RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



that the hillsides of this county, with their natural fruit 

 soils, furnish some of the best apple lands in the coun- 

 try. 



Very little attention was at first paid to the selection 

 of choice varieties of apples. This is evidenced by the 

 fact that very old orchards of the present day often 

 contain none of the choicer kinds. Most of the very 

 oldest trees around abandoned homesteads bear only 

 native fruit, except possibly here and there a branch 

 where top-grafting was practised after the tree had at- 

 tained considerable size. I recall one old, decaying 

 orchard in Salisbury where I have searched for several 

 years for grafted varieties of fruit, but without avail, 

 although the trees have nearly all borne abundantly. 

 Little use was made of the fruit as food in the early 

 days of the colonists. But cider was made and was 

 stored and used in great quantities on every farm. It 

 was taken to church to drink with the hearty luncheon 

 with which all fortified themselves in the noon hour 

 between the long discourses of morning and afternoon. 

 In one case, as previously recorded, even the minister 

 did not hesitate to increase his meager salary by engag- 

 ing in this traffic, for he was "hired for fifty pounds of 

 lawful money and the privilege of running the town 

 cider mill." 



Stills for cider brandy, too, were common every- 

 where, and large quantities of the cider were converted 



