In the 4 February 1871, issue of the Cecil Whig a contributor asks the Whig readers which types of apples suit Marylanders the best.
“At this season of the year when winter winds are howling about our dwellings it is a very good time for farmers to compare notes as to the comparative value of different kinds of farm products and there is no one perhaps where there is more room or need for improvement as in the apple crop.”
“We all know what a convenient thing it is to have plenty of nice apples to eat and hand our friends when they stop to see us yet but few have given this crop any particular attention. The most of the apples that are now being introduced had their origin in New York or New England, where the improvement of this fruit has claimed more attention than in the Southern States.”
“The consequence is that as our old winter apples have died out they have been replaced with these Northern varieties that, owing to our longer season, ripen long before winter sets in and have to be used or sold, to save them, long before Christmas. Our Baldwin, Roxbury Russett, King of Tompkins, R. I. Greening, and some others are of this class and can seldom be kept long into the winter. Yet we find them in market from New York plump and sound as late as May. Our apples are much larger and better though, while they last.
“What we now want is more reliable kinds, native of this State or further south, that will hang on our trees until severe frosts come, when they may be barreled and put in the cellar with some certainty of their keeping. The past season was an unusually long one and the general complaint is that apples keep so poorly.”
“Will not those who have promising kinds of native apples that bear well and answer the above description, let the fact be known through your columns that they may be further tested, and oblige many lovers of good apples. – G.B.”
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