182 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 324. 



the latter in their own beauty and that of their surroundings. 

 But the great mass of us live neither in stately homes nor in 

 cottages, and of our residences— externally, at any rate — we 

 have very small reason to be proud. Now, as the Americans 

 have no stately homes of our English type, with the exception 

 of the fine old colonial residences of Virginia and New Eng- 

 land, and as their cottage homes are modern, practical, and 

 consequently ugly, and, as we have said, there is a wealth of 

 refinement in many American minds, they have succeeded in 

 making the villa residences of their big city suburbs the most 

 beautiful in the world. 



In a survey of these the first fact which strikes the eye of the 

 stranger is the extraordinary fertility of the American architec- 

 tural brain in original design. A family likeness pervades all 

 London suburban houses, be they north or south of the 

 Thames. If there be one pretty house, there will be scores 

 exactly like it all around ; but until within the past very few 

 years the London suburban builder reared as fast, as cheaply, 

 and, in consequence, as inartistically as he could, with the re- 

 sult that the very great majority of London suburban houses 

 are absolutely hideous. But in an American suburb, let us 

 say, for example, Brookline, near Boston, a suburb extending 

 over miles of hill and dale, and planted thickly with houses, it 

 maybe asserted that not half a dozen buildings are exactly 

 alike. The straining after the original and the striking has, of 

 course, resulted in the erection of a few monstrosities, and of 

 some houses more eccentric than pleasing in design, but the 

 general average is exceedingly high. 



After we have surveyed the exteriors of the houses and pro- 

 ceed to their interiors, another new fact strikes us, and this is 

 how very much better the different classes of American busi- 

 ness men are housed than are their corresponding grades in 

 our own country. Shop-walkers, counter-men and good arti- 

 sans go home every evening to houses which, in England, 

 would not be deemed unworthy of city men of good position. 

 The taste in furnishing and decoration may not always be as 

 good as the houses themselves, but there is nothing corre- 

 sponding to what may be called our London " genteel villa res- 

 idence"^ and the bank clerk, instead of huddling in one yel- 

 low-brick box in a long row with a big name, shuts himself up 

 for the evening in his own little detached castle, which contains, 

 on a small scale, all the accommodation and many more of the 

 conveniences of an English gentleman's house. 



American Apple Exports. 



THE apple export trade from this country to England 

 is by no means a new business, for as long as fifty 

 years ago lots of a hundred barrels and upward were sent 

 forward in sailing vessels that took from four to eight 

 weeks to make the voyage. Ten years later slow steam- 

 ships landed the fruit in from eighteen to twenty-five days, 

 though not always in sound condition. Until 1S70, 500 

 barrels of apples were considered a large shipment, but 

 since 1875, with swifter steamers, the business has greatly 

 increased, and is now a regular department of the fruit 

 trade in which some fifteen firms in this city are engaged, 

 besides half a dozen shipping brokers who see to arranging 

 for space on the steamers and attend to other details of 

 transportation. In 1S80-S1, a season of good crops, the 

 enormous quantity of 1,159,380 barrels went to Europe 

 from United States ports alone. The carefully compiled 

 reports of Mr. Mahlon Terhune, of this city, for the years 

 since 1SS0, show great variation in the quantity of yearly 

 shipments, the result of abundant or short crops. For ex- 

 ample, in 1892-93, more that 650,000 barrels were shipped 

 from New York, Boston and Portland ; of these apples 

 almost 250,000 barrels, or nearly thirty-eight per cent., 

 were grown in Canada. The shipments made direct from 

 the Canadian ports, Montreal and Halifax, amounted to 

 nearly 546,000 barrels. 



The apple export season dates from August to May, and 

 from advance-sheets of Mr. Terhune's statistics of ship- 

 ments for 1893-94 it appears that the minimum quantity 

 of less than 70,000 barrels went out from the United States 

 this season, and but 86,000 barrels from Canadian ports. 

 These figures indicate, with the single exception of 1883-84, 

 the dullest apple trade in twenty-five years. Reasons for 

 this unusual export market are found in a short crop, made 

 still smaller by the heavy storms of last autumn, large im- 



portations to England from other countries, and the pre- 

 vailing hard times. These exports, although comparatively 

 small, were large enough to diminish appreciably the stock 

 already insufficient for home use, so that prices have ruled 

 unusually high in this market. 



The first apples are shipped abroad about August 1st, 

 Keswick Codlins, from New Jersey, being the earliest ex- 

 port of last year. The Orange Pippin, a better fruit, follows 

 closely, but the export of these tender summer apples is 

 always attended with risks, and as they are needed at 

 home, shipments are likely to continue small. During the 

 year almost every variety of American apple is exported, 

 and Fameuse and other delicate apples stand the journey 

 well, Red Astrachan being one of the few kinds which 

 rarely arrives on the other side in good condition. Red- 

 skinned apples are preferred in England by the masses, and 

 the attractive King apple is in especial request early in the 

 fall. But there are not enough of these, and in recent years 

 Greenings, which come into market about the same time, 

 have gained a place in spite of their inferior color. But the 

 great export apple is the Newtown Pippin, the first Amer- 

 ican apple shipped to England. Coming originally from 

 orchards in Newtown, Long Island, the best of these apples 

 are now grown in the mountain districts of Virginia, where 

 they are locally known as Albemarle Pippins. Here the 

 fruit matures early and is ready for shipment by the 10th 

 of November. These Pippins, grown on Long Island and in 

 the Hudson River district east of that river, mature later 

 and are not fully ripened and well-colored before January. 

 On this side of the continent Newtown Pippins are grown 

 only in the sections indicated. But the northern orchards 

 are dying out, and efforts at propagation are not successful, 

 and the fate of the Spitzenberg twenty years ago threatens 

 this fruit. Westchester County, formerly a great centre for 

 these apples, now produces small scaly fruit, and it seems 

 to be only a matter of a few years when there will be none 

 of these apples grown in the north. It has been thought 

 by some that if the trees were not started from root-grafts, 

 but were grafted high up on some vigorous seedlings, they 

 might once more succeed where they are now failing. In 

 the Virginia district the fruit grows large and of excellent 

 quality. In New York state three heavy storms last autumn 

 cut prospective orchard harvests of fifteen hundred to 

 two thousand barrels down to a few hundred barrels, but 

 in Virginia the damage was slight and the crop was large 

 and of the good quality which attends a full-bearing season. 

 Quite as many Newtown Pippins went abroad, all Virginia 

 fruit, as in other recent years, and at paying rates, prices 

 in England ranging from 25 to 40 shillings a barrel for 

 No. 1 fruit. They are largely used for table-decoration 

 there, and their rich flavor commends them highly, while 

 they have also the crisp and sour qualities demanded in 

 the English market. Their firm flesh and tough skin espe- 

 cially adapt them for packing and shipment, whereas many 

 kinds, such as the Northern Spy, are easily bruised and dis- 

 colored. The Newtown Pippin is much better known in 

 England than it is here, since nearly the entire crop is ex- 

 ported. Christmas presents of these apples have long been 

 fashionable, and banking firms in this city send abroad 

 sometimes as many as 50 barrels to their business friends. 

 More Newtown Pippins were offered in our markets this 

 season than ever before, owing to the scarcity of other 

 apples, but these were mostly second-rate fruit from this 

 state and culls from Virginia, which in ordinary seasons 

 would find no sale here. The stock of Newtown Pippins is 

 always exhausted by March, and this year exports practi- 

 cally ended with the holiday trade. 



Among the latest apples usually shipped are Northern 

 Spies, which remain juicy and highly flavored to the end 

 of the season and are sought after by the best trade. More 

 Baldwins are usually shipped than of any other sort, and 

 these are even later keepers. It has been said of Russets 

 that they are an instance of the survival of the unfittest, 

 but their merits are appreciated by a large number of 

 buyers, and this apple ranks fourth or fifth in quantity ex- 



