318 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



melting and juicy ; flavor mild and delicate. It is not apt 

 to cloy, and more can be eaten than of almost any variety. 

 Ripe from December to March. 



24. Balpwin. — Works well in nursery by root or bud, 

 and is fine for nurserymen. Top forms easily. Not up- 

 right, as Downing says, but a round, spreading top. We 

 give Downing's description : 



"The Baldv.'in stands at the head of New England 

 apples, and is unquestionably a first-rate fruit in all respects. 

 It is a native of Massachusetts, and is more largely culti- 

 vated for the Boston market than any other sort. It 

 bears most abundantly, and we have had the satisfaction 

 of raising larger, more beautiful, and highly favored speci- 

 mens here, than we ever saw in its native region. The 

 Baldwin, in flavor and general characteristics, evidently 

 belongs to the same family as Esopus Spitzenburg, and 

 deserves its extensive popularity. 



" Fruit large, roundish, and narrowing a little to the eye. 

 Skin yellow in the shade, but nearly covered and striped 

 with crimson, red, and orange, in the sun ; dotted with a 

 few large russet dots, and with radiating streaks of russet 

 about the stalk. Calyx closed, set in a rather narrow 

 plaited basin. Stalk half to three fourths of an inch long, 

 rather slender for so large a fruit, planted in an even, 

 moderately deep cavity. Flesh yellowish white, crisp, with 

 that agreeable mingling of the saccharine and acid which 

 constitutes a rich, high flavor. The tree is a vigorous, 

 upright grower, and bears most abundantly. Ripe from 

 November to March, but attains its greatest perfection in 

 January." 



25. Michael Henry Pippin, — ^Tree upright, with a 

 round-shaped top ; wood strong, rather slow grower, ripens 

 its main growth of wood early, but liable to fresh growth 

 in warm, wet falls ; bears very young, every other year 

 abundantly and not a single apple in the next year. Should 

 not be grafted on the root ; and it is rather troublesome 



