ON FRUITS. 101 



run to one or two varieties, however excellent ; for the local 

 markets may be overstocked. We have a case in point, in the 

 general cultivation of the Baldwin apple. The Danvers Win- 

 ter Sweet, Seaver's Sweeting, and the Aunt Hannah, now 

 command nearly double the price of the above excellent sort. 

 We should cultivate apples which ripen in succession through- 

 out the season ; and should avoid raising many of those that 

 are in season at the time of our fine pears and peaches. We 

 believe that apples are to become a more staple article for ex- 

 portation, than they ever yet have been in New England. Our 

 soil and climate are, we apprehend, better adapted for the per- 

 manent cultivation of this fruit, than the deep alluvial soils of 

 the South and West. We find that there they are more sub- 

 ject to what has been denominated frozen sap blight and can- 

 ker, which we think may be attributable to their deep soils, 

 the roots running below the action of the sun and air, so ne- 

 cessary for the health and longevity of trees. We find here, 

 on the contrary, apple trees in a good healthy and bearing 

 state, that are half a century and more, old. 



In New England we have a more shallow soil ; hence trees 

 grow slower, the wood ripening better than upon rich, deep 

 soils, where they are forced to grow later, the wood being suc- 

 culent, the leaves remaining long upon the trees, rendering 

 them liable to be overtaken by the winter, before the sap is 

 sufficiently elaborated to stand a severe freezing. Hence, we- 

 believe that as Massachusetts can never be made a grazing or 

 grain growing region, compared at all with the South and 

 West, and as the apples here are equal, if not superior, on the 

 whole, to those of any other section, we would recommend to 

 the farmers of Essex County, to cultivate the best keeping va- 

 rieties of good winter apples, as a source of income vastly 

 more sure of a safe return than that of Indian Corn ; for while 

 the Southerner cannot compete with us in the cultivation of 

 the former, neither can we with him in the production of the 

 latter. 



From farther observation on the varieties of apples which, 

 from time to time, we have seen, since we made a fcrmer re- 

 port to this Society, we would repeat our assertion, that a fruit, 



