This little southern favorite is not extensively cultivated in the North, except where southern settlers have introduced it. It is found in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. Origin believed to have been in Virginia, whence I have received specimens and trees. In Kentucky it is found to be a hardy drooping tree, holding the fruit well; annually productive, valued for cider, and keeping till July of next year.
Fruit medium, globular-oblate, uneven; Surface not smooth, yellowish green, mixed, red, with stripes and splashes; the whole presenting a gray appearance; Dots minute, scattered.
Basin shallow, wide, wavy; Eye small, closed.
Cavity acute, regular; Stem long, inclined.
Core medium, regular, closed; Seeds numerous, short, plump, pale; Flesh greenish-yellow, fine grained, juicy; flavor mild sub-acid, rich; almost first quality; keeping until May or later.
American Pippin.
GRINDSTONE.
This fruit is chiefly valued for keeping very late into the summer. Coxe commends it for its cider, rating it as nearly equal to the Grey-House; he says that fourteen bushels are required to make a barrel of cider. The apples hang well to the tree, and will bear a considerable amount of freezing. They are so firm as to suffer little from bruising, and are not disposed to rot when thus injured. A fruitman once said of their ability to withstand rough usage, that the apples might be whipped off the tree with a hoop-pole, shoveled into a cart, dumped upon the ground, and have some dirt thrown upon them, and that they would keep until next July; but, he added, they are then as good as dried apples; so lightly are they esteemed for table use.
The tree is thrifty, with a low, spreading head and depending branches; very productive; notwithstanding the fruit is dry and deficient in flavor, it is considered profitable, because so easily kept until May and June, when it commands the highest price, because of the rarity of green fruit at that season.
Fruit medium, regular, very flat; Surface rough, sometimes vein-russeted, dull green, covered with mixed red, and shaded with stripes of brick-dust color; Dots numerous, large, gray.