303 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
FALL APPLES. 
Fall varieties, in order of ripening : Gold¬ 
en Sweeting; Fall Pippin, (sub-acid ;) Jer¬ 
sey Sweeting, (for New Jersey and Central 
New York;) Gravenstein, (sub-acid ;) Ly¬ 
man’s Pumpkin Sweet, (for baking ;) Porter, 
(sub-acid, and one of the best for cooking ;) 
Rambo, (in New Jersey and Ohio ; sub-acid.) 
WINTER APPLES. 
Winter varieties : Baldwin (sub-acid).— 
Yellow Bellefleur (sub-acid), for the rich 
soils of the Western States; for cooking, 
and wonderfully fine.—Hubbardston’s Non¬ 
such (sub-acid), for New England and New 
York.—Jonathan, or Philip’s Rick (sub¬ 
acid), for Ulster County, and the Hudson 
River Counties between Albany and West 
Point.—Newtown Pippin (sub-acid), wher¬ 
ever it will flourish and bear well, and that 
is chiefly on Long Island, New Jersey near 
New York, and the Hudson River Counties ; 
this is the very best apple for the table and 
kitchen in the world!—Northern Spy (sub¬ 
acid), for Western New York.—Pomne 
Grise (sub-acid), for Canada and the North¬ 
ern Counties of New York ; this is a very 
long keeper, and of the richest flavor, 
though small.—Rhode Island Greening (sub¬ 
acid), for New England, New York, and 
Northern Ohio ; one of the very best for 
cooking, but rather tart for the table.—For 
the same sections : English, or Poughkeep¬ 
sie Russet (sub-acid); one of the richest 
of the long keepers ; Roxbury Russet (sub¬ 
acid) ; rich, and a long keeper.—Swaar (sub¬ 
acid), for Ulster County, New York, and 
Western Counties of that State, on warm, 
rich lands.—Tolman’s Sweeting ; the best 
Winter-baking apple that grows, wherever 
it will flourish.—Esopus Spitzenburgh (sub¬ 
acid), for Western New York and the Hud¬ 
son River Counties ; this is the highest 
flavored apple known, excepting, perhaps, 
the Newtown Pippin.—Vanderveer (sub¬ 
acid), for warm soils of New Jersey and 
New York; no apple excels this in delicacy 
and richness of flavor.—Waxen Gate or 
Belmont (sub-acid), for Northern Ohio.— 
Westfield-Seek-no-further (sub-acid) ; the 
best apple of the Connecticut Valley, and 
good in Western Massachusetts and New 
York.—Pomme de Neige, and Fameuse or 
Snow Apple (sub-acid), for Canada and 
Western New York. 
To these may be added, for the Southern 
country, as tried, substantial fruits in their 
seasons : Rawl’s Janet (sub-acid), for South¬ 
ern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, &c., and Ken¬ 
tucky for Winter.—Cooper (sub-acid) ; Fall; 
very fine in Ohio.—Limber-twig (sub-acid), 
for Winter, in Southern Ohio, Kentucky, 
and further North.—Primate (sub-acid), 
early Fall, for Central and Western New 
York ; and some other fine varieties local 
to the Western States, not now recollected. 
But we would not recommend any or- 
chardist to cultivate'for his own marketing 
more than a dozen varieties in all. His 
main rules in selectingjvarieties should be : 
First. Hardy trees, strong growers, and 
as near as may be annual bearers. 
Second. Sizeable, fair, well-shaped fruit, 
of fashionable colors; and these are yellow, 
red, or yellow ground striped with bright 
red. Some people buy apples almost alto¬ 
gether by the color ; and in these particu¬ 
lars, suit your market, if the fruit is good, or 
even of tolerable flavor. The eye has to be 
pleased as well as the taste. 
Third. Give your trees good soil, good cul¬ 
tivation ; set at least two rods (thirty-three 
feet) apart, and then “ go ahead.” 
And lastly, don’t believe half the stories 
the nursery catalogues tell of the good quali¬ 
ties of the fruits they have on sale. They 
may be all true of each kind, in certain 
; places . Get few kinds, and those good, and 
let fancy people try the experiments. 
To sum up the whole story, we believe 
that if we were now to start a new orchard 
for a future livelihood, we should confine 
ourselves to six varieties at the extent— 
two early ; two late ; and two Winter varie¬ 
ties, and then we should be certain that our 
trade would be well learned, and that we 
should have time to attend to it. 
BLOOMING OF APPLE TREES LURING FIFTY- 
NINE YEARS. 
Below we present a table recently fur¬ 
nished us by Mr. Isaac Stearns, of Mansfield, 
Mass., showing the date of the blooming of 
apple trees in that town each spring, from 
1798 to the present year. These dates refer 
to the day on which the blossoms had fully 
expanded on the different varieties of apple 
trees, excepting some of the late kinds, such 
as the Russet. The notes were commenced 
by Isaac Stearns, Sr., and continued until 
his death, in 1837, since which time they 
have been carefully continued by the family. 
The registerings were made on the margins 
of the Farmers’Almanac, complete files of 
which have been preserved. The figures 
furnish data for comparing the forwardness 
of each spring season. The dates of full 
blossoming are as follows : 
1798.. 
. .May 
13 
1818.. 
.. May 
27 
1838.. 
. - May 
30 
1799.. 
. May 
19 
1819.. 
. .May 
27 
1839.. 
. .May 
18 
1800.. 
.. May 
17 
1820.. 
. .May 
17 
1840.. 
. .May 
17 
1801. . 
. .May 
17 
1821.. 
. .May 
27 
1841.. 
. .May 
29 
1802.. 
. .May 
26 
1822.. 
. .May 
15 
1842.. 
. .May 
19 
1803.. 
. .May 
22 
1823.. 
23 
1843.. 
. .May 
22 
1804.. 
. .May 
22 
1824.. 
. .May 
19 
1844.. 
. .May 
11 
1805.. 
. .May 
14 
1825.. 
. .May 
15 
1845.. 
21 
1806. . 
. .May 
27 
1826.. 
. .May 
15 
1846.. 
. .May 
15 
1807.. 
. .May 
27 
1827.. 
.. May 
17 
1847.. 
.. May 
28 
1808.. 
. .May 
18 
1828.. 
. .May 
17 
1848.. 
.. May 
19 
1809.. 
. .May 
25 
1829.. 
. .May 
21 
1849.. 
. .May 29 
1810.. 
. .May 
19 
1830.. 
.. May 
9 
1850.. 
. .June 
3 
1811.. 
.. May 
15 
1831.. 
. .May 
14 
1851.. 
. .May 
22 
1812.. 
. .June 
2 
1832.. 
. .May 
31 
1852.. 
. .May 
26 
1813.. 
. .May 
25 
1833.. 
. .May 
12 
1853.. 
. .May 
14 
1814.. 
. .May 
14 
1834.. 
. .May 
20 
1854.. 
. .May 
21 
1815.. 
. .May 
27 
1835.. 
. .May 
29 
1855.. 
. .May 
26 
1816.. 
. .May 
28 
1836.. 
. .May 
21 
1856.. 
. .May 
28 
1817.. 
. .May 
23 
1837.. 
. .May 
30 
On the above table, Mr. Stearns remarks 
that the two extreme dates are May 9, 1830, 
and June 3, 1850—a difference of 25 days. 
The mean of these two dates is May 211, 
which is the mean of the whole 59 years 
—the first half averaging May 21, and the 
second half May 22. 
These reliable records will rather stand 
in the way of the theories of those who 
claim that our seasons are gradually grow¬ 
ing colder. According to this table, the 
spring of 1812 opened later than any year 
since, with the exception of that of 1850. 
The past spring was considered a very late 
one, but was earlier than 1812, 1818,1832, 
1835, 1837, 1838, 1849, and 1850, and varied 
but little from 1802, 1806, 1807, 1809, 1813, 
1815, 1816, 1819, 1829, 1841, 1847, 1852 and 
1855. 
The thirteen earliest seasons were in or¬ 
der : 1830,1844, 1833, 1798,1805,1814, 1831, 
1853, 1811, 1822, 1825, 1826, 1846,in each of 
which years the full blossoms appeared be¬ 
fore or on the 15th of May. 
The thirteen latest seasons occurred as 
follows : 1851, 1812, 1832, 1837, 1838, 1818, 
1835,1856,1816, 1847, 1806, 1807 and 1815. 
—Ed. 
GRAPE GROWING. 
To the Editor of the American Aoriculturist: 
In your last i ssue (September) the follow¬ 
ing questions are asked, by a correspondent, 
which I take pleasure in answering. 
First—“ Will the main stem of the im¬ 
ported grape be likely to suffer during win¬ 
ter, if left unprotected, provided the top or 
bearing branches are under glass cover ?” 
Yes, more or less according to the severity 
of the winter, such an one as last was would 
be sure to kill the vines. I saw a house of 
vines eight years old last summer, which 
have been rendered entirely worthless from 
this cause. 
Second—“ If protection is necessary, will 
a covering of straw closely bound on be 
sufficient?” Straw covering is frequently 
soaked by rain, and being in close contact 
with the vine there is absorption of the mois¬ 
ture by the stem, which, during severe frost, 
will burst the cellular structure by the ex¬ 
pansion of the fluids. A close fitting case 
of inch-and-a-half wood is much better, the 
stem being kept dry thereby, and better pro¬ 
tected. 
Third—“ Will the head branches bear 
equally as well at the distance of 30 to 40 
feet from the root as nearer?” Yes, pro¬ 
viding there be age and bulk enough in the 
stem, and the roots proportionate and heal¬ 
thy. 
“ The wild native grapes are said to pro¬ 
duce their best fruit at the tops of the sup¬ 
porting trees, say 40 to 80 feet from the root 
of the vine.” Very true, but they did not 
get into a bearing state up there, in a year 
or two.—“ Will the same be the case with 
the exotic or foreign grapes ?” Yes, if they 
be in a suitable climate. Such is the case 
in many examples in Southern Europe. The 
difficulty here is in getting the exotic grape 
vine to do well for a number ofyears, that is, 
until there shall be a well matured consti¬ 
tutional vigor of root and stem to support the 
extreme draw at the top which takes place 
under such circumstances. 
Your suggestions, with regard to making 
“ the house-top ” into a grapery are very 
good, were it not for the above mentioned, 
almost generally, insurmountable difficulties. 
There are many sheltered spots in city lots 
where the exotic grape vine would do well 
most seasons, and in such the plan might bo 
carried out in course of time, but when done 
the pleasure derived would be the only 
practical profit; the calculation of a few 
