APPLE ORCHARl 



our New England fruit is known in the markets of 

 the world. These markets demand and will pay 

 well for good sound clean fruit well packed. A real 

 surplus of such fruit is very rare, though our local 

 markets may be glutted for a time. 



The practice of burying apples was common in old 

 times. A dry, sheltered place was selected, where 

 the snow was apt to accumulate. The fruit was 

 piled in pyramids of ten bushels, covered with 

 straw and earth just before freezing weather. The 

 covering did not exclude all frost, but protected 

 from alternate freezing and thawing. Apples not 

 only keep thus till spring, but they come out very 

 tender and fresh. The skins were so tender that 

 they would bruise readily, and keep poorly when 

 taken out, but they were very fine for immediate use. 



The most efficient persons in those early days in 

 cultivating and disseminating fine fruit were the 

 clergy. Not only did they care for the spiritual 

 vineyard, but the material orchards received their 

 attention. Their exchange travels about the state 

 and frequent public meetings gave facilities which 

 they readily embraced, so that many old parsonages 

 were marked, not only by a generous hospitality, 

 but by the orchards. 



The first commercial orchard I ever saw was in 

 Dutchess county. New York, planted about 1830, by 

 a Mr. Comstock. There were some twenty or thirty 

 acres, all of one variety, the English or Pough- 

 keepsie Russet, for the New York market. The trees 

 have very upright branches, bear abundantly a 

 sm.all, smooth, long-keeping apple of good flavor, 

 and the orchard formed a feature of marked interest 

 on the Sharon and Poughkeepsie turnpike. 



What condition is most favorable to the health and 

 longevity of the apple tree ? We find our largest 



r OF MY YOUTH. 197 



and healthiest old trees standing in some sheltered 

 spot of warm fat land, never touched by the plow, 

 nor too much trodden by animals. All over this 

 State this is the universal rule. Much plowing of 

 an orchard tends to shorten its life, and results in 

 premature decay. We do not mean that an orchard 

 should have no care nor culture because the appar- 

 ently uncared-for trees have surpassed in longevity 

 and fruitfulness any others, but only that these 

 trees prove the conditions most favorable for sim- 

 ple long life. Their roots have spread wide and 

 deep, because they were never wounded, and the 

 natural depth of soil was such as to allow them to 

 take a deep hold. 



When I began farming, nearly fifty years ago, I 

 planted a small nursery in a corner of the garden, 

 with seeds chosen from vigorous native fruit. I 

 grafted the trees myself and transplanted them to 

 the orchard. Most of them have done well, but one 

 tree, a Pippin, has borne thirty bushels of good ap- 

 ples in a single year, and is now in most vigorous 

 health. I should like to take my readers in a ram- 

 ble over my own orchards in the fruiting season to 

 study the different varieties under their varied con- 

 ditions of age, exposure, fertility and kindliness of 

 soil, for I never go about them without pleasure and 

 profit. 



In renewing in memory my boyish rambles in or- 

 chard and wood, my companions have been again 

 with me. Alas ! so many of them are never again 

 to be seen in the flesh ! The crooked orchards, 

 rugged and picturesque, have come back as a sweet 

 memory ; and I remember, too, to look with lenience 

 upon the boy who does not carry off more apples 

 than he can eat ! 



Coniit-cticut. T. S. Gold. 



