Domestic Notices. 27 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Domestic N'otices. 



Large Apples. — The annual exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, which took place at Boston last week, is said to have been 

 an improvement on all its former exhibitions, in point of richness and 

 beauty. The varieties of apples and pears, sent by some of the members, 

 attracted a great deal of attention. The President, Col. Wilder, sent 6^ 

 varieties of pears alone. B. V. French sent, of pears, 38 kinds, and of 

 apples 50. Otis Johnson, of Lynn, sent 30 specimens of pears. Mr. 

 Brown, of Beverly, 30 of tlie same fruit. Robert Manning-, of Salem, 152 

 varieties of pears, and 26 of apples. Dr. Sparhawk, of Walpole, N. H., 

 sent a basket of apples, the largest of which weighed 17 ounces, and the 

 whole, on an average, each one pound. 



The above notice we find in one of the newspapers of the day ; and it 

 prompts us to make a few remarks in relation to the large apples exhibit- 

 ed. In a previous paper I named to you several of the most enthusiastic 

 cultivators in this vicinity ; but I forgot to name one votary of horticulture, 

 who well knows a hawk from a hand-saw, and beats your Doctor Spar- 

 hawk in the size of his apples, in about the same proportion that a chick- 

 en-hawk excels a sparrow-hawk. In the brief summary of the proceed- 

 ings of the Horticultural Society of Boston, to which reference is made 

 above, it is stated that the " largcsV of the doctor's weighed " 17 ounces." 

 Now you may be assured that Mr. James H. Durham, of this department, 

 — I beg pardon, — of the auditory office for this department, has gathered 

 two apples this yeai-, one of which weighed twenty-three, and the other 

 twenty-seven and a half ounces. Let all Boston beat that, if they can ! 

 Coxe says this apple, the " monstrous pippin," originated on Long Island, 

 and gives 27 ounces as its maximum weight ; but that must be corrected 

 in a new edition, and the palm of excellence must be yielded to this dis- 

 trict — else this apple shall become an " apple of discord" — which Avould 

 be natural enough, considering the year and the place of its growth. 



We have volumes written upon Durham cattle — small head, switch tail, 

 fine muzzle, slender bone, early maturity, great size, marbled beef, and 

 oceans of milk ; — but give me the Durham apple ! In the one case, size 

 demands food in proportion, and constant care and skill to keep tlie breed 

 from fiying to pieces ; whereas, Avitli the Durham apple, or " monstrous 

 pippin," size comes out of the nature of the fruit, and fitness of soil and 

 climate : while these apples fill both tlie eye and the mouth, they are 

 rather most agreeable to the last-named organ. " The flesh of it," say the 

 writers, " is juicy, white, tender and sprightly." Only tliink, Mr. Editor, 

 what a glorious dumpling one of these Durham apples Avould make ! one 

 pound, eleven ounces and a Irnlf! with a plenty of fresh Alderney cream 

 and sugar, by way of sauce ! Diogenes himself would crawl out of his 

 tub to such a feast ! 



But my pen is running wide of its mark, which was merely to hold up 

 to public view oivr grapes, and nectarines, and peaches, and, though last 

 not least, our apples, for therein we beat all Boston, and Salem in the bar- 

 gain; and every one knows it's no '■'■small potatoes" that can do that! 



