412 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



pies were exhibited. We never expect to see finer. Our 

 most popular winter apples are : Yellow Bellflower ; White 

 Bellflower (called Detroit by the gentlemen of Cincinnati 

 Horticultural Society — but for reasons which are not satisfac- 

 tory to my mind. What has become of the White Bellflower 

 of Goxe^ if this is not it?) Newtown Spitzenberg, exceed- 

 ingly fine with us ; Canfield, Jennetting or Neverfail, escap- 

 ing spring frosts by late blossoming, very hardy, a great 

 bearer every year ; the fruit comes into eating in February, 

 is tender, juicy, mild and sprightly, and preferred with us 

 to the Green Newtown pippin — keeping full as well, bearing 

 better, the pulp much more manageable in the mouth, and 

 the apple has the peculiar property of bearing frosts, and 

 even freezing, without material injury; Green Newtown 

 pippin ; Michael Henry pippin (very fine) ; Pryor's Red, 

 in flavor resembling the New England Seek-no-further ; 

 Golden Russet, the prince of small apples, and resembling a 

 fine butter-pear more nearly than any apple in our orchards 

 — an enormous bearer ; some limbs exhibited were clustered 

 with fruit, more like bunches of grapes than apples ; Milam, 

 favorite early winter ; Rambo, the same. But the apple 

 most universally cultivated is the Vandervere pippin, only a 

 second or third-rate table apple', but having other qualities 

 which quite ravish the hearts of our farmers. The tree is 

 remarkably vigorous and healthy ; it almost never fails in a 

 crop ; when all others miss, the Vandervere pippin hits; the 

 fruit, which is very large and comely, is a late winter fruit — 

 yet swells so quickly as to be the first and best summer 

 cooking apple. If its flesh (which is coarse) were fine, and 

 its (too sharp) flavor equalled that of the Golden Russet, it 

 would stand without a rival, or near neighbor, at the very 

 head of the list of winter apples. As it is, it is a first-rate 

 tree, bearing a second-rate apple. A hybrid between it 

 and the Golden Russet, or Newtown Spitzenberg, appropri- 

 ating the virtues of both, would leave little more to be 

 hoped for or wished. The Baldwin has never come up to 



