It is impossible to frame a list of apples which will suit every
cultivator. Men’s taste in fruits is widely different. The delicacy
and mildness of flavor which some admire, is to others mere
insipidity. The sharp acid, and coarse grain and strong flavor which
disgust many palates, are with others the very marks of a first-rate
apple. The object of the cultivator in planting an orchard, whether
for his own use, for a home market, for exportation, for cider-making,
or for stock-feeding, will very materially vary his selection.
The soil on which an orchard is to be planted should also determine
the use of many varieties, which are admirable only when well suited
in their locality.
Regard is to be had to climate, since some of the finest fruits in one
latitude entirely betray our expectations in another. The hardiness
and health of different varieties ought to be more an object of
attention than hitherto. As in building, so in planting an orchard, a
mistake lasts for a century, and a bad tree in a good orchard is like
bad timber in good mansion.
However select, then, a list may be, every cultivator must exercise
his own judgment in adapting it to his own circumstances.