Smith's Cider

Smith's Cider came from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and was recorded in 1817. Hessian soldiers, interned there after the Battle of Trenton, brought grafts to Frederick County, Virginia, during the Revolution. Variable in size from small to large, the skin is a clear pale-yellow, sometimes with a greenish cast, and is striped carmine. The surface is covered with whitish or russet dots, with russet at the base. The white flesh is fine-grained and crisp with a subacid flavor. Tree is a spreading, vigorous grower with straggling branches, and it bears early and fruits heavily. Coxe in A View of Fruit Trees, 1817, wrote: The apple...is highly esteemed as a most productive and excellent cider fruit, ...the size is middling, …the skin is smooth, a lively streaked red…it is a pleasant table fruit, but is chiefly used for cider. The tree is tall, the limbs shoot upwards; it is sometimes loaded with fruit beyond any other tree in our orchards, requiring care to prevent the branches being destroyed by the weight of the fruit. Ripens in October.