_V. On Orchards._
I advert to this subject for the purpose of suggesting the utility
of propagating Sweet Apples.
After providing a due proportion of apples for the table, and the
ordinary purposes of cookery, I do not hesitate to express my
opinion, that for all other uses, sweet apples are entitled to the
preference. The best cider I ever tasted in this country, was made
wholly of sweet apples. They afford also a nourishing food to man
and all domestic animals. What furnishes a more delicate repast
than a rich sweet apple baked and eaten with milk? I recollect the
observation made to me by an observing farmer, before the American
revolution, that nothing would fatten cattle faster than sweet
apples. Mentioning this, a few years since, to a gentleman of my
acquaintance in an adjoining state, he informed me, that he was once
advised to give sweet apples to a sick horse. Happening then to have
them in plenty, the horse was served with them, and he soon got
well: and continuing to be fed with them, he fattened faster than
any other horse he had ever owned (and he had owned many) that was
fed with any other food.
Mentioning to the same gentleman, what I had long before heard, that
a good molasses might be made of sweet apples, he confirmed the
fact by an instance within his own knowledge: and further expressed
his opinion (and I have not known a man whose practical judgment
was entitled to more respect) that it would not be difficult,
by forming orchards of sweet apples, to supply molasses for the
general consumption of the United States. I have never tasted any
sweet apple molasses; but I suppose it has not (nor has honey) the
rich sweet of molasses from the sugar-cane; yet, for family uses
in general, it would be a useful substitute for the latter. The
process in making it I suppose to be very simple.--The apples being
ground, and the juice (or cider) expressed, at the cider-mill, it is
immediately boiled, (that is, before any fermentation takes place)
and the scum being taken off as it rises, the boiling is continued
until the liquor acquires the consistence of molasses.
Sweet apples are of different degrees of sweetness. Those of the
richest kinds should be chosen for the purpose of making molasses.
But in grafting, the cions should be taken (as they ought to be for
all kinds of fruit) not from old, worn out trees, but from those
whose originals are in full health and vigour.--For it has been
satisfactorily ascertained in England, (and proofs of it are not
wanting in our own country) that fruit trees have their infancy,
(springing from seeds) youth, maturity, and old age; and that when
they have reached this last stage, it is in vain that attempts are
made to continue them. Or if the cions take, and grow for a few
years, they are unproductive, and soon decay. The reason is plain:
every cion is a part of the tree from which it is taken; and if this
be in a state of decrepitude, so will be the cion; and although
grafted on a youthful, thrifty stock, it will be of no avail.