Harrison Apple

An excerpt from A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards and Cider…

NO. 83. HARRISON.

This is the most celebrated of the cider apples of Newark in New-Jersey: it is cultivated in high perfection, and to a great extent in that neighbourhood, particularly on the Orange mountain ; the shape is rather long, and pointed towards the crown the stalk long; hence it is often called the long stem the ends are deeply hollowed; the skin is yellow, with many small but distinct black spots, which give a rough- ness to the touch : the flesh is rich, yellow, firm and tough; the taste pleasant and sprightly, but rather dry it produces a high coloured, rich, and sweet cider of great strength, commanding a high price in New-York, frequently ten dollars and upwards per barrel when fined for bottling. The trees are certain bearers; the apples fall about the first of November; they are below the middling size, remarkably free from rot; ripen at that time, but wiU keep well when housed. The tree is of strong and vigorous growth, throwing out numerous suckers from the limbs the wood is hard ten bushels are required for a barrel of cider one barrel will produce fourteen quarts of distilled spirits: it obtained its name from a family in Essex county New-Jersey, where it originated, and is very extensively cultivated. One tree of this kind this year, in an orchard in Essex county, produced upwards of 100 bushels, 87 of which were gathered when fully ripe, the others were fallen fruit, carefully measured to ascertain the quantity.

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