundred years or possibly 

 more. The old trees, having outlived their companions, 

 stand as silent reminders of the days of the stage coach, 

 the hand loom, the spinning wheel, and the paring bee, 

 and of the time when the farmer generally considered his 

 winter supplies incomplete unless there were several bar- 

 rels of cider stored in the cellar. 



Mixed Orchards. — Grafted fruit Vv^as also common in the 

 orchards of the early settlers. Sometimes the entire 

 orchard was planted with grafted nursery trees, but taking 

 the State as a whole, in the earlier days, more often some 

 of the trees in the seedling orchards were top worked to 

 improved kinds and so the ordinary farm orchard was made 

 up partly of "common" or of "cider" apples, and partly of 

 grafted fruit. A great diversity of varieties of grafted 

 fruit was usually included in this class of orchards, because 

 the object was to furnish the home with fruit from the first 

 of the season through the autumn, winter and spring, and 

 even till early summer. Transportation facilities being 

 crude, there was little encouragement for shipping apples 

 to distant markets. When the farmer went to town he 

 would often try to reduce the surplus stock by taking with 

 him a few bushels of apples, put up in meal bags, to offer 

 in trade for articles which he wish to purchase. In many 

 a country store might be seen displayed for the inspection 

 of customers, Bell-flowers, Greenings, Pound Sweets, Rus- 



