The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1177 
Commercial Fruit Culture 
Newtown in the Hudson Valley 
While the subject of the Newtown 
Pippin for the Hudson River Valley has 
been twice thrashed over, yet I cannot 
help feeling that it ha6 only been in part 
presented. The former writers have only 
set forth the shortcomings of the variety, 
but did not even touch upon the unique 
qualities which quite set it apart from 
any other variety which we have. While 
I am not advising anyone else to plant 
the Newtown on account of the difficul¬ 
ties which its culture presents, yet, per¬ 
sonally, I thought well enough of it to 
plant 100 trees a dozen years ago, and 
100 more three or four years ago. And 
the reasons which led me to do it were 
these: There is a certain period in the 
development of the apple when the pulp 
cells have reached a perfect state. This 
period, unfortunately, lasts but a very 
short time—with some varieties and in 
some seasons as short as four or five 
days. To illustrate: Last year the bulk 
of my Mclntoshes were picked Sept. 24, 
while still rather small and poorly col¬ 
ored, but it was the most delicious fruit 
a man ever put in his mouth. A Cham¬ 
pion peach, a Bartlett pear and an Indian 
River orange rolled into one couldn’t 
have equalled them, and the ungraded 
fruit in the open market brought $8 per 
barrel. The rest of the crop was picked 
October 12, when they had almost dou¬ 
bled in size and colored to perfection; 
but I would not have given eight cents 
a barrel for them, for they had no more 
quality than a Gillifiower. 
And here I would like to say that I 
think those people who advise commercial 
growers to plant only two, three or four 
varieties are mighty poor advisers, for 
it is then possible to get but a small pro¬ 
portion of the crop picked when the fruit 
is in the perfect state of development. 
The Newtown can be picked two weeks 
later than any other quality variety and 
secured in the perfect state. This 
lengthens the picking season, makes it 
easier to secure better-quality help, and 
makes less hustle. The Newtown has 
never been injured by frost. In the 
severe freeze of April 24 and 25 one of 
our best fruit men said all early varieties 
and Jonathans were severely injured, if 
not completely ruined, but the Newtowns 
were sate. Then the Newtown is a veri¬ 
table gold nugget, and has never failed 
to be profitable. In the great slump 
years of 1892 and 1994, when fancy 
Baldwin, Spy, Spitzenberg and King 
brought the growers and speculators 
heavily in debt, the Newtowns saved many 
from absolute ruin. One of our growers 
here sold over 3.000 barrels last Fall for 
$9 per barrel, put 1.000 in storage and 
sold them two weeks ago for $12,000. 
Not a bad sum to realize from one 
variety? I have known our Newtowns 
to sell in pre-war times for from $16 to 
$25 per barrel. In fact, it was the 
fabulous prices which our Newtown at¬ 
tained in the British market which led 
me more than 30 years ago to interest 
myself in apple culture, as it opened my 
eyes to the possibilities of the American 
apples which were suitable for export. 
Soon after Queen Victoria came to the 
throne our minister, Mr. Stevenson, gave 
her a Newtown Pippin, and she was so 
delighted with the rare quality (and the 
trans-oceanic voyage adds to it) of the 
apple that she straightway removed the 
import tax on American apples, and this 
was the beginning of the exportation of 
American apples to England. A friend 
of mine some years ago was visiting some 
friends in England, and begun to brag 
of our apples, whereupon the Englishman 
said: “My dear fellow, you will never 
know what an apple even is until you 
eat one of our Newtown Pippins!” Poor 
chap! he thought the Newtowns were 
grown in England. 
I use a Spy stock, which does better 
for me than the sweets or Greenings. I 
set a two-year-old and give intensive cul¬ 
tivation until latter part of July and then 
insert one bud. In two weeks I cut 
raffia, and if a bud has failed to ‘“set” 
put in another. If I wanted a low-headed 
tree I would use a yearling. I employ 
this same method with my Kings and 
Jonathans. All other varieties I set as 
I get them from the nurseries, though 
the great majority of my trees I raised 
from French crabs—after the first thou¬ 
sand trees I bought came into beating 
and less than 100 were true to name. 
Remember I am not advising anyone 
to plant the Newtown, for as has been 
stated, it is far more difficult to grow 
than many other varieties of equal qual¬ 
ity, but after watching its performance 
in this locality for over 30 years I felt 
justified in setting a good-sized, block in 
my own orchards. harvey losee. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
Cherries on Native Stock 
With apologies to Prof. Massey, I beg 
to record my experience with cherries 
worked on native, or Malialeb. stock, as 
related to the question by P. F., Albe¬ 
marle Co., Va., page 773. My father’s 
farm was located in Southeastern Penn¬ 
sylvania, in the hill country, about 15 
miles southeast of the Blue Ridge, so the 
climatic conditions are probably very 
similar to that of P. F.’s location. Among 
the most vivid recollections of my early 
childhood is that of two magnificent Tar¬ 
tarian cherry trees standing at the rear 
of our home, with their annual unfailing 
wealth of fruit. I often heard father say 
they were the result of his grafting little 
seedling trees years before. 
When old enough, I became much in¬ 
terested in the magic art, that by a few 
minutes of skillful work will change the 
character of a tree from worthlessness to 
usefulness and value. As unregenerate 
cherry trees were about the only sort of 
fruit volunteers that sprang up in odd 
corners along our stone fence, I practiced 
my new-found art on these. For a num¬ 
ber of years during my boyhood every 
Spring I would get the “grafting fever," 
just as town boys get the “fever" for 
playing marbles. I would get out my 
grafting iron and wax-pot, and graft a 
few likely young trees I had located dur¬ 
ing the year before. The result is one 
of the best collections of sweet and 
Bigarreau cherries in that section, an 
important item of income of that farm 
for years past, and will be for years to 
come. 
The point of special interest here is 
that- these trees are all thrifty, healthy, 
fruitful and long-lived. The trees worked 
ranged from a seedling one-half inch in 
diameter to a tree six to eight inches in 
diameter, that required scions distributed 
over many branches. I remember with 
much interest that when working on the 
very smallest, my father, passing, re¬ 
marked teasingly that I would be a gray 
haired man before I would eat cherries 
from that tree. Some years later when 
he himself was engaged in picking more 
than a bushel of fine fruit from that very 
tree, I 1 ad the pleasure of reminding him 
of his prediction. 
The larger tree spoken of as top-w-orked 
on the branches developed as fine a shape 
as one coi Id wish. In a case like that 
not all the branches should be removed 
in one season. I have had but one ex¬ 
perience, and that disappointing, with 
cherry trees procured from a nursery and 
on Mazzard stock. They *were bright and 
well-grown, but they never became thrifty 
and were a total failure where trees 
grafted on the native Malialeb stock were 
perfectly at home. So if I were planting 
heart or Bigarreau cherries in any sec¬ 
tion where ordinary cherry grows regu¬ 
larly as a volunteer, I would not ask for 
a better stock. I am not in a position 
to say how well this stock is adapted to 
the sour type of cherry, like Early Rich¬ 
mond and Montmorency. 
In speaking of wild stock for grafting, 
it may be necessary to make it clear that 
trees with fruit and leaf of the same 
type as that of the cultivated cherries is 
meant, and not the tree commonly known 
as “wild cherry.” with a grape-like cluster 
of fruit and bark with medicinal qualities. 
P. F. is in doubt about cherries on a 
commercial scale, because all local or- 
chardists stick to apples. That probably 
is due altogether to considerations of mar¬ 
keting problems rather than production 
problems . Sweet cherries, in the humid 
climate of the East, are very perishable; 
but the fact that vast quantities of this 
fruit are shipped in perfect condition 
across t e continent from the Pacific 
coast, offers a fertile field for speculation 
and experiment as to whether thorough 
spraying in the East may not insure 
against rot germs there, as climate does 
in the West. D. L. hartman. 
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