^§2 1 Assembly 



Spitzenburgh tree, which originated in Esopus, Ulster county', 

 this State, died some years ago. The progeny uf these tre<3S are 

 as healthy and flourishing as they ever were, and with care will 

 so continue for two centuries to come at least. If any gentleman 

 in this Club will take the trouble to visit some of the orchards in 

 New-Jersey, Long Island, or our own Empire State, he will not 

 be surprised that they sometimes die; they are never trimmed, 

 never scraped, never plowed among, never manured, and never 

 looked at except with disgust, when, in fact, they require almost 

 as much care and attention as a man's children. What farmer 

 would treat his corn in this manner? For that crop he enriches 

 the land, plows- and harrows it thoroughly, plants his corn, ashes 

 and plasters it, hoes and suckers it, plows and hoes it again and 

 again. Does he give the quarter of this care and attention to 

 his apple orchard? I answer, without fear of contradiction, nol 

 He plants the trees in holes half the size they should be and 

 leaves them to nature, then wonders why his apples are few in 

 number and inferior in quality. Apples should be divided into 

 three divisions : 



First, Those which are sweet and fit for eating, called table 

 apples. 



Secondj Those which are acid and proper for tarts, termed 

 kitchen or baking apples. 



Third, Cider apples. 



All apples contain, in their composition, malic acid, sugar, 

 mucilage, woody fibre, earbonic acid, silica, phosphate of iron, 

 phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, chlorine, soda, potash, magnesia, 

 lime, and from sixty to eighty per cent of water. One thousand 

 pounds of fresh apple pomace contains over eight hundred pounds 

 of water. How can a neglected apple orchard be expected to 

 produce abundant crops of fine fruit when all the albrementioned 

 substances are required, but never supplied by the horticulturist? 

 By maturation the juice of the apple is converted into sugar by 

 a chemical process called saccharine fermentation, which rapidly 

 passes into the putrefactive stage, when the sugar is changed to a 

 bitter principle aad the mucilage moulds j the fruit then becomes 



