dStart = DATE(2010,3,4)
SELECT * FROM Client WHERE Client.DateApp = dStart INTO CURSOR MyResult

? RECCOUNT("MyResult")
? _TALLY

Given Client data of:

ID                   DateApp
1                    01/01/2010
2                    01/28/2010
3                    03/04/2010

The two ?'s above would result in RECCOUNT() = 3 and _TALLY = 1 respectively given that VFP would optimize the SELECT by essentially doing a;

USE Client AGAIN ALIAS MyResult
SET FILTER TO DateApp = dStart

If you add the NOFILTER option to the SELECT as in:

dStart = DATE(2010,3,4)
SELECT * FROM Client WHERE Client.DateApp = dStart INTO CURSOR MyResult NOFILTER

then RECCOUNT() and _TALLY would be equal because the NOFILTER tells VFP NOT to do the USE ... AGAIN with a SET FILTER to get the results cursor.