diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4066-0.txt | 1409 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4066-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 29463 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4066-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 31614 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 4066-h/4066-h.htm | 1770 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/4066.txt | 1396 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/4066.zip | bin | 0 -> 28865 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/wldpp10.txt | 1389 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/wldpp10.zip | bin | 0 -> 27927 bytes |
11 files changed, 5980 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4066-0.txt b/4066-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bf9dfc --- /dev/null +++ b/4066-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1409 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wild Apples, by Henry David Thoreau + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Wild Apples + +Author: Henry David Thoreau + +Release Date: November 1, 2001 [eBook #4066] +[Most recently updated: February 10, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES *** + + + + +Wild Apples + +by Henry David Thoreau + + +Contents + + THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE + THE WILD APPLE + THE CRAB + HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS + THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR + THEIR BEAUTY + THE NAMING OF THEM + THE LAST GLEANING + THE “FROZEN-THAWED” APPLE + + + + +THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE + + +It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected +with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the +_Rosaceæ_, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the +_Labiatæ_, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the +appearance of man on the globe. + +It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown +primitive people whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of +the Swiss lakes, supposed to be older than the foundation of Rome, so +old that they had no metallic implements. An entire black and +shrivelled Crab-Apple has been recovered from their stores. + +Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger +with wild apples, among other things. + +Niebuhr[1] observes that “the words for a house, a field, a plough, +ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to +agriculture and the gentler ways of life, agree in Latin and Greek, +while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase +are utterly alien from the Greek.” Thus the apple-tree may be +considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive. + + [1] A German historical critic of ancient life. + + +The apple was early so important, and so generally distributed, that +its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in +general. Μῆλον (Mēlon), in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of +other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in +general. + +The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and +Scandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were tempted +by its fruit. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, dragons +were set to watch it, and heroes were employed to pluck it.[2] + + [2] The Greek myths especially referred to are The Choice of Paris and + The Apples of the Hesperides. + + +The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament, +and its fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings, “As the apple-tree +among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.” And +again, “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples.” The noblest part +of man’s noblest feature is named from this fruit, “the apple of the +eye.” + +The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw in +the glorious garden of Alcinous “pears and pomegranates and apple-trees +bearing beautiful fruit.” And according to Homer, apples were among the +fruits which Tantalus could not pluck, the wind ever blowing their +boughs away from him. Theophrastus knew and described the apple-tree as +a botanist. + +According to the prose Edda,[3] “Iduna keeps in a box the apples which +the gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of to +become young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in +renovated youth until Ragnarök” (or the destruction of the Gods). + + [3] The stories of the early Scandinavians. + + +I learn from Loudon[4] that “the ancient Welsh bards were rewarded for +excelling in song by the token of the apple-spray;” and “in the +Highlands of Scotland the apple-tree is the badge of the clan Lamont.” + + [4] An English authority on the culture of orchards and gardens. + + +The apple-tree belongs chiefly to the northern temperate zone. Loudon +says, that “it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe except the +frigid zone, and throughout Western Asia, China and Japan.” We have +also two or three varieties of the apple indigenous in North America. +The cultivated apple-tree was first introduced into this country by the +earliest settlers, and is thought to do as well or better here than +anywhere else. Probably some of the varieties which are now cultivated +were first introduced into Britain by the Romans. + +Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says, “Of trees there +are some which are altogether wild, some more civilized.” Theophrastus +includes the apple among the last; and, indeed, it is in this sense the +most civilized of all trees. It is as harmless as a dove, as beautiful +as a rose, and as valuable as flocks and herds. It has been longer +cultivated than any other, and so is more humanized; and who knows but, +like the dog, it will at length be no longer traceable to its wild +original? It migrates with man, like the dog and horse and cow; first, +perchance, from Greece to Italy, thence to England, thence to America; +and our Western emigrant is still marching steadily toward the setting +sun with the seeds of the apple in his pocket, or perhaps a few young +trees strapped to his load. At least a million apple-trees are thus set +farther westward this year than any cultivated ones grew last year. +Consider how the Blossom-Week, like the Sabbath, is thus annually +spreading over the prairies; for when man migrates he carries with him +not only his birds, quadrupeds, insects, vegetables, and his very +sward, but his orchard also. + +The leaves and tender twigs are an agreeable food to many domestic +animals, as the cow, horse, sheep, and goat; and the fruit is sought +after by the first, as well as by the hog. Thus there appears to have +existed a natural alliance between these animals and this tree from the +first. “The fruit of the Crab in the forests of France” is said to be +“a great resource for the wild boar.” + +Not only the Indian, but many indigenous insects, birds, and +quadrupeds, welcomed the apple-tree to these shores. The +tent-caterpillar saddled her eggs on the very first twig that was +formed, and it has since shared her affections with the wild cherry; +and the canker-worm also in a measure abandoned the elm to feed on it. +As it grew apace, the bluebird, robin, cherry-bird, king-bird, and many +more, came with haste and built their nests and warbled in its boughs, +and so became orchard-birds, and multiplied more than ever. It was an +era in the history of their race. The downy woodpecker found such a +savory morsel under its bark, that he perforated it in a ring quite +round the tree before he left it,—a thing which he had never done +before, to my knowledge. It did not take the partridge long to find out +how sweet its buds were, and every winter eve she flew, and still +flies, from the wood, to pluck them, much to the farmer’s sorrow. The +rabbit, too, was not slow to learn the taste of its twigs and bark; and +when the fruit was ripe, the squirrel half-rolled, half-carried it to +his hole; and even the musquash crept up the bank from the brook at +evening, and greedily devoured it, until he had worn a path in the +grass there; and when it was frozen and thawed, the crow and the jay +were glad to taste it occasionally. The owl crept into the first +apple-tree that became hollow, and fairly hooted with delight, finding +it just the place for him; so, settling down into it, he has remained +there ever since. + +My theme being the Wild Apple, I will merely glance at some of the +seasons in the annual growth of the cultivated apple, and pass on to my +special province. + +The flowers of the apple are perhaps the most beautiful of any tree, so +copious and so delicious to both sight and scent. The walker is +frequently tempted to turn and linger near some more than usually +handsome one, whose blossoms are two thirds expanded. How superior it +is in these respects to the pear, whose blossoms are neither colored +nor fragrant! + +By the middle of July, green apples are so large as to remind us of +coddling, and of the autumn. The sward is commonly strewed with little +ones which fall still-born, as it were,—Nature thus thinning them for +us. The Roman writer Palladius said: “If apples are inclined to fall +before their time, a stone placed in a split root will retain them.” +Some such notion, still surviving, may account for some of the stones +which we see placed to be overgrown in the forks of trees. They have a +saying in Suffolk, England,— + +“At Michaelmas time, or a little before, +Half an apple goes to the core.” + + +Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August; but I think +that none of them are so good to eat as some to smell. One is worth +more to scent your handkerchief with than any perfume which they sell +in the shops. The fragrance of some fruits is not to be forgotten, +along with that of flowers. Some gnarly apple which I pick up in the +road reminds me by its fragrance of all the wealth of +Pomona,[5]—carrying me forward to those days when they will be +collected in golden and ruddy heaps in the orchards and about the +cider-mills. + + [5] The Roman goddess of fruit and fruit-trees. + + +A week or two later, as you are going by orchards or gardens, +especially in the evenings, you pass through a little region possessed +by the fragrance of ripe apples, and thus enjoy them without price, and +without robbing anybody. + +There is thus about all natural products a certain volatile and +ethereal quality which represents their highest value, and which cannot +be vulgarized, or bought and sold. No mortal has ever enjoyed the +perfect flavor of any fruit, and only the godlike among men begin to +taste its ambrosial qualities. For nectar and ambrosia are only those +fine flavors of every earthly fruit which our coarse palates fail to +perceive,—just as we occupy the heaven of the gods without knowing it. +When I see a particularly mean man carrying a load of fair and fragrant +early apples to market, I seem to see a contest going on between him +and his horse, on the one side, and the apples on the other, and, to my +mind, the apples always gain it. Pliny says that apples are the +heaviest of all things, and that the oxen begin to sweat at the mere +sight of a load of them. Our driver begins to lose his load the moment +he tries to transport them to where they do not belong, that is, to any +but the most beautiful. Though he gets out from time to time, and feels +of them, and thinks they are all there, I see the stream of their +evanescent and celestial qualities going to heaven from his cart, while +the pulp and skin and core only are going to market. They are not +apples, but pomace. Are not these still Iduna’s apples, the taste of +which keeps the gods forever young? and think you that they will let +Loki or Thjassi carry them off to Jötunheim,[6] while they grow +wrinkled and gray? No, for Ragnarök, or the destruction of the gods, is +not yet. + + [6] Jötunheim (_Ye_(r)_t′-un-hime_) in Scandinavian mythology was the + home of the Jotun or Giants. Loki was a descendant of the gods, and a + companion of the Giants. Thjassi (_Tee-assy_) was a giant. + + +There is another thinning of the fruit, commonly near the end of August +or in September, when the ground is strewn with windfalls; and this +happens especially when high winds occur after rain. In some orchards +you may see fully three quarters of the whole crop on the ground, lying +in a circular form beneath the trees, yet hard and green,—or, if it is +a hillside, rolled far down the hill. However, it is an ill wind that +blows nobody any good. All the country over, people are busy picking up +the windfalls, and this will make them cheap for early apple-pies. + +In October, the leaves falling, the apples are more distinct on the +trees. I saw one year in a neighboring town some trees fuller of fruit +than I remember to have ever seen before, small yellow apples hanging +over the road. The branches were gracefully drooping with their weight, +like a barberry-bush, so that the whole tree acquired a new character. +Even the topmost branches, instead of standing erect, spread and +drooped in all directions; and there were so many poles supporting the +lower ones, that they looked like pictures of banian-trees. As an old +English manuscript says, “The mo appelen the tree bereth the more sche +boweth to the folk.” + +Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits. Let the most beautiful or +the swiftest have it. That should be the “going” price of apples. + +Between the fifth and twentieth of October I see the barrels lie under +the trees. And perhaps I talk with one who is selecting some choice +barrels to fulfil an order. He turns a specked one over many times +before he leaves it out. If I were to tell what is passing in my mind, +I should say that every one was specked which he had handled; for he +rubs off all the bloom, and those fugacious ethereal qualities leave +it. Cool evenings prompt the farmers to make haste, and at length I see +only the ladders here and there left leaning against the trees. + +It would be well if we accepted these gifts with more joy and +gratitude, and did not think it enough simply to put a fresh load of +compost about the tree. Some old English customs are suggestive at +least. I find them described chiefly in Brand’s “Popular Antiquities.” +It appears that “on Christmas eve the farmers and their men in +Devonshire take a large bowl of cider, with a toast in it, and carrying +it in state to the orchard, they salute the apple-trees with much +ceremony, in order to make them bear well the next season.” This +salutation consists in “throwing some of the cider about the roots of +the tree, placing bits of the toast on the branches,” and then, +“encircling one of the best bearing trees in the orchard, they drink +the following toast three several times:— + + “‘Here’s to thee, old apple-tree, +Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow, +And whence thou mayst bear apples enow! + Hats-full! caps-full! + Bushel, bushel, sacks-full! + And my pockets full, too! Hurra!’” + + +Also what was called “apple-howling” used to be practised in various +counties of England on New-Year’s eve. A troop of boys visited the +different orchards, and, encircling the apple-trees, repeated the +following words:— + +“Stand fast, root! bear well, top! +Pray God send us a good howling crop: +Every twig, apples big; +Every bow, apples enow!” + + +“They then shout in chorus, one of the boys accompanying them on a +cow’s horn. During this ceremony they rap the trees with their sticks.” +This is called “wassailing” the trees, and is thought by some to be “a +relic of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona.” + +Herrick sings,— + +“Wassaile the trees that they may beare +You many a plum and many a peare; +For more or less fruits they will bring +As you so give them wassailing.” + + +Our poets have as yet a better right to sing of cider than of wine; but +it behooves them to sing better than English Phillips did, else they +will do no credit to their Muse. + + + + +THE WILD APPLE + + +So much for the more civilized apple-trees (_urbaniores_, as Pliny +calls them). I love better to go through the old orchards of ungrafted +apple-trees, at whatever season of the year,—so irregularly planted: +sometimes two trees standing close together; and the rows so devious +that you would think that they not only had grown while the owner was +sleeping, but had been set out by him in a somnambulic state. The rows +of grafted fruit will never tempt me to wander amid them like these. +But I now, alas, speak rather from memory than from any recent +experience, such ravages have been made! + +Some soils, like a rocky tract called the Easterbrooks Country in my +neighborhood, are so suited to the apple, that it will grow faster in +them without any care, or if only the ground is broken up once a year, +than it will in many places with any amount of care. The owners of this +tract allow that the soil is excellent for fruit, but they say that it +is so rocky that they have not patience to plough it, and that, +together with the distance, is the reason why it is not cultivated. +There are, or were recently, extensive orchards there standing without +order. Nay, they spring up wild and bear well there in the midst of +pines, birches, maples, and oaks. I am often surprised to see rising +amid these trees the rounded tops of apple-trees glowing with red or +yellow fruit, in harmony with the autumnal tints of the forest. + +Going up the side of a cliff about the first of November, I saw a +vigorous young apple-tree, which, planted by birds or cows, had shot up +amid the rocks and open woods there, and had now much fruit on it, +uninjured by the frosts, when all cultivated apples were gathered. It +was a rank wild growth, with many green leaves on it still, and made an +impression of thorniness. The fruit was hard and green, but looked as +if it would be palatable in the winter. Some was dangling on the twigs, +but more half-buried in the wet leaves under the tree, or rolled far +down the hill amid the rocks. The owner knows nothing of it. The day +was not observed when it first blossomed, nor when it first bore fruit, +unless by the chickadee. There was no dancing on the green beneath it +in its honor, and now there is no hand to pluck its fruit,—which is +only gnawed by squirrels, as I perceive. It has done double duty,—not +only borne this crop, but each twig has grown a foot into the air. And +this is _such_ fruit! bigger than many berries, we must admit, and +carried home will be sound and palatable next spring. What care I for +Iduna’s apples so long as I can get these? + +When I go by this shrub thus late and hardy, and see its dangling +fruit, I respect the tree, and I am grateful for Nature’s bounty, even +though I cannot eat it. Here on this rugged and woody hillside has +grown an apple-tree, not planted by man, no relic of a former orchard, +but a natural growth, like the pines and oaks. Most fruits which we +prize and use depend entirely on our care. Corn and grain, potatoes, +peaches, melons, etc., depend altogether on our planting; but the apple +emulates man’s independence and enterprise. It is not simply carried, +as I have said, but, like him, to some extent, it has migrated to this +New World, and is even, here and there, making its way amid the +aboriginal trees; just as the ox and dog and horse sometimes run wild +and maintain themselves. + +Even the sourest and crabbedest apple, growing in the most unfavorable +position, suggests such thoughts as these, it is so noble a fruit. + + + + +THE CRAB + + +Nevertheless, _our_ wild apple is wild only like myself, perchance, who +belong not to the aboriginal race here, but have strayed into the woods +from the cultivated stock. Wilder still, as I have said, there grows +elsewhere in this country a native and aboriginal Crab-Apple, “whose +nature has not yet been modified by cultivation.” It is found from +Western New York to Minnesota and southward. Michaux[7] says that its +ordinary height “is fifteen or eighteen feet, but it is sometimes found +twenty-five or thirty feet high,” and that the large ones “exactly +resemble the common apple-tree.” “The flowers are white mingled with +rose-color, and are collected in corymbs.” They are remarkable for +their delicious odor. The fruit, according to him, is about an inch and +a half in diameter, and is intensely acid. Yet they make fine +sweet-meats, and also cider of them. He concludes, that “if, on being +cultivated, it does not yield new and palatable varieties, it will at +least be celebrated for the beauty of its flowers, and for the +sweetness of its perfume.” + + [7] Pronounced _mee-shō;_ a French botanist and traveller. + + +I never saw the Crab-Apple till May, 1861. I had heard of it through +Michaux, but more modern botanists, so far as I know, have not treated +it as of any peculiar importance. Thus it was a half-fabulous tree to +me. I contemplated a pilgrimage to the “Glades,” a portion of +Pennsylvania, where it was said to grow to perfection. I thought of +sending to a nursery for it, but doubted if they had it, or would +distinguish it from European varieties. At last I had occasion to go to +Minnesota, and on entering Michigan I began to notice from the cars a +tree with handsome rose-colored flowers. At first I thought it some +variety of thorn; but it was not long before the truth flashed on me, +that this was my long-sought Crab-Apple. It was the prevailing +flowering shrub or tree to be seen from the cars at that season of the +year,—about the middle of May. But the cars never stopped before one, +and so I was launched on the bosom of the Mississippi without having +touched one, experiencing the fate of Tantalus. On arriving at St. +Anthony’s Falls, I was sorry to be told that I was too far north for +the Crab-Apple. Nevertheless I succeeded in finding it about eight +miles west of the Falls; touched it and smelled it, and secured a +lingering corymb of flowers for my herbarium. This must have been near +its northern limit. + + + + +HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS + + +But though these are indigenous, like the Indians, I doubt whether they +are any hardier than those back-woodsmen among the apple-trees, which, +though descended from cultivated stocks, plant themselves in distant +fields and forests, where the soil is favorable to them. I know of no +trees which have more difficulties to contend with, and which more +sturdily resist their foes. These are the ones whose story we have to +tell. It oftentimes reads thus:— + +Near the beginning of May, we notice little thickets of apple-trees +just springing up in the pastures where cattle have been,—as the rocky +ones of our Easter-brooks Country, or the top of Nobscot Hill in +Sudbury. One or two of these perhaps survive the drought and other +accidents,—their very birthplace defending them against the encroaching +grass and some other dangers, at first. + +In two years’ time ’t had thus + Reached the level of the rocks, +Admired the stretching world, + Nor feared the wandering flocks. + +But at this tender age + Its sufferings began: +There came a browsing ox + And cut it down a span. + + +This time, perhaps, the ox does not notice it amid the grass; but the +next year, when it has grown more stout, he recognizes it for a +fellow-emigrant from the old country, the flavor of whose leaves and +twigs he well knows; and though at first he pauses to welcome it, and +express his surprise, and gets for answer, “The same cause that brought +you here brought me,” he nevertheless browses it again, reflecting, it +may be, that he has some title to it. + +Thus cut down annually, it does not despair; but, putting forth two +short twigs for every one cut off, it spreads out low along the ground +in the hollows or between the rocks, growing more stout and scrubby, +until it forms, not a tree as yet, but a little pyramidal, stiff, +twiggy mass, almost as solid and impenetrable as a rock. Some of the +densest and most impenetrable clumps of bushes that I have ever seen, +as well, on account of the closeness and stubbornness of their branches +as of their thorns, have been these wild-apple scrubs. They are more +like the scrubby fir and black spruce on which you stand, and sometimes +walk, on the tops of mountains, where cold is the demon they contend +with, than anything else. No wonder they are prompted to grow thorns at +last, to defend themselves against such foes. In their thorniness, +however, there is no malice, only some malic acid. + +The rocky pastures of the tract I have referred to—for they maintain +their ground best in a rocky field—are thickly sprinkled with these +little tufts, reminding you often of some rigid gray mosses or lichens, +and you see thousands of little trees just springing up between them, +with the seed still attached to them. + +Being regularly clipped all around each year by the cows, as a hedge +with shears, they are often of a perfect conical or pyramidal form, +from one to four feet high, and more or less sharp, as if trimmed by +the gardener’s art. In the pastures on Nobscot Hill and its spurs they +make fine dark shadows when the sun is low. They are also an excellent +covert from hawks for many small birds that roost and build in them. +Whole flocks perch in them at night, and I have seen three robins’ +nests in one which was six feet in diameter. + +No doubt many of these are already old trees, if you reckon from the +day they were planted, but infants still when you consider their +development and the long life before them. I counted the annual rings +of some which were just one foot high, and as wide as high, and found +that they were about twelve years old, but quite sound and thrifty! +They were so low that they were unnoticed by the walker, while many of +their contemporaries from the nurseries were already bearing +considerable crops. But what you gain in time is perhaps in this case, +too, lost in power,—that is, in the vigor of the tree. This is their +pyramidal state. + +The cows continue to browse them thus for twenty years or more, keeping +them down and compelling them to spread, until at last they are so +broad that they become their own fence, when some interior shoot, which +their foes cannot reach, darts upward with joy: for it has not +forgotten its high calling, and bears its own peculiar fruit in +triumph. + +Such are the tactics by which it finally defeats its bovine foes. Now, +if you have watched the progress of a particular shrub, you will see +that it is no longer a simple pyramid or cone, but out of its apex +there rises a sprig or two, growing more lustily perchance than an +orchard-tree, since the plant now devotes the whole of its repressed +energy to these upright parts. In a short time these become a small +tree, an inverted pyramid resting on the apex of the other, so that the +whole has now the form of a vast hour-glass. The spreading bottom, +having served its purpose, finally disappears, and the generous tree +permits the now harmless cows to come in and stand in its shade, and +rub against and redden its trunk, which has grown in spite of them, and +even to taste a part of its fruit, and so disperse the seed. + +Thus the cows create their own shade and food; and the tree, its +hour-glass being inverted, lives a second life, as it were. + +It is an important question with some nowadays, whether you should trim +young apple-trees as high as your nose or as high as your eyes. The ox +trims them up as high as he can reach, and that is about the right +height, I think. + +In spite of wandering kine and other adverse circumstance, that +despised shrub, valued only by small birds as a covert and shelter from +hawks, has its blossom-week at last, and in course of time its harvest, +sincere, though small. + +By the end of some October, when its leaves have fallen, I frequently +see such a central sprig, whose progress I have watched, when I thought +it had forgotten its destiny, as I had, bearing its first crop of small +green or yellow or rosy fruit, which the cows cannot get at over the +bushy and thorny hedge which surrounds it; and I make haste to taste +the new and undescribed variety. We have all heard of the numerous +varieties of fruit invented by Van Mons[8] and Knight.[9] This is the +system of Van Cow, and she has invented far more and more memorable +varieties than both of them. + + [8] A Belgian chemist and horticulturist. + + + [9] An English vegetable physiologist. + + +Through what hardships it may attain to bear a sweet fruit! Though +somewhat small, it may prove equal, if not superior, in flavor to that +which has grown in a garden,—will perchance be all the sweeter and more +palatable for the very difficulties it has had to contend with. Who +knows but this chance wild fruit, planted by a cow or a bird on some +remote and rocky hillside, where it is as yet unobserved by man, may be +the choicest of all its kind, and foreign potentates shall hear of it, +and royal societies seek to propagate it, though the virtues of the +perhaps truly crabbed owner of the soil may never be heard of,—at +least, beyond the limits of his village? It was thus the Porter and the +Baldwin grew. + +Every wild-apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every +wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a lesson to man! +So are human beings, referred to the highest standard, the celestial +fruit which they suggest and aspire to bear, browsed on by fate; and +only the most persistent and strongest genius defends itself and +prevails, sends a tender scion upward at last, and drops its perfect +fruit on the ungrateful earth. Poets and philosophers and statesmen +thus spring up in the country pastures, and outlast the hosts of +unoriginal men. + +Such is always the pursuit of knowledge. The celestial fruits, the +golden apples of the Hesperides, are ever guarded by a hundred-headed +dragon which never sleeps, so that it is an herculean labor to pluck +them. + +This is one and the most remarkable way in which the wild apple is +propagated; but commonly it springs up at wide intervals in woods and +swamps, and by the sides of roads, as the soil may suit it, and grows +with comparative rapidity. Those which grow in dense woods are very +tall and slender. I frequently pluck from these trees a perfectly mild +and tamed fruit. As Palladius says, “And the ground is strewn with the +fruit of an unbidden apple-tree.” + +It is an old notion, that, if these wild trees do not bear a valuable +fruit of their own, they are the best stocks by which to transmit to +posterity the most highly prized qualities of others. However, I am not +in search of stocks, but the wild fruit itself, whose fierce gust has +suffered no “inteneration.” It is not my + + “highest plot +To plant the Bergamot.” + + + + +THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR + + +The time for wild apples is the last of October and the first of +November. They then get to be palatable, for they ripen late, and they +are still, perhaps, as beautiful as ever. I make a great account of +these fruits, which the farmers do not think it worth the while to +gather,—wild flavors of the Muse, vivacious and inspiriting. The farmer +thinks that he has better in his barrels; but he is mistaken, unless he +has a walker’s appetite and imagination, neither of which can he have. + +Such as grow quite wild, and are left out till the first of November, I +presume that the owner does not mean to gather. They belong to children +as wild as themselves,—to certain active boys that I know,—to the +wild-eyed woman of the fields, to whom nothing comes amiss, who gleans +after all the world,—and, moreover, to us walkers. We have met with +them, and they are ours. These rights, long enough insisted upon, have +come to be an institution in some old countries, where they have +learned how to live. I hear that “the custom of grippling, which may be +called apple-gleaning, is, or was formerly, practised in Herefordshire. +It consists in leaving a few apples, which are called the gripples, on +every tree, after the general gathering, for the boys, who go with +climbing-poles and bags to collect them.” + +As for those I speak of, I pluck them as a wild fruit, native to this +quarter of the earth,—fruit of old trees that have been dying ever +since I was a boy and are not yet dead, frequented only by the +wood-pecker and the squirrel, deserted now by the owner, who has not +faith enough to look under their boughs. From the appearance of the +tree-top, at a little distance, you would expect nothing but lichens to +drop from it, but your faith is rewarded by finding the ground strewn +with spirited fruit,—some of it, perhaps, collected at squirrel-holes, +with the marks of their teeth by which they carried them,—some +containing a cricket or two silently feeding within, and some, +especially in damp days, a shelless snail. The very sticks and stones +lodged in the tree-top might have convinced you of the savoriness of +the fruit which has been so eagerly sought after in past years. + +I have seen no account of these among the “Fruits and Fruit-Trees of +America,” though they are more memorable to my taste than the grafted +kinds; more racy and wild American flavors do they possess, when +October and November, when December and January, and perhaps February +and March even, have assuaged them somewhat. An old farmer in my +neighborhood, who always selects the right word, says that “they have a +kind of bow-arrow tang.” + +Apples for grafting appear to have been selected commonly, not so much +for their spirited flavor, as for their mildness, their size, and +bearing qualities,—not so much for their beauty, as for their fairness +and soundness. Indeed, I have no faith in the selected lists of +pomological gentlemen. Their “Favorites” and “Non-suches” and +“Seek-no-farthers,” when I have fruited them, commonly turn out very +tame and forgetable. They are eaten with comparatively little zest, and +have no real _tang_ nor _smack_ to them. + +What if some of these wildings are acrid and puckery, genuine +_verjuice_, do they not still belong to the _Pomaceæ_, which are +uniformly innocent and kind to our race? I still begrudge them to the +cider-mill. Perhaps they are not fairly ripe yet. + +No wonder that these small and high-colored apples are thought to make +the best cider. Loudon quotes from the Herefordshire Report that +“apples of a small size are always, if equal in quality, to be +preferred to those of a larger size, in order that the rind and kernel +may bear the greatest proportion to the pulp, which affords the weakest +and most watery juice.” And he says, that, “to prove this, Dr. Symonds +of Hereford, about the year 1800, made one hogshead of cider entirely +from the rinds and cores of apples, and another from the pulp only, +when the first was found of extraordinary strength and flavor, while +the latter was sweet and insipid.” + +Evelyn[10] says that the “Red-strake” was the favorite cider-apple in +his day; and he quotes one Dr. Newburg as saying, “In Jersey ’t is a +general observation, as I hear, that the more of red any apple has in +its rind, the more proper it is for this use. Pale-faced apples they +exclude as much as may be from their cider-vat.” This opinion still +prevails. + + [10] An English writer of the seventeenth century. + + +All apples are good in November. Those which the farmer leaves out as +unsalable, and unpalatable to those who frequent the markets, are +choicest fruit to the walker. But it is remarkable that the wild apple, +which I praise as so spirited and racy when eaten in the fields or +woods, being brought into the house, has frequently a harsh and crabbed +taste. The Saunter-er’s Apple not even the saunterer can eat in the +house. The palate rejects it there, as it does haws and acorns, and +demands a tamed one; for there you miss the November air, which is the +sauce it is to be eaten with. Accordingly, when Tityrus, seeing the +lengthening shadows, invites Melibœus to go home and pass the night +with him, he promises him _mild_ apples and soft chestnuts. I +frequently pluck wild apples of so rich and spicy a flavor that I +wonder all orchardists do not get a scion from that tree, and I fail +not to bring home my pockets full. But perchance, when I take one out +of my desk and taste it in my chamber I find it unexpectedly +crude,—sour enough to set a squirrel’s teeth on edge and make a jay +scream. + +These apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have +absorbed the qualities of the weather or season, and thus are highly +_seasoned_, and they _pierce_ and _sting_ and _permeate_ us with their +spirit. They must be eaten in _season_, accordingly,—that is, +out-of-doors. + +To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it is +necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air. The +out-door air and exercise which the walker gets give a different tone +to his palate, and he craves a fruit which the sedentary would call +harsh and crabbed. They must be eaten in the fields, when your system +is all aglow with exercise, when the frosty weather nips your fingers, +the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles the few remaining leaves, +and the jay is heard screaming around. What is sour in the house a +bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labelled, “To +be eaten in the wind.” + +Of course no flavors are thrown away; they are intended for the taste +that is up to them. Some apples have two distinct flavors, and perhaps +one-half of them must be eaten in the house, the other out-doors. One +Peter Whitney wrote from Northborough in 1782, for the Proceedings of +the Boston Academy, describing an apple-tree in that town “producing +fruit of opposite qualities, part of the same apple being frequently +sour and the other sweet;” also some all sour, and others all sweet, +and this diversity on all parts of the tree. + +There is a wild apple on Nawshawtuck Hill in my town which has to me a +peculiarly pleasant bitter tang, not perceived till it is +three-quarters tasted. It remains on the tongue. As you eat it, it +smells exactly like a squash-bug. It is a sort of triumph to eat and +relish it. + +I hear that the fruit of a kind of plum-tree in Provence is “called +_Prunes sibarelles_, because it is impossible to whistle after having +eaten them, from their sourness.” But perhaps they were only eaten in +the house and in summer, and if tried out-of-doors in a stinging +atmosphere, who knows but you could whistle an octave higher and +clearer? + +In the fields only are the sours and bitters of Nature appreciated; +just as the wood-chopper eats his meal in a sunny glade, in the middle +of a winter day, with content, basks in a sunny ray there, and dreams +of summer in a degree of cold which, experienced in a chamber, would +make a student miserable. They who are at work abroad are not cold, but +rather it is they who sit shivering in houses. As with temperatures, so +with flavors; as with cold and heat, so with sour and sweet. This +natural raciness, the sours and bitters which the diseased palate +refuses, are the true condiments. + +Let your condiments be in the condition of your senses. To appreciate +the flavor of these wild apples requires vigorous and healthy senses, +_papillæ_[11] firm and erect on the tongue and palate, not easily +flattened and tamed. + + [11] A Latin word, accent on the second syllable, meaning here the + rough surface of the tongue and palate. + + +From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be +reason for a savage’s preferring many kinds of food which the civilized +man rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. It takes a +savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit. + +What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of +life, the apple of the world, then! + +“Nor is it every apple I desire, + Nor that which pleases every palate best; +’T is not the lasting Deuxan I require, + Nor yet the red-cheeked Greening I request, +Nor that which first beshrewed the name of wife, +Nor that whose beauty caused the golden strife: +No, no! bring me an apple from the tree of life.” + + +So there is one _thought_ for the field, another for the house. I would +have my thoughts, like wild apples, to be food for walkers, and will +not warrant them to be palatable, if tasted in the house. + + + + +THEIR BEAUTY + + +Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and +crabbed and rusty to look at. The gnarliest will have some redeeming +traits even to the eye. You will discover some evening redness dashed +or sprinkled on some protuberance or in some cavity. It is rare that +the summer lets an apple go without streaking or spotting it on some +part of its sphere. It will have some red stains, commemorating the +mornings and evenings it has witnessed; some dark and rusty blotches, +in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days that have passed over +it; and a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of +Nature,—green even as the fields; or a yellow ground, which implies a +milder flavor,—yellow as the harvest, or russet as the hills. + +Apples, these I mean, unspeakably fair,—apples not of Discord, but +Concord! Yet not so rare but that the homeliest may have a share. +Painted by the frosts, some a uniform clear bright yellow, or red, or +crimson, as if their spheres had regularly revolved, and enjoyed the +influence of the sun on all sides alike,—some with the faintest pink +blush imaginable,—some brindled with deep red streaks like a cow, or +with hundreds of fine blood-red rays running regularly from the +stem-dimple to the blossom-end, like meridional lines, on a +straw-colored ground,—some touched with a greenish rust, like a fine +lichen, here and there, with crimson blotches or eyes more or less +confluent and fiery when wet,—and others gnarly, and freckled or +peppered all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on a white +ground, as if accidentally sprinkled from the brush of Him who paints +the autumn leaves. Others, again, are sometimes red inside, perfused +with a beautiful blush, fairy food, too beautiful to eat,—apple of the +Hesperides, apple of the evening sky! But like shells and pebbles on +the sea-shore, they must be seen as they sparkle amid the withering +leaves in some dell in the woods, in the autumnal air, or as they lie +in the wet grass, and not when they have wilted and faded in the house. + + + + +THE NAMING OF THEM + + +It would be a pleasant pastime to find suitable names for the hundred +varieties which go to a single heap at the cider-mill. Would it not tax +a man’s invention,—no one to be named after a man, and all in the +_lingua vernacula?_[12] Who shall stand god-father at the christening +of the wild apples? It would exhaust the Latin and Greek languages, if +they were used, and make the _lingua vernacula_ flag. We should have to +call in the sunrise and the sunset, the rainbow and the autumn woods +and the wild flowers, and the woodpecker and the purple finch, and the +squirrel and the jay and the butterfly, the November traveller and the +truant boy, to our aid. + + [12] _Lingua vernacula_, common speech. + + +In 1836 there were in the garden of the London Horticultural Society +more than fourteen hundred distinct sorts. But here are species which +they have not in their catalogue, not to mention the varieties which +our Crab might yield to cultivation. Let us enumerate a few of these. I +find myself compelled, after all, to give the Latin names of some for +the benefit of those who live where English is not spoken,—for they are +likely to have a world-wide reputation. + +There is, first of all, the Wood-Apple (_Malus sylvatica_); the +Blue-Jay Apple; the Apple which grows in Dells in the Woods +(_sylvestrivallis_), also in Hollows in Pastures (_campestrivallis_); +the Apple that grows in an old Cellar-Hole (_Malus cellaris_); the +Meadow-Apple; the Partridge-Apple; the Truant’s Apple (_Cessatoris_), +which no boy will ever go by without knocking off some, however _late_ +it may be; the Saunterer’s Apple,—you must lose yourself before you can +find the way to that; the Beauty of the Air (_Decus Aëris_); +December-Eating; the Frozen-Thawed (_gelato-soluta_), good only in that +state; the Concord Apple, possibly the same with the +_Musketa-quidensis;_ the Assabet Apple; the Brindled Apple; Wine of New +England; the Chickaree Apple; the Green Apple (_Malus viridis_);—this +has many synonyms; in an imperfect state, it is the _Cholera morbifera +aut dysenterifera, puerulis dilectissima;_[13]—the Apple which Atalanta +stopped to pick up; the Hedge-Apple (_Malus Sepium_); the Slug-Apple +(_limacea_); the Railroad-Apple, which perhaps came from a core thrown +out of the cars; the Apple whose Fruit we tasted in our Youth; our +Particular Apple, not to be found in any catalogue,—_Pedestrium +Solatium;_[14] also the Apple where hangs the Forgotten Scythe; Iduna’s +Apples, and the Apples which Loki found in the Wood; and a great many +more I have on my list, too numerous to mention,—all of them good. As +Bodæus exclaims, referring to the culti-vated kinds, and adapting +Virgil to his case, so I, adapting Bodæus,— + +“Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, +An iron voice, could I describe all the forms +And reckon up all the names of these _wild apples_.” + + + [13] The apple that brings the disease of cholera and of dysentery, + the fruit that small boys like best. + + + [14] The tramp’s comfort. + + + + +THE LAST GLEANING + + +By the middle of November the wild apples have lost some of their +brilliancy, and have chiefly fallen. A great part are decayed on the +ground, and the sound ones are more palatable than before. The note of +the chickadee sounds now more distinct, as you wander amid the old +trees, and the autumnal dandelion is half-closed and tearful. But +still, if you are a skilful gleaner, you may get many a pocket-full +even of grafted fruit, long after apples are supposed to be gone +out-of-doors. I know a Blue-Pearmain tree, growing within the edge of a +swamp, almost as good as wild. You would not suppose that there was any +fruit left there, on the first survey, but you must look according to +system. Those which lie exposed are quite brown and rotten now, or +perchance a few still show one blooming cheek here and there amid the +wet leaves. Nevertheless, with experienced eyes, I explore amid the +bare alders and the huckleberry-bushes and the withered sedge, and in +the crevices of the rocks, which are full of leaves, and pry under the +fallen and decaying ferns, which, with apple and alder leaves, thickly +strew the ground. For I know that they lie concealed, fallen into +hollows long since and covered up by the leaves of the tree itself,—a +proper kind of packing. From these lurking-places, anywhere within the +circumference of the tree, I draw forth the fruit, all wet and glossy, +maybe nibbled by rabbits and hollowed out by crickets and perhaps with +a leaf or two cemented to it (as Curzon[15] an old manuscript from a +monastery’s mouldy cellar), but still with a rich bloom on it, and at +least as ripe and well kept, if not better than those in barrels, more +crisp and lively than they. If these resources fail to yield anything, +I have learned to look between the bases of the suckers which spring +thickly from some horizontal limb, for now and then one lodges there, +or in the very midst of an alder-clump, where they are covered by +leaves, safe from cows which may have smelled them out. If I am +sharp-set, for I do not refuse the Blue-Pearmain, I fill my pockets on +each side; and as I retrace my steps in the frosty eve, being perhaps +four or five miles from home, I eat one first from this side, and then +from that, to keep my balance. + + [15] Robert Curzon was a traveller who searched for old manuscripts in + the monasteries of the Levant. See his book, Ancient Monasteries of + the East. + + +I learn from Topsell’s Gesner, whose authority appears to be Albertus, +that the following is the way in which the hedgehog collects and +carries home his apples. He says: “His meat is apples, worms, or +grapes: when he findeth apples or grapes on the earth, he rolleth +himself upon them, until he have filled all his prickles, and then +carrieth them home to his den, never bearing above one in his mouth; +and if it fortune that one of them fall off by the way, he likewise +shaketh off all the residue, and walloweth upon them afresh, until they +be all settled upon his back again. So, forth he goeth, making a noise +like a cart-wheel; and if he have any young ones in his nest, they pull +off his load wherewithal he is loaded, eating thereof what they please, +and laying up the residue for the time to come.” + + + + +THE “FROZEN-THAWED” APPLE + + +Toward the end of November, though some of the sound ones are yet more +mellow and perhaps more edible, they have generally, like the leaves, +lost their beauty, and are beginning to freeze. It is finger-cold, and +prudent farmers get in their barrelled apples, and bring you the apples +and cider which they have engaged; for it is time to put them into the +cellar. Perhaps a few on the ground show their red cheeks above the +early snow, and occasionally some even preserve their color and +soundness under the snow throughout the winter. But generally at the +beginning of the winter they freeze hard, and soon, though undecayed, +acquire the color of a baked apple. + +Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first +thawing. Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite +unpalatable to the civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while +sound, let a warmer sun come to thaw them, for they are extremely +sensitive to its rays, are found to be filled with a rich, sweet cider, +better than any bottled cider that I know of, and with which I am +better acquainted than with wine. All apples are good in this state, +and your jaws are the cider-press. Others, which have more substance, +are a sweet and luscious food,—in my opinion of more worth than the +pine-apples which are imported from the West Indies. Those which lately +even I tasted only to repent of it,—for I am semi-civilized,—which the +farmer willingly left on the tree, I am now glad to find have the +property of hanging on like the leaves of the young oaks. It is a way +to keep cider sweet without boiling. Let the frost come to freeze them +first, solid as stones, and then the rain or a warm winter day to thaw +them, and they will seem to have borrowed a flavor from heaven through +the medium of the air in which they hang. Or perchance you find, when +you get home, that those which rattled in your pocket have thawed, and +the ice is turned to cider. But after the third or fourth freezing and +thawing they will not be found so good. + +What are the imported half-ripe fruits of the torrid South to this +fruit matured by the cold of the frigid North? These are those crabbed +apples with which I cheated my companion, and kept a smooth face that I +might tempt him to eat. Now we both greedily fill our pockets with +them,—bending to drink the cup and save our lappets from the +overflowing juice,—and grow more social with their wine. Was there one +that hung so high and sheltered by the tangled branches that our sticks +could not dislodge it? + +It is a fruit never carried to market, that I am aware of,—quite +distinct from the apple of the markets, as from dried apple and +cider,—and it is not every winter that produces it in perfection. + +The era of the Wild Apple will soon be past. It is a fruit which will +probably become extinct in New England. You may still wander through +old orchards of native fruit of great extent, which for the most part +went to the cider-mill, now all gone to decay. I have heard of an +orchard in a distant town, on the side of a hill, where the apples +rolled down and lay four feet deep against a wall on the lower side, +and this the owner cut down for fear they should be made into cider. +Since the temperance reform and the general introduction of grafted +fruit, no native apple-trees, such as I see everywhere in deserted +pastures, and where the woods have grown up around them, are set out. I +fear that he who walks over these fields a century hence will not know +the pleasure of knocking off wild apples. Ah, poor man, there are many +pleasures which he will not know! Notwithstanding the prevalence of the +Baldwin and the Porter, I doubt if so extensive orchards are set out +to-day in my town as there were a century ago, wrhen those vast +straggling cider-orchards were planted, when men both ate and drank +apples, when the pomace-heap was the only nursery, and trees cost +nothing but the trouble of setting them out. Men could afford then to +stick a tree by every wall-side and let it take its chance. I see +nobody planting trees to-day in such out-of-the-way places, along the +lonely roads and lanes, and at the bottom of dells in the wood. Now +that they have grafted trees, and pay a priee for them, they collect +them into a plat by their houses, and fence them in,—and the end of it +all will be that we shall be compelled to look for our apples in a +barrel. + +This is “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. + +“Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land! +Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?... + +“That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that +which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which +the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. + +“Awake, ye drunkards, and weep! and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, +because of the new wine! for it is cut off from your mouth. + +“For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, +whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a +great lion. + +“He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it +clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.... + +“Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen! howl, O ye vine-dressers!... + +“The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the +pomegranate-tree, the palm tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the +trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the +sons of men.”[16] + + [16] JOEL, chapter i., verses 1–12. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where + you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that: + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without +widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/4066-0.zip b/4066-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d26e9a --- /dev/null +++ b/4066-0.zip diff --git a/4066-h.zip b/4066-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..409987b --- /dev/null +++ b/4066-h.zip diff --git a/4066-h/4066-h.htm b/4066-h/4066-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd6feb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/4066-h/4066-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1770 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wild Apples, by Henry David Thoreau</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wild Apples, by Henry David Thoreau</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Wild Apples</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Henry David Thoreau</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 1, 2001 [eBook #4066]<br /> +[Most recently updated: February 10, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES ***</div> + +<h1>Wild Apples</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Henry David Thoreau</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">THE WILD APPLE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">THE CRAB</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">THEIR BEAUTY</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">THE NAMING OF THEM</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">THE LAST GLEANING</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">THE “FROZEN-THAWED” APPLE</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE</h2> + +<p> +It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected with +that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the <i>Rosaceæ</i>, which +includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the <i>Labiatæ</i>, or Mints, +were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man on the +globe. +</p> + +<p> +It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown primitive people +whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of the Swiss lakes, supposed +to be older than the foundation of Rome, so old that they had no metallic +implements. An entire black and shrivelled Crab-Apple has been recovered from +their stores. +</p> + +<p> +Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger with wild +apples, among other things. +</p> + +<p> +Niebuhr<a href="#fn1" name="fnref1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> observes that “the +words for a house, a field, a plough, ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, +apples, and others relating to agriculture and the gentler ways of life, agree +in Latin and Greek, while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or +the chase are utterly alien from the Greek.” Thus the apple-tree may be +considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn1"></a> <a href="#fnref1">[1]</a> +A German historical critic of ancient life. +</p> + +<p> +The apple was early so important, and so generally distributed, that its name +traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in general. +Μῆλον (Mēlon), in Greek, means an apple, also the +fruit of other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in +general. +</p> + +<p> +The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and +Scandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were tempted by its +fruit. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, dragons were set to watch +it, and heroes were employed to pluck it.<a href="#fn2" name="fnref2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn2"></a> <a href="#fnref2">[2]</a> +The Greek myths especially referred to are The Choice of Paris and The Apples +of the Hesperides. +</p> + +<p> +The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament, and its +fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings, “As the apple-tree among the +trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.” And again, +“Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples.” The noblest part of +man’s noblest feature is named from this fruit, “the apple of the +eye.” +</p> + +<p> +The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw in the +glorious garden of Alcinous “pears and pomegranates and apple-trees +bearing beautiful fruit.” And according to Homer, apples were among the +fruits which Tantalus could not pluck, the wind ever blowing their boughs away +from him. Theophrastus knew and described the apple-tree as a botanist. +</p> + +<p> +According to the prose Edda,<a href="#fn3" name="fnref3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +“Iduna keeps in a box the apples which the gods, when they feel old age +approaching, have only to taste of to become young again. It is in this manner +that they will be kept in renovated youth until Ragnarök” (or the +destruction of the Gods). +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn3"></a> <a href="#fnref3">[3]</a> +The stories of the early Scandinavians. +</p> + +<p> +I learn from Loudon<a href="#fn4" name="fnref4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> that +“the ancient Welsh bards were rewarded for excelling in song by the token +of the apple-spray;” and “in the Highlands of Scotland the +apple-tree is the badge of the clan Lamont.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn4"></a> <a href="#fnref4">[4]</a> +An English authority on the culture of orchards and gardens. +</p> + +<p> +The apple-tree belongs chiefly to the northern temperate zone. Loudon says, +that “it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe except the frigid +zone, and throughout Western Asia, China and Japan.” We have also two or +three varieties of the apple indigenous in North America. The cultivated +apple-tree was first introduced into this country by the earliest settlers, and +is thought to do as well or better here than anywhere else. Probably some of +the varieties which are now cultivated were first introduced into Britain by +the Romans. +</p> + +<p> +Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says, “Of trees there +are some which are altogether wild, some more civilized.” Theophrastus +includes the apple among the last; and, indeed, it is in this sense the most +civilized of all trees. It is as harmless as a dove, as beautiful as a rose, +and as valuable as flocks and herds. It has been longer cultivated than any +other, and so is more humanized; and who knows but, like the dog, it will at +length be no longer traceable to its wild original? It migrates with man, like +the dog and horse and cow; first, perchance, from Greece to Italy, thence to +England, thence to America; and our Western emigrant is still marching steadily +toward the setting sun with the seeds of the apple in his pocket, or perhaps a +few young trees strapped to his load. At least a million apple-trees are thus +set farther westward this year than any cultivated ones grew last year. +Consider how the Blossom-Week, like the Sabbath, is thus annually spreading +over the prairies; for when man migrates he carries with him not only his +birds, quadrupeds, insects, vegetables, and his very sward, but his orchard +also. +</p> + +<p> +The leaves and tender twigs are an agreeable food to many domestic animals, as +the cow, horse, sheep, and goat; and the fruit is sought after by the first, as +well as by the hog. Thus there appears to have existed a natural alliance +between these animals and this tree from the first. “The fruit of the +Crab in the forests of France” is said to be “a great resource for +the wild boar.” +</p> + +<p> +Not only the Indian, but many indigenous insects, birds, and quadrupeds, +welcomed the apple-tree to these shores. The tent-caterpillar saddled her eggs +on the very first twig that was formed, and it has since shared her affections +with the wild cherry; and the canker-worm also in a measure abandoned the elm +to feed on it. As it grew apace, the bluebird, robin, cherry-bird, king-bird, +and many more, came with haste and built their nests and warbled in its boughs, +and so became orchard-birds, and multiplied more than ever. It was an era in +the history of their race. The downy woodpecker found such a savory morsel +under its bark, that he perforated it in a ring quite round the tree before he +left it,—a thing which he had never done before, to my knowledge. It did +not take the partridge long to find out how sweet its buds were, and every +winter eve she flew, and still flies, from the wood, to pluck them, much to the +farmer’s sorrow. The rabbit, too, was not slow to learn the taste of its +twigs and bark; and when the fruit was ripe, the squirrel half-rolled, +half-carried it to his hole; and even the musquash crept up the bank from the +brook at evening, and greedily devoured it, until he had worn a path in the +grass there; and when it was frozen and thawed, the crow and the jay were glad +to taste it occasionally. The owl crept into the first apple-tree that became +hollow, and fairly hooted with delight, finding it just the place for him; so, +settling down into it, he has remained there ever since. +</p> + +<p> +My theme being the Wild Apple, I will merely glance at some of the seasons in +the annual growth of the cultivated apple, and pass on to my special province. +</p> + +<p> +The flowers of the apple are perhaps the most beautiful of any tree, so copious +and so delicious to both sight and scent. The walker is frequently tempted to +turn and linger near some more than usually handsome one, whose blossoms are +two thirds expanded. How superior it is in these respects to the pear, whose +blossoms are neither colored nor fragrant! +</p> + +<p> +By the middle of July, green apples are so large as to remind us of coddling, +and of the autumn. The sward is commonly strewed with little ones which fall +still-born, as it were,—Nature thus thinning them for us. The Roman +writer Palladius said: “If apples are inclined to fall before their time, +a stone placed in a split root will retain them.” Some such notion, still +surviving, may account for some of the stones which we see placed to be +overgrown in the forks of trees. They have a saying in Suffolk, England,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“At Michaelmas time, or a little before,<br/> +Half an apple goes to the core.” +</p> + +<p> +Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August; but I think that none +of them are so good to eat as some to smell. One is worth more to scent your +handkerchief with than any perfume which they sell in the shops. The fragrance +of some fruits is not to be forgotten, along with that of flowers. Some gnarly +apple which I pick up in the road reminds me by its fragrance of all the wealth +of Pomona,<a href="#fn5" name="fnref5"><sup>[5]</sup></a>—carrying me +forward to those days when they will be collected in golden and ruddy heaps in +the orchards and about the cider-mills. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn5"></a> <a href="#fnref5">[5]</a> +The Roman goddess of fruit and fruit-trees. +</p> + +<p> +A week or two later, as you are going by orchards or gardens, especially in the +evenings, you pass through a little region possessed by the fragrance of ripe +apples, and thus enjoy them without price, and without robbing anybody. +</p> + +<p> +There is thus about all natural products a certain volatile and ethereal +quality which represents their highest value, and which cannot be vulgarized, +or bought and sold. No mortal has ever enjoyed the perfect flavor of any fruit, +and only the godlike among men begin to taste its ambrosial qualities. For +nectar and ambrosia are only those fine flavors of every earthly fruit which +our coarse palates fail to perceive,—just as we occupy the heaven of the +gods without knowing it. When I see a particularly mean man carrying a load of +fair and fragrant early apples to market, I seem to see a contest going on +between him and his horse, on the one side, and the apples on the other, and, +to my mind, the apples always gain it. Pliny says that apples are the heaviest +of all things, and that the oxen begin to sweat at the mere sight of a load of +them. Our driver begins to lose his load the moment he tries to transport them +to where they do not belong, that is, to any but the most beautiful. Though he +gets out from time to time, and feels of them, and thinks they are all there, I +see the stream of their evanescent and celestial qualities going to heaven from +his cart, while the pulp and skin and core only are going to market. They are +not apples, but pomace. Are not these still Iduna’s apples, the taste of +which keeps the gods forever young? and think you that they will let Loki or +Thjassi carry them off to Jötunheim,<a href="#fn6" name="fnref6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> +while they grow wrinkled and gray? No, for Ragnarök, or the destruction of the +gods, is not yet. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn6"></a> <a href="#fnref6">[6]</a> +Jötunheim (<i>Ye</i>(r)<i>t′-un-hime</i>) in Scandinavian mythology was +the home of the Jotun or Giants. Loki was a descendant of the gods, and a +companion of the Giants. Thjassi (<i>Tee-assy</i>) was a giant. +</p> + +<p> +There is another thinning of the fruit, commonly near the end of August or in +September, when the ground is strewn with windfalls; and this happens +especially when high winds occur after rain. In some orchards you may see fully +three quarters of the whole crop on the ground, lying in a circular form +beneath the trees, yet hard and green,—or, if it is a hillside, rolled +far down the hill. However, it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. All +the country over, people are busy picking up the windfalls, and this will make +them cheap for early apple-pies. +</p> + +<p> +In October, the leaves falling, the apples are more distinct on the trees. I +saw one year in a neighboring town some trees fuller of fruit than I remember +to have ever seen before, small yellow apples hanging over the road. The +branches were gracefully drooping with their weight, like a barberry-bush, so +that the whole tree acquired a new character. Even the topmost branches, +instead of standing erect, spread and drooped in all directions; and there were +so many poles supporting the lower ones, that they looked like pictures of +banian-trees. As an old English manuscript says, “The mo appelen the tree +bereth the more sche boweth to the folk.” +</p> + +<p> +Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits. Let the most beautiful or the +swiftest have it. That should be the “going” price of apples. +</p> + +<p> +Between the fifth and twentieth of October I see the barrels lie under the +trees. And perhaps I talk with one who is selecting some choice barrels to +fulfil an order. He turns a specked one over many times before he leaves it +out. If I were to tell what is passing in my mind, I should say that every one +was specked which he had handled; for he rubs off all the bloom, and those +fugacious ethereal qualities leave it. Cool evenings prompt the farmers to make +haste, and at length I see only the ladders here and there left leaning against +the trees. +</p> + +<p> +It would be well if we accepted these gifts with more joy and gratitude, and +did not think it enough simply to put a fresh load of compost about the tree. +Some old English customs are suggestive at least. I find them described chiefly +in Brand’s “Popular Antiquities.” It appears that “on +Christmas eve the farmers and their men in Devonshire take a large bowl of +cider, with a toast in it, and carrying it in state to the orchard, they salute +the apple-trees with much ceremony, in order to make them bear well the next +season.” This salutation consists in “throwing some of the cider +about the roots of the tree, placing bits of the toast on the branches,” +and then, “encircling one of the best bearing trees in the orchard, they +drink the following toast three several times:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + “‘Here’s to thee, old apple-tree,<br/> +Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow,<br/> +And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!<br/> + Hats-full! caps-full!<br/> + Bushel, bushel, sacks-full!<br/> + And my pockets full, too! Hurra!’” +</p> + +<p> +Also what was called “apple-howling” used to be practised in +various counties of England on New-Year’s eve. A troop of boys visited +the different orchards, and, encircling the apple-trees, repeated the following +words:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Stand fast, root! bear well, top!<br/> +Pray God send us a good howling crop:<br/> +Every twig, apples big;<br/> +Every bow, apples enow!” +</p> + +<p> +“They then shout in chorus, one of the boys accompanying them on a +cow’s horn. During this ceremony they rap the trees with their +sticks.” This is called “wassailing” the trees, and is +thought by some to be “a relic of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona.” +</p> + +<p> +Herrick sings,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Wassaile the trees that they may beare<br/> +You many a plum and many a peare;<br/> +For more or less fruits they will bring<br/> +As you so give them wassailing.” +</p> + +<p> +Our poets have as yet a better right to sing of cider than of wine; but it +behooves them to sing better than English Phillips did, else they will do no +credit to their Muse. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>THE WILD APPLE</h2> + +<p> +So much for the more civilized apple-trees (<i>urbaniores</i>, as Pliny calls +them). I love better to go through the old orchards of ungrafted apple-trees, +at whatever season of the year,—so irregularly planted: sometimes two +trees standing close together; and the rows so devious that you would think +that they not only had grown while the owner was sleeping, but had been set out +by him in a somnambulic state. The rows of grafted fruit will never tempt me to +wander amid them like these. But I now, alas, speak rather from memory than +from any recent experience, such ravages have been made! +</p> + +<p> +Some soils, like a rocky tract called the Easterbrooks Country in my +neighborhood, are so suited to the apple, that it will grow faster in them +without any care, or if only the ground is broken up once a year, than it will +in many places with any amount of care. The owners of this tract allow that the +soil is excellent for fruit, but they say that it is so rocky that they have +not patience to plough it, and that, together with the distance, is the reason +why it is not cultivated. There are, or were recently, extensive orchards there +standing without order. Nay, they spring up wild and bear well there in the +midst of pines, birches, maples, and oaks. I am often surprised to see rising +amid these trees the rounded tops of apple-trees glowing with red or yellow +fruit, in harmony with the autumnal tints of the forest. +</p> + +<p> +Going up the side of a cliff about the first of November, I saw a vigorous +young apple-tree, which, planted by birds or cows, had shot up amid the rocks +and open woods there, and had now much fruit on it, uninjured by the frosts, +when all cultivated apples were gathered. It was a rank wild growth, with many +green leaves on it still, and made an impression of thorniness. The fruit was +hard and green, but looked as if it would be palatable in the winter. Some was +dangling on the twigs, but more half-buried in the wet leaves under the tree, +or rolled far down the hill amid the rocks. The owner knows nothing of it. The +day was not observed when it first blossomed, nor when it first bore fruit, +unless by the chickadee. There was no dancing on the green beneath it in its +honor, and now there is no hand to pluck its fruit,—which is only gnawed +by squirrels, as I perceive. It has done double duty,—not only borne this +crop, but each twig has grown a foot into the air. And this is <i>such</i> +fruit! bigger than many berries, we must admit, and carried home will be sound +and palatable next spring. What care I for Iduna’s apples so long as I +can get these? +</p> + +<p> +When I go by this shrub thus late and hardy, and see its dangling fruit, I +respect the tree, and I am grateful for Nature’s bounty, even though I +cannot eat it. Here on this rugged and woody hillside has grown an apple-tree, +not planted by man, no relic of a former orchard, but a natural growth, like +the pines and oaks. Most fruits which we prize and use depend entirely on our +care. Corn and grain, potatoes, peaches, melons, etc., depend altogether on our +planting; but the apple emulates man’s independence and enterprise. It is +not simply carried, as I have said, but, like him, to some extent, it has +migrated to this New World, and is even, here and there, making its way amid +the aboriginal trees; just as the ox and dog and horse sometimes run wild and +maintain themselves. +</p> + +<p> +Even the sourest and crabbedest apple, growing in the most unfavorable +position, suggests such thoughts as these, it is so noble a fruit. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>THE CRAB</h2> + +<p> +Nevertheless, <i>our</i> wild apple is wild only like myself, perchance, who +belong not to the aboriginal race here, but have strayed into the woods from +the cultivated stock. Wilder still, as I have said, there grows elsewhere in +this country a native and aboriginal Crab-Apple, “whose nature has not +yet been modified by cultivation.” It is found from Western New York to +Minnesota and southward. Michaux<a href="#fn7" name="fnref7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> +says that its ordinary height “is fifteen or eighteen feet, but it is +sometimes found twenty-five or thirty feet high,” and that the large ones +“exactly resemble the common apple-tree.” “The flowers are +white mingled with rose-color, and are collected in corymbs.” They are +remarkable for their delicious odor. The fruit, according to him, is about an +inch and a half in diameter, and is intensely acid. Yet they make fine +sweet-meats, and also cider of them. He concludes, that “if, on being +cultivated, it does not yield new and palatable varieties, it will at least be +celebrated for the beauty of its flowers, and for the sweetness of its +perfume.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn7"></a> <a href="#fnref7">[7]</a> +Pronounced <i>mee-shō;</i> a French botanist and traveller. +</p> + +<p> +I never saw the Crab-Apple till May, 1861. I had heard of it through Michaux, +but more modern botanists, so far as I know, have not treated it as of any +peculiar importance. Thus it was a half-fabulous tree to me. I contemplated a +pilgrimage to the “Glades,” a portion of Pennsylvania, where it was +said to grow to perfection. I thought of sending to a nursery for it, but +doubted if they had it, or would distinguish it from European varieties. At +last I had occasion to go to Minnesota, and on entering Michigan I began to +notice from the cars a tree with handsome rose-colored flowers. At first I +thought it some variety of thorn; but it was not long before the truth flashed +on me, that this was my long-sought Crab-Apple. It was the prevailing flowering +shrub or tree to be seen from the cars at that season of the year,—about +the middle of May. But the cars never stopped before one, and so I was launched +on the bosom of the Mississippi without having touched one, experiencing the +fate of Tantalus. On arriving at St. Anthony’s Falls, I was sorry to be +told that I was too far north for the Crab-Apple. Nevertheless I succeeded in +finding it about eight miles west of the Falls; touched it and smelled it, and +secured a lingering corymb of flowers for my herbarium. This must have been +near its northern limit. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS</h2> + +<p> +But though these are indigenous, like the Indians, I doubt whether they are any +hardier than those back-woodsmen among the apple-trees, which, though descended +from cultivated stocks, plant themselves in distant fields and forests, where +the soil is favorable to them. I know of no trees which have more difficulties +to contend with, and which more sturdily resist their foes. These are the ones +whose story we have to tell. It oftentimes reads thus:— +</p> + +<p> +Near the beginning of May, we notice little thickets of apple-trees just +springing up in the pastures where cattle have been,—as the rocky ones of +our Easter-brooks Country, or the top of Nobscot Hill in Sudbury. One or two of +these perhaps survive the drought and other accidents,—their very +birthplace defending them against the encroaching grass and some other dangers, +at first. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +In two years’ time ’t had thus<br/> + Reached the level of the rocks,<br/> +Admired the stretching world,<br/> + Nor feared the wandering flocks.<br/> +<br/> +But at this tender age<br/> + Its sufferings began:<br/> +There came a browsing ox<br/> + And cut it down a span. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This time, perhaps, the ox does not notice it amid the grass; but the next +year, when it has grown more stout, he recognizes it for a fellow-emigrant from +the old country, the flavor of whose leaves and twigs he well knows; and though +at first he pauses to welcome it, and express his surprise, and gets for +answer, “The same cause that brought you here brought me,” he +nevertheless browses it again, reflecting, it may be, that he has some title to +it. +</p> + +<p> +Thus cut down annually, it does not despair; but, putting forth two short twigs +for every one cut off, it spreads out low along the ground in the hollows or +between the rocks, growing more stout and scrubby, until it forms, not a tree +as yet, but a little pyramidal, stiff, twiggy mass, almost as solid and +impenetrable as a rock. Some of the densest and most impenetrable clumps of +bushes that I have ever seen, as well, on account of the closeness and +stubbornness of their branches as of their thorns, have been these wild-apple +scrubs. They are more like the scrubby fir and black spruce on which you stand, +and sometimes walk, on the tops of mountains, where cold is the demon they +contend with, than anything else. No wonder they are prompted to grow thorns at +last, to defend themselves against such foes. In their thorniness, however, +there is no malice, only some malic acid. +</p> + +<p> +The rocky pastures of the tract I have referred to—for they maintain +their ground best in a rocky field—are thickly sprinkled with these +little tufts, reminding you often of some rigid gray mosses or lichens, and you +see thousands of little trees just springing up between them, with the seed +still attached to them. +</p> + +<p> +Being regularly clipped all around each year by the cows, as a hedge with +shears, they are often of a perfect conical or pyramidal form, from one to four +feet high, and more or less sharp, as if trimmed by the gardener’s art. +In the pastures on Nobscot Hill and its spurs they make fine dark shadows when +the sun is low. They are also an excellent covert from hawks for many small +birds that roost and build in them. Whole flocks perch in them at night, and I +have seen three robins’ nests in one which was six feet in diameter. +</p> + +<p> +No doubt many of these are already old trees, if you reckon from the day they +were planted, but infants still when you consider their development and the +long life before them. I counted the annual rings of some which were just one +foot high, and as wide as high, and found that they were about twelve years +old, but quite sound and thrifty! They were so low that they were unnoticed by +the walker, while many of their contemporaries from the nurseries were already +bearing considerable crops. But what you gain in time is perhaps in this case, +too, lost in power,—that is, in the vigor of the tree. This is their +pyramidal state. +</p> + +<p> +The cows continue to browse them thus for twenty years or more, keeping them +down and compelling them to spread, until at last they are so broad that they +become their own fence, when some interior shoot, which their foes cannot +reach, darts upward with joy: for it has not forgotten its high calling, and +bears its own peculiar fruit in triumph. +</p> + +<p> +Such are the tactics by which it finally defeats its bovine foes. Now, if you +have watched the progress of a particular shrub, you will see that it is no +longer a simple pyramid or cone, but out of its apex there rises a sprig or +two, growing more lustily perchance than an orchard-tree, since the plant now +devotes the whole of its repressed energy to these upright parts. In a short +time these become a small tree, an inverted pyramid resting on the apex of the +other, so that the whole has now the form of a vast hour-glass. The spreading +bottom, having served its purpose, finally disappears, and the generous tree +permits the now harmless cows to come in and stand in its shade, and rub +against and redden its trunk, which has grown in spite of them, and even to +taste a part of its fruit, and so disperse the seed. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the cows create their own shade and food; and the tree, its hour-glass +being inverted, lives a second life, as it were. +</p> + +<p> +It is an important question with some nowadays, whether you should trim young +apple-trees as high as your nose or as high as your eyes. The ox trims them up +as high as he can reach, and that is about the right height, I think. +</p> + +<p> +In spite of wandering kine and other adverse circumstance, that despised shrub, +valued only by small birds as a covert and shelter from hawks, has its +blossom-week at last, and in course of time its harvest, sincere, though small. +</p> + +<p> +By the end of some October, when its leaves have fallen, I frequently see such +a central sprig, whose progress I have watched, when I thought it had forgotten +its destiny, as I had, bearing its first crop of small green or yellow or rosy +fruit, which the cows cannot get at over the bushy and thorny hedge which +surrounds it; and I make haste to taste the new and undescribed variety. We +have all heard of the numerous varieties of fruit invented by Van Mons<a +href="#fn8" name="fnref8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> and Knight.<a href="#fn9" +name="fnref9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> This is the system of Van Cow, and she has +invented far more and more memorable varieties than both of them. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn8"></a> <a href="#fnref8">[8]</a> +A Belgian chemist and horticulturist. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn9"></a> <a href="#fnref9">[9]</a> +An English vegetable physiologist. +</p> + +<p> +Through what hardships it may attain to bear a sweet fruit! Though somewhat +small, it may prove equal, if not superior, in flavor to that which has grown +in a garden,—will perchance be all the sweeter and more palatable for the +very difficulties it has had to contend with. Who knows but this chance wild +fruit, planted by a cow or a bird on some remote and rocky hillside, where it +is as yet unobserved by man, may be the choicest of all its kind, and foreign +potentates shall hear of it, and royal societies seek to propagate it, though +the virtues of the perhaps truly crabbed owner of the soil may never be heard +of,—at least, beyond the limits of his village? It was thus the Porter +and the Baldwin grew. +</p> + +<p> +Every wild-apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every wild +child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a lesson to man! So are human +beings, referred to the highest standard, the celestial fruit which they +suggest and aspire to bear, browsed on by fate; and only the most persistent +and strongest genius defends itself and prevails, sends a tender scion upward +at last, and drops its perfect fruit on the ungrateful earth. Poets and +philosophers and statesmen thus spring up in the country pastures, and outlast +the hosts of unoriginal men. +</p> + +<p> +Such is always the pursuit of knowledge. The celestial fruits, the golden +apples of the Hesperides, are ever guarded by a hundred-headed dragon which +never sleeps, so that it is an herculean labor to pluck them. +</p> + +<p> +This is one and the most remarkable way in which the wild apple is propagated; +but commonly it springs up at wide intervals in woods and swamps, and by the +sides of roads, as the soil may suit it, and grows with comparative rapidity. +Those which grow in dense woods are very tall and slender. I frequently pluck +from these trees a perfectly mild and tamed fruit. As Palladius says, +“And the ground is strewn with the fruit of an unbidden +apple-tree.” +</p> + +<p> +It is an old notion, that, if these wild trees do not bear a valuable fruit of +their own, they are the best stocks by which to transmit to posterity the most +highly prized qualities of others. However, I am not in search of stocks, but +the wild fruit itself, whose fierce gust has suffered no +“inteneration.” It is not my +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + “highest plot<br/> +To plant the Bergamot.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR</h2> + +<p> +The time for wild apples is the last of October and the first of November. They +then get to be palatable, for they ripen late, and they are still, perhaps, as +beautiful as ever. I make a great account of these fruits, which the farmers do +not think it worth the while to gather,—wild flavors of the Muse, +vivacious and inspiriting. The farmer thinks that he has better in his barrels; +but he is mistaken, unless he has a walker’s appetite and imagination, +neither of which can he have. +</p> + +<p> +Such as grow quite wild, and are left out till the first of November, I presume +that the owner does not mean to gather. They belong to children as wild as +themselves,—to certain active boys that I know,—to the wild-eyed +woman of the fields, to whom nothing comes amiss, who gleans after all the +world,—and, moreover, to us walkers. We have met with them, and they are +ours. These rights, long enough insisted upon, have come to be an institution +in some old countries, where they have learned how to live. I hear that +“the custom of grippling, which may be called apple-gleaning, is, or was +formerly, practised in Herefordshire. It consists in leaving a few apples, +which are called the gripples, on every tree, after the general gathering, for +the boys, who go with climbing-poles and bags to collect them.” +</p> + +<p> +As for those I speak of, I pluck them as a wild fruit, native to this quarter +of the earth,—fruit of old trees that have been dying ever since I was a +boy and are not yet dead, frequented only by the wood-pecker and the squirrel, +deserted now by the owner, who has not faith enough to look under their boughs. +From the appearance of the tree-top, at a little distance, you would expect +nothing but lichens to drop from it, but your faith is rewarded by finding the +ground strewn with spirited fruit,—some of it, perhaps, collected at +squirrel-holes, with the marks of their teeth by which they carried +them,—some containing a cricket or two silently feeding within, and some, +especially in damp days, a shelless snail. The very sticks and stones lodged in +the tree-top might have convinced you of the savoriness of the fruit which has +been so eagerly sought after in past years. +</p> + +<p> +I have seen no account of these among the “Fruits and Fruit-Trees of +America,” though they are more memorable to my taste than the grafted +kinds; more racy and wild American flavors do they possess, when October and +November, when December and January, and perhaps February and March even, have +assuaged them somewhat. An old farmer in my neighborhood, who always selects +the right word, says that “they have a kind of bow-arrow tang.” +</p> + +<p> +Apples for grafting appear to have been selected commonly, not so much for +their spirited flavor, as for their mildness, their size, and bearing +qualities,—not so much for their beauty, as for their fairness and +soundness. Indeed, I have no faith in the selected lists of pomological +gentlemen. Their “Favorites” and “Non-suches” and +“Seek-no-farthers,” when I have fruited them, commonly turn out +very tame and forgetable. They are eaten with comparatively little zest, and +have no real <i>tang</i> nor <i>smack</i> to them. +</p> + +<p> +What if some of these wildings are acrid and puckery, genuine <i>verjuice</i>, +do they not still belong to the <i>Pomaceæ</i>, which are uniformly innocent +and kind to our race? I still begrudge them to the cider-mill. Perhaps they are +not fairly ripe yet. +</p> + +<p> +No wonder that these small and high-colored apples are thought to make the best +cider. Loudon quotes from the Herefordshire Report that “apples of a +small size are always, if equal in quality, to be preferred to those of a +larger size, in order that the rind and kernel may bear the greatest proportion +to the pulp, which affords the weakest and most watery juice.” And he +says, that, “to prove this, Dr. Symonds of Hereford, about the year 1800, +made one hogshead of cider entirely from the rinds and cores of apples, and +another from the pulp only, when the first was found of extraordinary strength +and flavor, while the latter was sweet and insipid.” +</p> + +<p> +Evelyn<a href="#fn10" name="fnref10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> says that the +“Red-strake” was the favorite cider-apple in his day; and he quotes +one Dr. Newburg as saying, “In Jersey ’t is a general observation, +as I hear, that the more of red any apple has in its rind, the more proper it +is for this use. Pale-faced apples they exclude as much as may be from their +cider-vat.” This opinion still prevails. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn10"></a> <a href="#fnref10">[10]</a> +An English writer of the seventeenth century. +</p> + +<p> +All apples are good in November. Those which the farmer leaves out as +unsalable, and unpalatable to those who frequent the markets, are choicest +fruit to the walker. But it is remarkable that the wild apple, which I praise +as so spirited and racy when eaten in the fields or woods, being brought into +the house, has frequently a harsh and crabbed taste. The Saunter-er’s +Apple not even the saunterer can eat in the house. The palate rejects it there, +as it does haws and acorns, and demands a tamed one; for there you miss the +November air, which is the sauce it is to be eaten with. Accordingly, when +Tityrus, seeing the lengthening shadows, invites Melibœus to go home and pass +the night with him, he promises him <i>mild</i> apples and soft chestnuts. I +frequently pluck wild apples of so rich and spicy a flavor that I wonder all +orchardists do not get a scion from that tree, and I fail not to bring home my +pockets full. But perchance, when I take one out of my desk and taste it in my +chamber I find it unexpectedly crude,—sour enough to set a +squirrel’s teeth on edge and make a jay scream. +</p> + +<p> +These apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have absorbed +the qualities of the weather or season, and thus are highly <i>seasoned</i>, +and they <i>pierce</i> and <i>sting</i> and <i>permeate</i> us with their +spirit. They must be eaten in <i>season</i>, accordingly,—that is, +out-of-doors. +</p> + +<p> +To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it is +necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air. The out-door +air and exercise which the walker gets give a different tone to his palate, and +he craves a fruit which the sedentary would call harsh and crabbed. They must +be eaten in the fields, when your system is all aglow with exercise, when the +frosty weather nips your fingers, the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles +the few remaining leaves, and the jay is heard screaming around. What is sour +in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be +labelled, “To be eaten in the wind.” +</p> + +<p> +Of course no flavors are thrown away; they are intended for the taste that is +up to them. Some apples have two distinct flavors, and perhaps one-half of them +must be eaten in the house, the other out-doors. One Peter Whitney wrote from +Northborough in 1782, for the Proceedings of the Boston Academy, describing an +apple-tree in that town “producing fruit of opposite qualities, part of +the same apple being frequently sour and the other sweet;” also some all +sour, and others all sweet, and this diversity on all parts of the tree. +</p> + +<p> +There is a wild apple on Nawshawtuck Hill in my town which has to me a +peculiarly pleasant bitter tang, not perceived till it is three-quarters +tasted. It remains on the tongue. As you eat it, it smells exactly like a +squash-bug. It is a sort of triumph to eat and relish it. +</p> + +<p> +I hear that the fruit of a kind of plum-tree in Provence is “called +<i>Prunes sibarelles</i>, because it is impossible to whistle after having +eaten them, from their sourness.” But perhaps they were only eaten in the +house and in summer, and if tried out-of-doors in a stinging atmosphere, who +knows but you could whistle an octave higher and clearer? +</p> + +<p> +In the fields only are the sours and bitters of Nature appreciated; just as the +wood-chopper eats his meal in a sunny glade, in the middle of a winter day, +with content, basks in a sunny ray there, and dreams of summer in a degree of +cold which, experienced in a chamber, would make a student miserable. They who +are at work abroad are not cold, but rather it is they who sit shivering in +houses. As with temperatures, so with flavors; as with cold and heat, so with +sour and sweet. This natural raciness, the sours and bitters which the diseased +palate refuses, are the true condiments. +</p> + +<p> +Let your condiments be in the condition of your senses. To appreciate the +flavor of these wild apples requires vigorous and healthy senses, +<i>papillæ</i><a href="#fn11" name="fnref11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> firm and erect +on the tongue and palate, not easily flattened and tamed. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn11"></a> <a href="#fnref11">[11]</a> +A Latin word, accent on the second syllable, meaning here the rough +surface of the tongue and palate. +</p> + +<p> +From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be reason +for a savage’s preferring many kinds of food which the civilized man +rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. It takes a savage or wild +taste to appreciate a wild fruit. +</p> + +<p> +What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of life, the +apple of the world, then! +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Nor is it every apple I desire,<br/> + Nor that which pleases every palate best;<br/> +’T is not the lasting Deuxan I require,<br/> + Nor yet the red-cheeked Greening I request,<br/> +Nor that which first beshrewed the name of wife,<br/> +Nor that whose beauty caused the golden strife:<br/> +No, no! bring me an apple from the tree of life.” +</p> + +<p> +So there is one <i>thought</i> for the field, another for the house. I would +have my thoughts, like wild apples, to be food for walkers, and will not +warrant them to be palatable, if tasted in the house. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>THEIR BEAUTY</h2> + +<p> +Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and crabbed and +rusty to look at. The gnarliest will have some redeeming traits even to the +eye. You will discover some evening redness dashed or sprinkled on some +protuberance or in some cavity. It is rare that the summer lets an apple go +without streaking or spotting it on some part of its sphere. It will have some +red stains, commemorating the mornings and evenings it has witnessed; some dark +and rusty blotches, in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days that have +passed over it; and a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of +Nature,—green even as the fields; or a yellow ground, which implies a +milder flavor,—yellow as the harvest, or russet as the hills. +</p> + +<p> +Apples, these I mean, unspeakably fair,—apples not of Discord, but +Concord! Yet not so rare but that the homeliest may have a share. Painted by +the frosts, some a uniform clear bright yellow, or red, or crimson, as if their +spheres had regularly revolved, and enjoyed the influence of the sun on all +sides alike,—some with the faintest pink blush imaginable,—some +brindled with deep red streaks like a cow, or with hundreds of fine blood-red +rays running regularly from the stem-dimple to the blossom-end, like meridional +lines, on a straw-colored ground,—some touched with a greenish rust, like +a fine lichen, here and there, with crimson blotches or eyes more or less +confluent and fiery when wet,—and others gnarly, and freckled or peppered +all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on a white ground, as if +accidentally sprinkled from the brush of Him who paints the autumn leaves. +Others, again, are sometimes red inside, perfused with a beautiful blush, fairy +food, too beautiful to eat,—apple of the Hesperides, apple of the evening +sky! But like shells and pebbles on the sea-shore, they must be seen as they +sparkle amid the withering leaves in some dell in the woods, in the autumnal +air, or as they lie in the wet grass, and not when they have wilted and faded +in the house. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>THE NAMING OF THEM</h2> + +<p> +It would be a pleasant pastime to find suitable names for the hundred varieties +which go to a single heap at the cider-mill. Would it not tax a man’s +invention,—no one to be named after a man, and all in the <i>lingua +vernacula?</i><a href="#fn12" name="fnref12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> Who shall +stand god-father at the christening of the wild apples? It would exhaust the +Latin and Greek languages, if they were used, and make the <i>lingua +vernacula</i> flag. We should have to call in the sunrise and the sunset, the +rainbow and the autumn woods and the wild flowers, and the woodpecker and the +purple finch, and the squirrel and the jay and the butterfly, the November +traveller and the truant boy, to our aid. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn12"></a> <a href="#fnref12">[12]</a> +<i>Lingua vernacula</i>, common speech. +</p> + +<p> +In 1836 there were in the garden of the London Horticultural Society more than +fourteen hundred distinct sorts. But here are species which they have not in +their catalogue, not to mention the varieties which our Crab might yield to +cultivation. Let us enumerate a few of these. I find myself compelled, after +all, to give the Latin names of some for the benefit of those who live where +English is not spoken,—for they are likely to have a world-wide +reputation. +</p> + +<p> +There is, first of all, the Wood-Apple (<i>Malus sylvatica</i>); the Blue-Jay +Apple; the Apple which grows in Dells in the Woods (<i>sylvestrivallis</i>), +also in Hollows in Pastures (<i>campestrivallis</i>); the Apple that grows in +an old Cellar-Hole (<i>Malus cellaris</i>); the Meadow-Apple; the +Partridge-Apple; the Truant’s Apple (<i>Cessatoris</i>), which no boy +will ever go by without knocking off some, however <i>late</i> it may be; the +Saunterer’s Apple,—you must lose yourself before you can find the +way to that; the Beauty of the Air (<i>Decus Aëris</i>); December-Eating; the +Frozen-Thawed (<i>gelato-soluta</i>), good only in that state; the Concord +Apple, possibly the same with the <i>Musketa-quidensis;</i> the Assabet Apple; +the Brindled Apple; Wine of New England; the Chickaree Apple; the Green Apple +(<i>Malus viridis</i>);—this has many synonyms; in an imperfect state, it +is the <i>Cholera morbifera aut dysenterifera, puerulis dilectissima;</i><a +href="#fn13" name="fnref13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>—the Apple which Atalanta +stopped to pick up; the Hedge-Apple (<i>Malus Sepium</i>); the Slug-Apple +(<i>limacea</i>); the Railroad-Apple, which perhaps came from a core thrown out +of the cars; the Apple whose Fruit we tasted in our Youth; our Particular +Apple, not to be found in any catalogue,—<i>Pedestrium Solatium;</i><a +href="#fn14" name="fnref14"><sup>[14]</sup></a> also the Apple where hangs the +Forgotten Scythe; Iduna’s Apples, and the Apples which Loki found in the +Wood; and a great many more I have on my list, too numerous to +mention,—all of them good. As Bodæus exclaims, referring to the +culti-vated kinds, and adapting Virgil to his case, so I, adapting +Bodæus,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths,<br/> +An iron voice, could I describe all the forms<br/> +And reckon up all the names of these <i>wild apples</i>.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn13"></a> <a href="#fnref13">[13]</a> +The apple that brings the disease of cholera and of dysentery, the fruit that +small boys like best. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn14"></a> <a href="#fnref14">[14]</a> +The tramp’s comfort. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>THE LAST GLEANING</h2> + +<p> +By the middle of November the wild apples have lost some of their brilliancy, +and have chiefly fallen. A great part are decayed on the ground, and the sound +ones are more palatable than before. The note of the chickadee sounds now more +distinct, as you wander amid the old trees, and the autumnal dandelion is +half-closed and tearful. But still, if you are a skilful gleaner, you may get +many a pocket-full even of grafted fruit, long after apples are supposed to be +gone out-of-doors. I know a Blue-Pearmain tree, growing within the edge of a +swamp, almost as good as wild. You would not suppose that there was any fruit +left there, on the first survey, but you must look according to system. Those +which lie exposed are quite brown and rotten now, or perchance a few still show +one blooming cheek here and there amid the wet leaves. Nevertheless, with +experienced eyes, I explore amid the bare alders and the huckleberry-bushes and +the withered sedge, and in the crevices of the rocks, which are full of leaves, +and pry under the fallen and decaying ferns, which, with apple and alder +leaves, thickly strew the ground. For I know that they lie concealed, fallen +into hollows long since and covered up by the leaves of the tree +itself,—a proper kind of packing. From these lurking-places, anywhere +within the circumference of the tree, I draw forth the fruit, all wet and +glossy, maybe nibbled by rabbits and hollowed out by crickets and perhaps with +a leaf or two cemented to it (as Curzon<a href="#fn15" +name="fnref15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> an old manuscript from a monastery’s +mouldy cellar), but still with a rich bloom on it, and at least as ripe and +well kept, if not better than those in barrels, more crisp and lively than +they. If these resources fail to yield anything, I have learned to look between +the bases of the suckers which spring thickly from some horizontal limb, for +now and then one lodges there, or in the very midst of an alder-clump, where +they are covered by leaves, safe from cows which may have smelled them out. If +I am sharp-set, for I do not refuse the Blue-Pearmain, I fill my pockets on +each side; and as I retrace my steps in the frosty eve, being perhaps four or +five miles from home, I eat one first from this side, and then from that, to +keep my balance. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn15"></a> <a href="#fnref15">[15]</a> +Robert Curzon was a traveller who searched for old manuscripts in the +monasteries of the Levant. See his book, Ancient Monasteries of the East. +</p> + +<p> +I learn from Topsell’s Gesner, whose authority appears to be Albertus, +that the following is the way in which the hedgehog collects and carries home +his apples. He says: “His meat is apples, worms, or grapes: when he +findeth apples or grapes on the earth, he rolleth himself upon them, until he +have filled all his prickles, and then carrieth them home to his den, never +bearing above one in his mouth; and if it fortune that one of them fall off by +the way, he likewise shaketh off all the residue, and walloweth upon them +afresh, until they be all settled upon his back again. So, forth he goeth, +making a noise like a cart-wheel; and if he have any young ones in his nest, +they pull off his load wherewithal he is loaded, eating thereof what they +please, and laying up the residue for the time to come.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>THE “FROZEN-THAWED” APPLE</h2> + +<p> +Toward the end of November, though some of the sound ones are yet more mellow +and perhaps more edible, they have generally, like the leaves, lost their +beauty, and are beginning to freeze. It is finger-cold, and prudent farmers get +in their barrelled apples, and bring you the apples and cider which they have +engaged; for it is time to put them into the cellar. Perhaps a few on the +ground show their red cheeks above the early snow, and occasionally some even +preserve their color and soundness under the snow throughout the winter. But +generally at the beginning of the winter they freeze hard, and soon, though +undecayed, acquire the color of a baked apple. +</p> + +<p> +Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first thawing. +Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite unpalatable to the +civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while sound, let a warmer sun +come to thaw them, for they are extremely sensitive to its rays, are found to +be filled with a rich, sweet cider, better than any bottled cider that I know +of, and with which I am better acquainted than with wine. All apples are good +in this state, and your jaws are the cider-press. Others, which have more +substance, are a sweet and luscious food,—in my opinion of more worth +than the pine-apples which are imported from the West Indies. Those which +lately even I tasted only to repent of it,—for I am +semi-civilized,—which the farmer willingly left on the tree, I am now +glad to find have the property of hanging on like the leaves of the young oaks. +It is a way to keep cider sweet without boiling. Let the frost come to freeze +them first, solid as stones, and then the rain or a warm winter day to thaw +them, and they will seem to have borrowed a flavor from heaven through the +medium of the air in which they hang. Or perchance you find, when you get home, +that those which rattled in your pocket have thawed, and the ice is turned to +cider. But after the third or fourth freezing and thawing they will not be +found so good. +</p> + +<p> +What are the imported half-ripe fruits of the torrid South to this fruit +matured by the cold of the frigid North? These are those crabbed apples with +which I cheated my companion, and kept a smooth face that I might tempt him to +eat. Now we both greedily fill our pockets with them,—bending to drink +the cup and save our lappets from the overflowing juice,—and grow more +social with their wine. Was there one that hung so high and sheltered by the +tangled branches that our sticks could not dislodge it? +</p> + +<p> +It is a fruit never carried to market, that I am aware of,—quite distinct +from the apple of the markets, as from dried apple and cider,—and it is +not every winter that produces it in perfection. +</p> + +<p> +The era of the Wild Apple will soon be past. It is a fruit which will probably +become extinct in New England. You may still wander through old orchards of +native fruit of great extent, which for the most part went to the cider-mill, +now all gone to decay. I have heard of an orchard in a distant town, on the +side of a hill, where the apples rolled down and lay four feet deep against a +wall on the lower side, and this the owner cut down for fear they should be +made into cider. Since the temperance reform and the general introduction of +grafted fruit, no native apple-trees, such as I see everywhere in deserted +pastures, and where the woods have grown up around them, are set out. I fear +that he who walks over these fields a century hence will not know the pleasure +of knocking off wild apples. Ah, poor man, there are many pleasures which he +will not know! Notwithstanding the prevalence of the Baldwin and the Porter, I +doubt if so extensive orchards are set out to-day in my town as there were a +century ago, wrhen those vast straggling cider-orchards were planted, when men +both ate and drank apples, when the pomace-heap was the only nursery, and trees +cost nothing but the trouble of setting them out. Men could afford then to +stick a tree by every wall-side and let it take its chance. I see nobody +planting trees to-day in such out-of-the-way places, along the lonely roads and +lanes, and at the bottom of dells in the wood. Now that they have grafted +trees, and pay a priee for them, they collect them into a plat by their houses, +and fence them in,—and the end of it all will be that we shall be +compelled to look for our apples in a barrel. +</p> + +<p> +This is “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. +</p> + +<p> +“Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land! +Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?... +</p> + +<p> +“That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that +which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the +canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. +</p> + +<p> +“Awake, ye drunkards, and weep! and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, +because of the new wine! for it is cut off from your mouth. +</p> + +<p> +“For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose +teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion. +</p> + +<p> +“He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it +clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.... +</p> + +<p> +“Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen! howl, O ye vine-dressers!... +</p> + +<p> +“The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the +pomegranate-tree, the palm tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of +the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of +men.”<a href="#fn16" name="fnref16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn16"></a> <a href="#fnref16">[16]</a> +J<small>OEL</small>, chapter i., verses 1–12. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc028a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #4066 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4066) diff --git a/old/4066.txt b/old/4066.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..273bee8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/4066.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1396 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Apples, by Henry David Thoreau + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Wild Apples + +Author: Henry David Thoreau + +Posting Date: June 13, 2009 [EBook #4066] +Release Date: May, 2003 +First Posted: November 1, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +Wild Apples. + + +By + +Henry David Thoreau + + + + +CONTENTS + + THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. + THE WILD APPLE. + THE CRAB. + HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS. + THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR. + THEIR BEAUTY. + THE NAMING OF THEM. + THE LAST GLEANING. + THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE. + + + + +THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. + +It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected +with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the +Rosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the +Labiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the +appearance of man on the globe. + +It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown +primitive people whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of +the Swiss lakes, supposed to be older than the foundation of Rome, so +old that they had no metallic implements. An entire black and +shrivelled Crab-Apple has been recovered from their stores. + +Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger +with wild apples, among other things. + +Niebuhr[1] observes that "the words for a house, a field, a plough, +ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to +agriculture and the gentler ways of life, agree in Latin and Greek, +while the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase +are utterly alien from the Greek." Thus the apple-tree may be +considered a symbol of peace no less than the olive. + +[1] A German historical critic of ancient life. + +The apple was early so important, and so generally distributed, that +its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in +general. Maelon (Melon), in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of +other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in general. + +The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and +Scandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were tempted +by its fruit. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, dragons +were set to watch it, and heroes were employed to pluck it.[2] + +[2] The Greek myths especially referred to are The Choice of Paris and +The Apples of the Hesperides. + +The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament, +and its fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings, "As the apple-tree +among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." And +again, "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples." The noblest part +of man's noblest feature is named from this fruit, "the apple of the +eye." + +The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw in +the glorious garden of Alcinous "pears and pomegranates and apple-trees +bearing beautiful fruit." And according to Homer, apples were among the +fruits which Tantalus could not pluck, the wind ever blowing their +boughs away from him. Theophrastus knew and described the apple-tree as +a botanist. + +According to the prose Edda,[3] "Iduna keeps in a box the apples which +the gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of to +become young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in +renovated youth until Ragnarok" (or the destruction of the Gods). + +[3] The stories of the early Scandinavians. + +I learn from Loudon[4] that "the ancient Welsh bards were rewarded for +excelling in song by the token of the apple-spray;" and "in the +Highlands of Scotland the apple-tree is the badge of the clan Lamont." + +[4] An English authority on the culture of orchards and gardens. + +The apple-tree belongs chiefly to the northern temperate zone. Loudon +says, that "it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe except the +frigid zone, and throughout Western Asia, China and Japan." We have +also two or three varieties of the apple indigenous in North America. +The cultivated apple-tree was first introduced into this country by the +earliest settlers, and is thought to do as well or better here than +anywhere else. Probably some of the varieties which are now cultivated +were first introduced into Britain by the Romans. + +Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says, "Of trees there +are some which are altogether wild, some more civilized." Theophrastus +includes the apple among the last; and, indeed, it is in this sense the +most civilized of all trees. It is as harmless as a dove, as beautiful +as a rose, and as valuable as flocks and herds. It has been longer +cultivated than any other, and so is more humanized; and who knows but, +like the dog, it will at length be no longer traceable to its wild +original? It migrates with man, like the dog and horse and cow; first, +perchance, from Greece to Italy, thence to England, thence to America; +and our Western emigrant is still marching steadily toward the setting +sun with the seeds of the apple in his pocket, or perhaps a few young +trees strapped to his load. At least a million apple-trees are thus set +farther westward this year than any cultivated ones grew last year. +Consider how the Blossom-Week, like the Sabbath, is thus annually +spreading over the prairies; for when man migrates he carries with him +not only his birds, quadrupeds, insects, vegetables, and his very +sward, but his orchard also. + +The leaves and tender twigs are an agreeable food to many domestic +animals, as the cow, horse, sheep, and goat; and the fruit is sought +after by the first, as well as by the hog. Thus there appears to have +existed a natural alliance between these animals and this tree from the +first. "The fruit of the Crab in the forests of France" is said to be +"a great resource for the wild boar." + +Not only the Indian, but many indigenous insects, birds, and +quadrupeds, welcomed the apple-tree to these shores. The +tent-caterpillar saddled her eggs on the very first twig that was +formed, and it has since shared her affections with the wild cherry; +and the canker-worm also in a measure abandoned the elm to feed on it. +As it grew apace, the bluebird, robin, cherry-bird, king-bird, and many +more, came with haste and built their nests and warbled in its boughs, +and so became orchard-birds, and multiplied more than ever. It was an +era in the history of their race. The downy woodpecker found such a +savory morsel under its bark, that he perforated it in a ring quite +round the tree before he left it,--a thing which he had never done +before, to my knowledge. It did not take the partridge long to find out +how sweet its buds were, and every winter eve she flew, and still +flies, from the wood, to pluck them, much to the farmer's sorrow. The +rabbit, too, was not slow to learn the taste of its twigs and bark; and +when the fruit was ripe, the squirrel half-rolled, half-carried it to +his hole; and even the musquash crept up the bank from the brook at +evening, and greedily devoured it, until he had worn a path in the +grass there; and when it was frozen and thawed, the crow and the jay +were glad to taste it occasionally. The owl crept into the first +apple-tree that became hollow, and fairly hooted with delight, finding +it just the place for him; so, settling down into it, he has remained +there ever since. + +My theme being the Wild Apple, I will merely glance at some of the +seasons in the annual growth of the cultivated apple, and pass on to my +special province. + +The flowers of the apple are perhaps the most beautiful of any tree, so +copious and so delicious to both sight and scent. The walker is +frequently tempted to turn and linger near some more than usually +handsome one, whose blossoms are two thirds expanded. How superior it +is in these respects to the pear, whose blossoms are neither colored +nor fragrant! + +By the middle of July, green apples are so large as to remind us of +coddling, and of the autumn. The sward is commonly strewed with little +ones which fall still-born, as it were,--Nature thus thinning them for +us. The Roman writer Palladius said: "If apples are inclined to fall +before their time, a stone placed in a split root will retain them." +Some such notion, still surviving, may account for some of the stones +which we see placed to be overgrown in the forks of trees. They have a +saying in Suffolk, England,-- + + "At Michaelmas time, or a little before, + Half an apple goes to the core." + +Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August; but I think +that none of them are so good to eat as some to smell. One is worth +more to scent your handkerchief with than any perfume which they sell +in the shops. The fragrance of some fruits is not to be forgotten, +along with that of flowers. Some gnarly apple which I pick up in the +road reminds me by its fragrance of all the wealth of +Pomona,[5]--carrying me forward to those days when they will be +collected in golden and ruddy heaps in the orchards and about the +cider-mills. + +[5] The Roman goddess of fruit and fruit-trees. + +A week or two later, as you are going by orchards or gardens, +especially in the evenings, you pass through a little region possessed +by the fragrance of ripe apples, and thus enjoy them without price, and +without robbing anybody. + +There is thus about all natural products a certain volatile and +ethereal quality which represents their highest value, and which cannot +be vulgarized, or bought and sold. No mortal has ever enjoyed the +perfect flavor of any fruit, and only the godlike among men begin to +taste its ambrosial qualities. For nectar and ambrosia are only those +fine flavors of every earthly fruit which our coarse palates fail to +perceive,--just as we occupy the heaven of the gods without knowing it. +When I see a particularly mean man carrying a load of fair and fragrant +early apples to market, I seem to see a contest going on between him +and his horse, on the one side, and the apples on the other, and, to my +mind, the apples always gain it. Pliny says that apples are the +heaviest of all things, and that the oxen begin to sweat at the mere +sight of a load of them. Our driver begins to lose his load the moment +he tries to transport them to where they do not belong, that is, to any +but the most beautiful. Though he gets out from time to time, and feels +of them, and thinks they are all there, I see the stream of their +evanescent and celestial qualities going to heaven from his cart, while +the pulp and skin and core only are going to market. They are not +apples, but pomace. Are not these still Iduna's apples, the taste of +which keeps the gods forever young? and think you that they will let +Loki or Thjassi carry them off to Jotunheim,[6] while they grow +wrinkled and gray? No, for Ragnarok, or the destruction of the gods, is +not yet. + +[6] Jotunheim (Ye(r)t'-un-hime) in Scandinavian mythology was the home +of the Jotun or Giants. Loki was a descendant of the gods, and a +companion of the Giants. Thjassi (Tee-assy) was a giant. + +There is another thinning of the fruit, commonly near the end of August +or in September, when the ground is strewn with windfalls; and this +happens especially when high winds occur after rain. In some orchards +you may see fully three quarters of the whole crop on the ground, lying +in a circular form beneath the trees, yet hard and green,--or, if it is +a hillside, rolled far down the hill. However, it is an ill wind that +blows nobody any good. All the country over, people are busy picking up +the windfalls, and this will make them cheap for early apple-pies. + +In October, the leaves falling, the apples are more distinct on the +trees. I saw one year in a neighboring town some trees fuller of fruit +than I remember to have ever seen before, small yellow apples hanging +over the road. The branches were gracefully drooping with their weight, +like a barberry-bush, so that the whole tree acquired a new character. +Even the topmost branches, instead of standing erect, spread and +drooped in all directions; and there were so many poles supporting the +lower ones, that they looked like pictures of banian-trees. As an old +English manuscript says, "The mo appelen the tree bereth the more sche +boweth to the folk." + +Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits. Let the most beautiful or +the swiftest have it. That should be the "going" price of apples. + +Between the fifth and twentieth of October I see the barrels lie under +the trees. And perhaps I talk with one who is selecting some choice +barrels to fulfil an order. He turns a specked one over many times +before he leaves it out. If I were to tell what is passing in my mind, +I should say that every one was specked which he had handled; for he +rubs off all the bloom, and those fugacious ethereal qualities leave +it. Cool evenings prompt the farmers to make haste, and at length I see +only the ladders here and there left leaning against the trees. + +It would be well if we accepted these gifts with more joy and +gratitude, and did not think it enough simply to put a fresh load of +compost about the tree. Some old English customs are suggestive at +least. I find them described chiefly in Brand's "Popular Antiquities." +It appears that "on Christmas eve the farmers and their men in +Devonshire take a large bowl of cider, with a toast in it, and carrying +it in state to the orchard, they salute the apple-trees with much +ceremony, in order to make them bear well the next season." This +salutation consists in "throwing some of the cider about the roots of +the tree, placing bits of the toast on the branches," and then, +"encircling one of the best bearing trees in the orchard, they drink +the following toast three several times:-- + + "'Here's to thee, old apple-tree, + Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow, + And whence thou mayst bear apples enow! + Hats-full! caps-full! + Bushel, bushel, sacks-full! + And my pockets full, too! Hurra!'" + + +Also what was called "apple-howling" used to be practised in various +counties of England on New-Year's eve. A troop of boys visited the +different orchards, and, encircling the apple-trees, repeated the +following words:-- + + "Stand fast, root! bear well, top! + Pray God send us a good howling crop: + Every twig, apples big; + Every bow, apples enow!" + + +"They then shout in chorus, one of the boys accompanying them on a +cow's horn. During this ceremony they rap the trees with their sticks." +This is called "wassailing" the trees, and is thought by some to be "a +relic of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona." + +Herrick sings,-- + + "Wassaile the trees that they may beare + You many a plum and many a peare; + For more or less fruits they will bring + As you so give them wassailing." + +Our poets have as yet a better right to sing of cider than of wine; but +it behooves them to sing better than English Phillips did, else they +will do no credit to their Muse. + + + + +THE WILD APPLE. + + +So much for the more civilized apple-trees (urbaniores, as Pliny calls +them). I love better to go through the old orchards of ungrafted +apple-trees, at whatever season of the year,--so irregularly planted: +sometimes two trees standing close together; and the rows so devious +that you would think that they not only had grown while the owner was +sleeping, but had been set out by him in a somnambulic state. The rows +of grafted fruit will never tempt me to wander amid them like these. +But I now, alas, speak rather from memory than from any recent +experience, such ravages have been made! + +Some soils, like a rocky tract called the Easterbrooks Country in my +neighborhood, are so suited to the apple, that it will grow faster in +them without any care, or if only the ground is broken up once a year, +than it will in many places with any amount of care. The owners of this +tract allow that the soil is excellent for fruit, but they say that it +is so rocky that they have not patience to plough it, and that, +together with the distance, is the reason why it is not cultivated. +There are, or were recently, extensive orchards there standing without +order. Nay, they spring up wild and bear well there in the midst of +pines, birches, maples, and oaks. I am often surprised to see rising +amid these trees the rounded tops of apple-trees glowing with red or +yellow fruit, in harmony with the autumnal tints of the forest. + +Going up the side of a cliff about the first of November, I saw a +vigorous young apple-tree, which, planted by birds or cows, had shot up +amid the rocks and open woods there, and had now much fruit on it, +uninjured by the frosts, when all cultivated apples were gathered. It +was a rank wild growth, with many green leaves on it still, and made an +impression of thorniness. The fruit was hard and green, but looked as +if it would be palatable in the winter. Some was dangling on the twigs, +but more half-buried in the wet leaves under the tree, or rolled far +down the hill amid the rocks. The owner knows nothing of it. The day +was not observed when it first blossomed, nor when it first bore fruit, +unless by the chickadee. There was no dancing on the green beneath it +in its honor, and now there is no hand to pluck its fruit,--which is +only gnawed by squirrels, as I perceive. It has done double duty,--not +only borne this crop, but each twig has grown a foot into the air. And +this is such fruit! bigger than many berries, we must admit, and +carried home will be sound and palatable next spring. What care I for +Iduna's apples so long as I can get these? + +When I go by this shrub thus late and hardy, and see its dangling +fruit, I respect the tree, and I am grateful for Nature's bounty, even +though I cannot eat it. Here on this rugged and woody hillside has +grown an apple-tree, not planted by man, no relic of a former orchard, +but a natural growth, like the pines and oaks. Most fruits which we +prize and use depend entirely on our care. Corn and grain, potatoes, +peaches, melons, etc., depend altogether on our planting; but the apple +emulates man's independence and enterprise. It is not simply carried, +as I have said, but, like him, to some extent, it has migrated to this +New World, and is even, here and there, making its way amid the +aboriginal trees; just as the ox and dog and horse sometimes run wild +and maintain themselves. + +Even the sourest and crabbedest apple, growing in the most unfavorable +position, suggests such thoughts as these, it is so noble a fruit. + + + + +THE CRAB. + + +Nevertheless, our wild apple is wild only like myself, perchance, who +belong not to the aboriginal race here, but have strayed into the woods +from the cultivated stock. Wilder still, as I have said, there grows +elsewhere in this country a native and aboriginal Crab-Apple, "whose +nature has not yet been modified by cultivation." It is found from +Western New York to Minnesota and southward. Michaux[7] says that its +ordinary height "is fifteen or eighteen feet, but it is sometimes found +twenty-five or thirty feet high," and that the large ones "exactly +resemble the common apple-tree." "The flowers are white mingled with +rose-color, and are collected in corymbs." They are remarkable for +their delicious odor. The fruit, according to him, is about an inch and +a half in diameter, and is intensely acid. Yet they make fine +sweet-meats, and also cider of them. He concludes, that "if, on being +cultivated, it does not yield new and palatable varieties, it will at +least be celebrated for the beauty of its flowers, and for the +sweetness of its perfume." + +[7] Pronounced mee-sho; a French botanist and traveller. + +I never saw the Crab-Apple till May, 1861. I had heard of it through +Michaux, but more modern botanists, so far as I know, have not treated +it as of any peculiar importance. Thus it was a half-fabulous tree to +me. I contemplated a pilgrimage to the "Glades," a portion of +Pennsylvania, where it was said to grow to perfection. I thought of +sending to a nursery for it, but doubted if they had it, or would +distinguish it from European varieties. At last I had occasion to go to +Minnesota, and on entering Michigan I began to notice from the cars a +tree with handsome rose-colored flowers. At first I thought it some +variety of thorn; but it was not long before the truth flashed on me, +that this was my long-sought Crab-Apple. It was the prevailing +flowering shrub or tree to be seen from the cars at that season of the +year,--about the middle of May. But the cars never stopped before one, +and so I was launched on the bosom of the Mississippi without having +touched one, experiencing the fate of Tantalus. On arriving at St. +Anthony's Falls, I was sorry to be told that I was too far north for +the Crab-Apple. Nevertheless I succeeded in finding it about eight +miles west of the Falls; touched it and smelled it, and secured a +lingering corymb of flowers for my herbarium. This must have been near +its northern limit. + + + + +HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS. + + +But though these are indigenous, like the Indians, I doubt whether they +are any hardier than those back-woodsmen among the apple-trees, which, +though descended from cultivated stocks, plant themselves in distant +fields and forests, where the soil is favorable to them. I know of no +trees which have more difficulties to contend with, and which more +sturdily resist their foes. These are the ones whose story we have to +tell. It oftentimes reads thus:-- + +Near the beginning of May, we notice little thickets of apple-trees +just springing up in the pastures where cattle have been,--as the rocky +ones of our Easter-brooks Country, or the top of Nobscot Hill in +Sudbury. One or two of these perhaps survive the drought and other +accidents,--their very birthplace defending them against the +encroaching grass and some other dangers, at first. + + In two years' time 't had thus + Reached the level of the rocks, + Admired the stretching world, + Nor feared the wandering flocks. + + But at this tender age + Its sufferings began: + There came a browsing ox + And cut it down a span. + +This time, perhaps, the ox does not notice it amid the grass; but the +next year, when it has grown more stout, he recognizes it for a +fellow-emigrant from the old country, the flavor of whose leaves and +twigs he well knows; and though at first he pauses to welcome it, and +express his surprise, and gets for answer, "The same cause that brought +you here brought me," he nevertheless browses it again, reflecting, it +may be, that he has some title to it. + +Thus cut down annually, it does not despair; but, putting forth two +short twigs for every one cut off, it spreads out low along the ground +in the hollows or between the rocks, growing more stout and scrubby, +until it forms, not a tree as yet, but a little pyramidal, stiff, +twiggy mass, almost as solid and impenetrable as a rock. Some of the +densest and most impenetrable clumps of bushes that I have ever seen, +as well, on account of the closeness and stubbornness of their branches +as of their thorns, have been these wild-apple scrubs. They are more +like the scrubby fir and black spruce on which you stand, and sometimes +walk, on the tops of mountains, where cold is the demon they contend +with, than anything else. No wonder they are prompted to grow thorns at +last, to defend themselves against such foes. In their thorniness, +however, there is no malice, only some malic acid. + +The rocky pastures of the tract I have referred to--for they maintain +their ground best in a rocky field--are thickly sprinkled with these +little tufts, reminding you often of some rigid gray mosses or lichens, +and you see thousands of little trees just springing up between them, +with the seed still attached to them. + +Being regularly clipped all around each year by the cows, as a hedge +with shears, they are often of a perfect conical or pyramidal form, +from one to four feet high, and more or less sharp, as if trimmed by +the gardener's art. In the pastures on Nobscot Hill and its spurs they +make fine dark shadows when the sun is low. They are also an excellent +covert from hawks for many small birds that roost and build in them. +Whole flocks perch in them at night, and I have seen three robins' +nests in one which was six feet in diameter. + +No doubt many of these are already old trees, if you reckon from the +day they were planted, but infants still when you consider their +development and the long life before them. I counted the annual rings +of some which were just one foot high, and as wide as high, and found +that they were about twelve years old, but quite sound and thrifty! +They were so low that they were unnoticed by the walker, while many of +their contemporaries from the nurseries were already bearing +considerable crops. But what you gain in time is perhaps in this case, +too, lost in power,--that is, in the vigor of the tree. This is their +pyramidal state. + +The cows continue to browse them thus for twenty years or more, keeping +them down and compelling them to spread, until at last they are so +broad that they become their own fence, when some interior shoot, which +their foes cannot reach, darts upward with joy: for it has not +forgotten its high calling, and bears its own peculiar fruit in triumph. + +Such are the tactics by which it finally defeats its bovine foes. Now, +if you have watched the progress of a particular shrub, you will see +that it is no longer a simple pyramid or cone, but out of its apex +there rises a sprig or two, growing more lustily perchance than an +orchard-tree, since the plant now devotes the whole of its repressed +energy to these upright parts. In a short time these become a small +tree, an inverted pyramid resting on the apex of the other, so that the +whole has now the form of a vast hour-glass. The spreading bottom, +having served its purpose, finally disappears, and the generous tree +permits the now harmless cows to come in and stand in its shade, and +rub against and redden its trunk, which has grown in spite of them, and +even to taste a part of its fruit, and so disperse the seed. + +Thus the cows create their own shade and food; and the tree, its +hour-glass being inverted, lives a second life, as it were. + +It is an important question with some nowadays, whether you should trim +young apple-trees as high as your nose or as high as your eyes. The ox +trims them up as high as he can reach, and that is about the right +height, I think. + +In spite of wandering kine and other adverse circumstance, that +despised shrub, valued only by small birds as a covert and shelter from +hawks, has its blossom-week at last, and in course of time its harvest, +sincere, though small. + +By the end of some October, when its leaves have fallen, I frequently +see such a central sprig, whose progress I have watched, when I thought +it had forgotten its destiny, as I had, bearing its first crop of small +green or yellow or rosy fruit, which the cows cannot get at over the +bushy and thorny hedge which surrounds it; and I make haste to taste +the new and undescribed variety. We have all heard of the numerous +varieties of fruit invented by Van Mons[9] and Knight.[10] This is the +system of Van Cow, and she has invented far more and more memorable +varieties than both of them. + +[9] A Belgian chemist and horticulturist. + +[10] An English vegetable physiologist. + +Through what hardships it may attain to bear a sweet fruit! Though +somewhat small, it may prove equal, if not superior, in flavor to that +which has grown in a garden,--will perchance be all the sweeter and +more palatable for the very difficulties it has had to contend with. +Who knows but this chance wild fruit, planted by a cow or a bird on +some remote and rocky hillside, where it is as yet unobserved by man, +may be the choicest of all its kind, and foreign potentates shall hear +of it, and royal societies seek to propagate it, though the virtues of +the perhaps truly crabbed owner of the soil may never be heard of,--at +least, beyond the limits of his village? It was thus the Porter and the +Baldwin grew. + +Every wild-apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every +wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a lesson to man! +So are human beings, referred to the highest standard, the celestial +fruit which they suggest and aspire to bear, browsed on by fate; and +only the most persistent and strongest genius defends itself and +prevails, sends a tender scion upward at last, and drops its perfect +fruit on the ungrateful earth. Poets and philosophers and statesmen +thus spring up in the country pastures, and outlast the hosts of +unoriginal men. + +Such is always the pursuit of knowledge. The celestial fruits, the +golden apples of the Hesperides, are ever guarded by a hundred-headed +dragon which never sleeps, so that it is an herculean labor to pluck +them. + +This is one and the most remarkable way in which the wild apple is +propagated; but commonly it springs up at wide intervals in woods and +swamps, and by the sides of roads, as the soil may suit it, and grows +with comparative rapidity. Those which grow in dense woods are very +tall and slender. I frequently pluck from these trees a perfectly mild +and tamed fruit. As Palladius says, "And the ground is strewn with the +fruit of an unbidden apple-tree." + +It is an old notion, that, if these wild trees do not bear a valuable +fruit of their own, they are the best stocks by which to transmit to +posterity the most highly prized qualities of others. However, I am not +in search of stocks, but the wild fruit itself, whose fierce gust has +suffered no "inteneration." It is not my + + "highest plot + To plant the Bergamot." + + + + +THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR. + + +The time for wild apples is the last of October and the first of +November. They then get to be palatable, for they ripen late, and they +are still, perhaps, as beautiful as ever. I make a great account of +these fruits, which the farmers do not think it worth the while to +gather,--wild flavors of the Muse, vivacious and inspiriting. The +farmer thinks that he has better in his barrels; but he is mistaken, +unless he has a walker's appetite and imagination, neither of which can +he have. + +Such as grow quite wild, and are left out till the first of November, I +presume that the owner does not mean to gather. They belong to children +as wild as themselves,--to certain active boys that I know,--to the +wild-eyed woman of the fields, to whom nothing comes amiss, who gleans +after all the world,--and, moreover, to us walkers. We have met with +them, and they are ours. These rights, long enough insisted upon, have +come to be an institution in some old countries, where they have +learned how to live. I hear that "the custom of grippling, which may be +called apple-gleaning, is, or was formerly, practised in Herefordshire. +It consists in leaving a few apples, which are called the gripples, on +every tree, after the general gathering, for the boys, who go with +climbing-poles and bags to collect them." + +As for those I speak of, I pluck them as a wild fruit, native to this +quarter of the earth,--fruit of old trees that have been dying ever +since I was a boy and are not yet dead, frequented only by the +wood-pecker and the squirrel, deserted now by the owner, who has not +faith enough to look under their boughs. From the appearance of the +tree-top, at a little distance, you would expect nothing but lichens to +drop from it, but your faith is rewarded by finding the ground strewn +with spirited fruit,--some of it, perhaps, collected at squirrel-holes, +with the marks of their teeth by which they carried them,--some +containing a cricket or two silently feeding within, and some, +especially in damp days, a shelless snail. The very sticks and stones +lodged in the tree-top might have convinced you of the savoriness of +the fruit which has been so eagerly sought after in past years. + +I have seen no account of these among the "Fruits and Fruit-Trees of +America," though they are more memorable to my taste than the grafted +kinds; more racy and wild American flavors do they possess, when +October and November, when December and January, and perhaps February +and March even, have assuaged them somewhat. An old farmer in my +neighborhood, who always selects the right word, says that "they have a +kind of bow-arrow tang." + +Apples for grafting appear to have been selected commonly, not so much +for their spirited flavor, as for their mildness, their size, and +bearing qualities,--not so much for their beauty, as for their fairness +and soundness. Indeed, I have no faith in the selected lists of +pomological gentlemen. Their "Favorites" and "Non-suches" and +"Seek-no-farthers," when I have fruited them, commonly turn out very +tame and forgetable. They are eaten with comparatively little zest, and +have no real tang nor smack to them. + +What if some of these wildings are acrid and puckery, genuine verjuice, +do they not still belong to the Pomaceae, which are uniformly innocent +and kind to our race? I still begrudge them to the cider-mill. Perhaps +they are not fairly ripe yet. + +No wonder that these small and high-colored apples are thought to make +the best cider. Loudon quotes from the Herefordshire Report that +"apples of a small size are always, if equal in quality, to be +preferred to those of a larger size, in order that the rind and kernel +may bear the greatest proportion to the pulp, which affords the weakest +and most watery juice." And he says, that, "to prove this, Dr. Symonds +of Hereford, about the year 1800, made one hogshead of cider entirely +from the rinds and cores of apples, and another from the pulp only, +when the first was found of extraordinary strength and flavor, while +the latter was sweet and insipid." + +Evelyn[11] says that the "Red-strake" was the favorite cider-apple in +his day; and he quotes one Dr. Newburg as saying, "In Jersey 't is a +general observation, as I hear, that the more of red any apple has in +its rind, the more proper it is for this use. Pale-faced apples they +exclude as much as may be from their cider-vat." This opinion still +prevails. + +[11] An English writer of the seventeenth century. + +All apples are good in November. Those which the farmer leaves out as +unsalable, and unpalatable to those who frequent the markets, are +choicest fruit to the walker. But it is remarkable that the wild apple, +which I praise as so spirited and racy when eaten in the fields or +woods, being brought into the house, has frequently a harsh and crabbed +taste. The Saunter-er's Apple not even the saunterer can eat in the +house. The palate rejects it there, as it does haws and acorns, and +demands a tamed one; for there you miss the November air, which is the +sauce it is to be eaten with. Accordingly, when Tityrus, seeing the +lengthening shadows, invites Meliboeus to go home and pass the night +with him, he promises him mild apples and soft chestnuts. I frequently +pluck wild apples of so rich and spicy a flavor that I wonder all +orchardists do not get a scion from that tree, and I fail not to bring +home my pockets full. But perchance, when I take one out of my desk and +taste it in my chamber I find it unexpectedly crude,--sour enough to +set a squirrel's teeth on edge and make a jay scream. + +These apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have +absorbed the qualities of the weather or season, and thus are highly +seasoned, and they pierce and sting and permeate us with their spirit. +They must be eaten in season, accordingly,--that is, out-of-doors. + +To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it is +necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air. The +out-door air and exercise which the walker gets give a different tone +to his palate, and he craves a fruit which the sedentary would call +harsh and crabbed. They must be eaten in the fields, when your system +is all aglow with exercise, when the frosty weather nips your fingers, +the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles the few remaining leaves, +and the jay is heard screaming around. What is sour in the house a +bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labelled, "To +be eaten in the wind." + +Of course no flavors are thrown away; they are intended for the taste +that is up to them. Some apples have two distinct flavors, and perhaps +one-half of them must be eaten in the house, the other out-doors. One +Peter Whitney wrote from Northborough in 1782, for the Proceedings of +the Boston Academy, describing an apple-tree in that town "producing +fruit of opposite qualities, part of the same apple being frequently +sour and the other sweet;" also some all sour, and others all sweet, +and this diversity on all parts of the tree. + +There is a wild apple on Nawshawtuck Hill in my town which has to me a +peculiarly pleasant bitter tang, not perceived till it is +three-quarters tasted. It remains on the tongue. As you eat it, it +smells exactly like a squash-bug. It is a sort of triumph to eat and +relish it. + +I hear that the fruit of a kind of plum-tree in Provence is "called +Prunes sibarelles, because it is impossible to whistle after having +eaten them, from their sourness." But perhaps they were only eaten in +the house and in summer, and if tried out-of-doors in a stinging +atmosphere, who knows but you could whistle an octave higher and +clearer? + +In the fields only are the sours and bitters of Nature appreciated; +just as the wood-chopper eats his meal in a sunny glade, in the middle +of a winter day, with content, basks in a sunny ray there, and dreams +of summer in a degree of cold which, experienced in a chamber, would +make a student miserable. They who are at work abroad are not cold, but +rather it is they who sit shivering in houses. As with temperatures, so +with flavors; as with cold and heat, so with sour and sweet. This +natural raciness, the sours and bitters which the diseased palate +refuses, are the true condiments. + +Let your condiments be in the condition of your senses. To appreciate +the flavor of these wild apples requires vigorous and healthy senses, +papillae[12] firm and erect on the tongue and palate, not easily +flattened and tamed. + +[12] A Latin word, accent on the second syllable, meaning here the +rough surface of the tongue and palate. + +From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be +reason for a savage's preferring many kinds of food which the civilized +man rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. It takes a +savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit. + +What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of +life, the apple of the world, then! + + "Nor is it every apple I desire, + Nor that which pleases every palate best; + 'T is not the lasting Deuxan I require, + Nor yet the red-cheeked Greening I request, + Nor that which first beshrewed the name of wife, + Nor that whose beauty caused the golden strife: + No, no! bring me an apple from the tree of life." + +So there is one thought for the field, another for the house. I would +have my thoughts, like wild apples, to be food for walkers, and will +not warrant them to be palatable, if tasted in the house. + + + + +THEIR BEAUTY. + + +Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and +crabbed and rusty to look at. The gnarliest will have some redeeming +traits even to the eye. You will discover some evening redness dashed +or sprinkled on some protuberance or in some cavity. It is rare that +the summer lets an apple go without streaking or spotting it on some +part of its sphere. It will have some red stains, commemorating the +mornings and evenings it has witnessed; some dark and rusty blotches, +in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days that have passed over +it; and a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of +Nature,--green even as the fields; or a yellow ground, which implies a +milder flavor,--yellow as the harvest, or russet as the hills. + +Apples, these I mean, unspeakably fair,--apples not of Discord, but +Concord! Yet not so rare but that the homeliest may have a share. +Painted by the frosts, some a uniform clear bright yellow, or red, or +crimson, as if their spheres had regularly revolved, and enjoyed the +influence of the sun on all sides alike,--some with the faintest pink +blush imaginable,--some brindled with deep red streaks like a cow, or +with hundreds of fine blood-red rays running regularly from the +stem-dimple to the blossom-end, like meridional lines, on a +straw-colored ground,--some touched with a greenish rust, like a fine +lichen, here and there, with crimson blotches or eyes more or less +confluent and fiery when wet,--and others gnarly, and freckled or +peppered all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on a white +ground, as if accidentally sprinkled from the brush of Him who paints +the autumn leaves. Others, again, are sometimes red inside, perfused +with a beautiful blush, fairy food, too beautiful to eat,--apple of the +Hesperides, apple of the evening sky! But like shells and pebbles on +the sea-shore, they must be seen as they sparkle amid the withering +leaves in some dell in the woods, in the autumnal air, or as they lie +in the wet grass, and not when they have wilted and faded in the house. + + + + +THE NAMING OF THEM. + + +It would be a pleasant pastime to find suitable names for the hundred +varieties which go to a single heap at the cider-mill. Would it not tax +a man's invention,--no one to be named after a man, and all in the +lingua vernacula?[13] Who shall stand god-father at the christening of +the wild apples? It would exhaust the Latin and Greek languages, if +they were used, and make the lingua vernacula flag. We should have to +call in the sunrise and the sunset, the rainbow and the autumn woods +and the wild flowers, and the woodpecker and the purple finch, and the +squirrel and the jay and the butterfly, the November traveller and the +truant boy, to our aid. + +[13] Lingua vernacula, common speech. + +In 1836 there were in the garden of the London Horticultural Society +more than fourteen hundred distinct sorts. But here are species which +they have not in their catalogue, not to mention the varieties which +our Crab might yield to cultivation. Let us enumerate a few of these. I +find myself compelled, after all, to give the Latin names of some for +the benefit of those who live where English is not spoken,--for they +are likely to have a world-wide reputation. + +There is, first of all, the Wood-Apple (Malus sylvatica); the Blue-Jay +Apple; the Apple which grows in Dells in the Woods (sylvestrivallis), +also in Hollows in Pastures (campestrivallis); the Apple that grows in +an old Cellar-Hole (Malus cellaris); the Meadow-Apple; the +Partridge-Apple; the Truant's Apple (Cessatoris), which no boy will +ever go by without knocking off some, however late it may be; the +Saunterer's Apple,--you must lose yourself before you can find the way +to that; the Beauty of the Air (Decks Aeris); December-Eating; the +Frozen-Thawed (gelato-soluta), good only in that state; the Concord +Apple, possibly the same with the Musketa-quidensis; the Assabet Apple; +the Brindled Apple; Wine of New England; the Chickaree Apple; the Green +Apple (Malus viridis);--this has many synonyms; in an imperfect state, +it is the Cholera morbifera aut dysenterifera, puerulis +dilectissima;[14]--the Apple which Atalanta stopped to pick up; the +Hedge-Apple (Malus Sepium); the Slug-Apple (limacea); the +Railroad-Apple, which perhaps came from a core thrown out of the cars; +the Apple whose Fruit we tasted in our Youth; our Particular Apple, not +to be found in any catalogue,--Pedestrium Solatium;[15] also the Apple +where hangs the Forgotten Scythe; Iduna's Apples, and the Apples which +Loki found in the Wood;[16] and a great many more I have on my list, +too numerous to mention,--all of them good. As Bodaeus exclaims, +referring to the culti-vated kinds, and adapting Virgil to his case, so +I, adapting Bodaeus,-- + + "Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, + An iron voice, could I describe all the forms + And reckon up all the names of these wild apples." + + +[14] The apple that brings the disease of cholera and of dysentery, the +fruit that small boys like best. + +[15] The tramp's comfort. + +[16] See p. 172 (Proof readers note: paragraph 25) + + + + +THE LAST GLEANING. + + +By the middle of November the wild apples have lost some of their +brilliancy, and have chiefly fallen. A great part are decayed on the +ground, and the sound ones are more palatable than before. The note of +the chickadee sounds now more distinct, as you wander amid the old +trees, and the autumnal dandelion is half-closed and tearful. But +still, if you are a skilful gleaner, you may get many a pocket-full +even of grafted fruit, long after apples are supposed to be gone +out-of-doors. I know a Blue-Pearmain tree, growing within the edge of a +swamp, almost as good as wild. You would not suppose that there was any +fruit left there, on the first survey, but you must look according to +system. Those which lie exposed are quite brown and rotten now, or +perchance a few still show one blooming cheek here and there amid the +wet leaves. Nevertheless, with experienced eyes, I explore amid the +bare alders and the huckleberry-bushes and the withered sedge, and in +the crevices of the rocks, which are full of leaves, and pry under the +fallen and decaying ferns, which, with apple and alder leaves, thickly +strew the ground. For I know that they lie concealed, fallen into +hollows long since and covered up by the leaves of the tree itself,--a +proper kind of packing. From these lurking-places, anywhere within the +circumference of the tree, I draw forth the fruit, all wet and glossy, +maybe nibbled by rabbits and hollowed out by crickets and perhaps with +a leaf or two cemented to it (as Curzon[17] an old manuscript from a +monastery's mouldy cellar), but still with a rich bloom on it, and at +least as ripe and well kept, if not better than those in barrels, more +crisp and lively than they. If these resources fail to yield anything, +I have learned to look between the bases of the suckers which spring +thickly from some horizontal limb, for now and then one lodges there, +or in the very midst of an alder-clump, where they are covered by +leaves, safe from cows which may have smelled them out. If I am +sharp-set, for I do not refuse the Blue-Pearmain, I fill my pockets on +each side; and as I retrace my steps in the frosty eve, being perhaps +four or five miles from home, I eat one first from this side, and then +from that, to keep my balance. + +[17] Robert Curzon was a traveller who searched for old manuscripts in +the monasteries of the Levant. See his book, Ancient Monasteries of the +East. + +I learn from Topsell's Gesner, whose authority appears to be Albertus, +that the following is the way in which the hedgehog collects and +carries home his apples. He says: "His meat is apples, worms, or +grapes: when he findeth apples or grapes on the earth, he rolleth +himself upon them, until he have filled all his prickles, and then +carrieth them home to his den, never bearing above one in his mouth; +and if it fortune that one of them fall off by the way, he likewise +shaketh off all the residue, and walloweth upon them afresh, until they +be all settled upon his back again. So, forth he goeth, making a noise +like a cart-wheel; and if he have any young ones in his nest, they pull +off his load wherewithal he is loaded, eating thereof what they please, +and laying up the residue for the time to come." + + + + +THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE. + + +Toward the end of November, though some of the sound ones are yet more +mellow and perhaps more edible, they have generally, like the leaves, +lost their beauty, and are beginning to freeze. It is finger-cold, and +prudent farmers get in their barrelled apples, and bring you the apples +and cider which they have engaged; for it is time to put them into the +cellar. Perhaps a few on the ground show their red cheeks above the +early snow, and occasionally some even preserve their color and +soundness under the snow throughout the winter. But generally at the +beginning of the winter they freeze hard, and soon, though undecayed, +acquire the color of a baked apple. + +Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first +thawing. Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite +unpalatable to the civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while +sound, let a warmer sun come to thaw them, for they are extremely +sensitive to its rays, are found to be filled with a rich, sweet cider, +better than any bottled cider that I know of, and with which I am +better acquainted than with wine. All apples are good in this state, +and your jaws are the cider-press. Others, which have more substance, +are a sweet and luscious food,--in my opinion of more worth than the +pine-apples which are imported from the West Indies. Those which lately +even I tasted only to repent of it,--for I am semi-civilized,--which +the farmer willingly left on the tree, I am now glad to find have the +property of hanging on like the leaves of the young oaks. It is a way +to keep cider sweet without boiling. Let the frost come to freeze them +first, solid as stones, and then the rain or a warm winter day to thaw +them, and they will seem to have borrowed a flavor from heaven through +the medium of the air in which they hang. Or perchance you find, when +you get home, that those which rattled in your pocket have thawed, and +the ice is turned to cider. But after the third or fourth freezing and +thawing they will not be found so good. + +What are the imported half-ripe fruits of the torrid South to this +fruit matured by the cold of the frigid North? These are those crabbed +apples with which I cheated my companion, and kept a smooth face that I +might tempt him to eat. Now we both greedily fill our pockets with +them,--bending to drink the cup and save our lappets from the +overflowing juice,--and grow more social with their wine. Was there one +that hung so high and sheltered by the tangled branches that our sticks +could not dislodge it? + +It is a fruit never carried to market, that I am aware of,--quite +distinct from the apple of the markets, as from dried apple and +cider,--and it is not every winter that produces it in perfection. + +"Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye in-habitants of the land! +Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?... + +"That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that +which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which +the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. + +"Awake, ye drunkards, and weep! and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, +because of the new wine! for it is cut off from your mouth. + +"For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, +whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a +great lion. + +"He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it +clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.... + +"Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen! howl, O ye vine-dressers!... + +"The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the +pomegranate-tree, the palm tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the +trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the +sons of men."[18] + +[18] Joel, chapter i., verses 1-12. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Apples, by Henry David Thoreau + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD APPLES *** + +***** This file should be named 4066.txt or 4066.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/6/4066/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/4066.zip b/old/4066.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..802f0e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/4066.zip diff --git a/old/wldpp10.txt b/old/wldpp10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e435a32 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wldpp10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1389 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Wild Apples +by Henry David Thoreau +(#5 in our series by Henry David Thoreau) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + +Title: Wild Apples + +Author: Henry David Thoreau + +Release Date: May, 2003 [Etext #4066] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] +[The actual date this file first posted = 11/1/01] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Wild Apples +by Henry David Thoreau +******This file should be named wldpp10.txt or wldpp10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, wldpp11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wldpp10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of 10/17/01 contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, +Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, +Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New +Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, +Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising +will begin in the additional states. Please feel +free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork +to legally request donations in all 50 states. If +your state is not listed and you would like to know +if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in +states where we are not yet registered, we know +of no prohibition against accepting donations +from donors in these states who approach us with +an offer to donate. + + +International donations are accepted, +but we don't know ANYTHING about how +to make them tax-deductible, or +even if they CAN be made deductible, +and don't have the staff to handle it +even if there are ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541, +and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum +extent permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +*** + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* + + + + + + + + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +Wild Apples. + +By Henry David Thoreau + + + + + +THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. + + + + +It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is +connected with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of +the Rosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and +the Labiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous +to the appearance of man on the globe. + +It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown +primitive people whose traces have lately been found at the bottom +of the Swiss lakes, supposed to be older than the foundation of +Rome, so old that they had no metallic implements. An entire black +and shrivelled Crab-Apple has been recovered from their stores. + +Tacitus says of the ancient Germans that they satisfied their hunger +with wild apples, among other things. + +Niebuhr [Footnote: A German historical critic of ancient life.] +observes that "the words for a house, a field, a plough, ploughing, +wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to agriculture +and the gentler ways of life, agree in Latin and Greek, while the +Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase are +utterly alien from the Greek." Thus the apple-tree may be considered +a symbol of peace no less than the olive. + +The apple was early so important, and so generally distributed, that +its name traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in +general. maelon (Melon), in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of +other trees, also a sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in +general. + +The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, +and Scandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were +tempted by its fruit. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, +dragons were set to watch it, and heroes were employed to pluck it. +[Footnote: The Greek myths especially referred to are The Choice of +Paris and The Apples of the Hesperides.] + +The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament, +and its fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings, "As the apple- +tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." +And again, "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples." The +noblest part of man's noblest feature is named from this fruit, "the +apple of the eye." + +The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw +in the glorious garden of Alcinous "pears and pomegranates and +apple-trees bearing beautiful fruit." And according to Homer, apples +were among the fruits which Tantalus could not pluck, the wind ever +blowing their boughs away from him. Theophrastus knew and described +the apple-tree as a botanist. + +According to the prose Edda, [Footnote: The stories of the early +Scandinavians.] "Iduna keeps in a box the apples which the gods, +when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of to become +young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in +renovated youth until Ragnarok" (or the destruction of the Gods). + +I learn from Loudon [Footnote: An English authority on the culture +of orchards and gardens.] that "the ancient Welsh bards were +rewarded for excelling in song by the token of the apple-spray;" and +"in the Highlands of Scotland the apple-tree is the badge of the +clan Lamont." + +The apple-tree belongs chiefly to the northern temperate zone. +Loudon says, that "it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe +except the frigid zone, and throughout Western Asia, China and +Japan." We have also two or three varieties of the apple indigenous +in North America. The cultivated apple-tree was first introduced +into this country by the earliest settlers, and is thought to do as +well or better here than anywhere else. Probably some of the +varieties which are now cultivated were first introduced into +Britain by the Romans. + +Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says, "Of trees +there are some which are altogether wild, some more civilized." +Theophrastus includes the apple among the last; and, indeed, it is +in this sense the most civilized of all trees. It is as harmless as +a dove, as beautiful as a rose, and as valuable as flocks and herds. +It has been longer cultivated than any other, and so is more +humanized; and who knows but, like the dog, it will at length be no +longer traceable to its wild original? It migrates with man, like +the dog and horse and cow; first, perchance, from Greece to Italy, +thence to England, thence to America; and our Western emigrant is +still marching steadily toward the setting sun with the seeds of the +apple in his pocket, or perhaps a few young trees strapped to his +load. At least a million apple-trees are thus set farther westward +this year than any cultivated ones grew last year. Consider how the +Blossom-Week, like the Sabbath, is thus annually spreading over the +prairies; for when man migrates he carries with him not only his +birds, quadrupeds, insects, vegetables, and his very sward, but his +orchard also. + +The leaves and tender twigs are an agreeable food to many domestic +animals, as the cow, horse, sheep, and goat; and the fruit is sought +after by the first, as well as by the hog. Thus there appears to +have existed a natural alliance between these animals and this tree +from the first. "The fruit of the Crab in the forests of France" is +said to be "a great resource for the wild boar." + +Not only the Indian, but many indigenous insects, birds, and +quadrupeds, welcomed the apple-tree to these shores. The tent- +caterpillar saddled her eggs on the very first twig that was formed, +and it has since shared her affections with the wild cherry; and the +canker-worm also in a measure abandoned the elm to feed on it. As it +grew apace, the bluebird, robin, cherry-bird, king-bird, and many +more, came with haste and built their nests and warbled in its +boughs, and so became orchard-birds, and multiplied more than ever. +It was an era in the history of their race. The downy woodpecker +found such a savory morsel under its bark, that he perforated it in +a ring quite round the tree before be left it,--a thing which he had +never done before, to my knowledge. It did not take the partridge +long to find out how sweet its buds were, and every winter eve she +flew, and still flies, from the wood, to pluck them, much to the +farmer's sorrow. The rabbit, too, was not slow to learn the taste of +its twigs and bark; and when the fruit was ripe, the squirrel half- +rolled, half-carried it to his hole; and even the musquash crept up +the bank from the brook at evening, and greedily devoured it, until +he had worn a path in the grass there; and when it was frozen and +thawed, the crow and the jay were glad to taste it occasionally. The +owl crept into the first apple-tree that became hollow, and fairly +hooted with delight, finding it just the place for him; so, settling +down into it, he has remained there ever since. + +My theme being the Wild Apple, I will merely glance at some of the +seasons in the annual growth of the cultivated apple, and pass on to +my special province. + +The flowers of the apple are perhaps the most beautiful of any tree, +so copious and so delicious to both sight and scent. The walker is +frequently tempted to turn and linger near some more than usually +handsome one, whose blossoms are two thirds expanded. How superior +it is in these respects to the pear, whose blossoms are neither +colored nor fragrant! + +By the middle of July, green apples are so large as to remind us of +coddling, and of the autumn. The sward is commonly strewed with +little ones which fall still-born, as it were,--Nature thus thinning +them for us. The Roman writer Palladius said: "If apples are +inclined to fall before their time, a stone placed in a split root +will retain them." Some such notion, still surviving, may account +for some of the stones which we see placed to be overgrown in the +forks of trees. They have a saying in Suffolk, England,-- + + "At Michaelmas time, or a little before, + Half an apple goes to the core." + +Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August; but I think +that none of them are so good to eat as some to smell. One is worth +more to scent your handkerchief with than any perfume which they +sell in the shops. The fragrance of some fruits is not to be +forgotten, along with that of flowers. Some gnarly apple which I +pick up in the road reminds me by its fragrance of all the wealth of +Pomona, [Footnote: The Roman goddess of fruit and fruit-trees.]-- +carrying me forward to those days when they will be collected in +golden and ruddy heaps in the orchards and about the cider-mills. + +A week or two later, as you are going by orchards or gardens, +especially in the evenings, you pass through a little region +possessed by the fragrance of ripe apples, and thus enjoy them +without price, and without robbing anybody. + +There is thus about all natural products a certain volatile and +ethereal quality which represents their highest value, and which +cannot be vulgarized, or bought and sold. No mortal has ever enjoyed +the perfect flavor of any fruit, and only the godlike among men +begin to taste its ambrosial qualities. For nectar and ambrosia are +only those fine flavors of every earthly fruit which our coarse +palates fail to perceive,--just as we occupy the heaven of the gods +without knowing it. When I see a particularly mean man carrying a +load of fair and fragrant early apples to market, I seem to see a +contest going on between him and his horse, on the one side, and the +apples on the other, and, to my mind, the apples always gain it. +Pliny says that apples are the heaviest of all things, and that the +oxen begin to sweat at the mere sight of a load of them. Our driver +begins to lose his load the moment he tries to transport them to +where they do not belong, that is, to any but the most beautiful. +Though he gets out from time to time, and feels of them, and thinks +they are all there, I see the stream of their evanescent and +celestial qualities going to heaven from his cart, while the pulp +and skin and core only are going to market. They are not apples, but +pomace. Are not these still Iduna's apples, the taste of which keeps +the gods forever young? and think you that they will let Loki or +Thjassi carry them off to Jotunheim, [Footnote: Jotunheim (Ye(r)t'- +un-hime) in Scandinavian mythology was the home of the Jotun or +Giants. Loki was a descendant of the gods, and a companion of the +Giants. Thjassi (Tee-assy) was a giant.] while they grow wrinkled +and gray? No, for Ragnarok, or the destruction of the gods, is not +yet. + +There is another thinning of the fruit, commonly near the end of +August or in September, when the ground is strewn with windfalls; +and this happens especially when high winds occur after rain. In +some orchards you may see fully three quarters of the whole crop on +the ground, lying in a circular form beneath the trees, yet hard and +green,--or, if it is a hillside, rolled far down the hill. However, +it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. All the country over, +people are busy picking up the windfalls, and this will make them +cheap for early apple-pies. + +In October, the leaves falling, the apples are more distinct on the +trees. I saw one year in a neighboring town some trees fuller of +fruit than I remember to have ever seen before, small yellow apples +hanging over the road. The branches were gracefully drooping with +their weight, like a barberry-bush, so that the whole tree acquired +a new character. Even the topmost branches, instead of standing +erect, spread and drooped in all directions; and there were so many +poles supporting the lower ones, that they looked like pictures of +banian-trees. As an old English manuscript says, "The mo appelen the +tree bereth the more sche boweth to the folk." + +Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits. Let the most beautiful or +the swiftest have it. That should be the "going" price of apples. + +Between the fifth and twentieth of October I see the barrels lie +under the trees. And perhaps I talk with one who is selecting some +choice barrels to fulfil an order. He turns a specked one over many +times before he leaves it out. If I were to tell what is passing in +my mind, I should say that every one was specked which he had +handled; for he rubs off all the bloom, and those fugacious ethereal +qualities leave it. Cool evenings prompt the farmers to make haste, +and at length I see only the ladders here and there left leaning +against the trees. + +It would be well if we accepted these gifts with more joy and +gratitude, and did not think it enough simply to put a fresh load of +compost about the tree. Some old English customs are suggestive at +least. I find them described chiefly in Brand's "Popular +Antiquities." It appears that "on Christmas eve the farmers and +their men in Devonshire take a large bowl of cider, with a toast in +it, and carrying it in state to the orchard, they salute the apple- +trees with much ceremony, in order to make them bear well the next +season." This salutation consists in "throwing some of the cider +about the roots of the tree, placing bits of the toast on the +branches," and then, "encircling one of the best bearing trees in +the orchard, they drink the following toast three several times:-- + + "'Here's to thee, old apple-tree, + Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow, + And whence thou mayst bear apples enow! + Hats-full! caps-full! + Bushel, bushel, sacks-full! + And my pockets full, too! Hurra!'" + + +Also what was called "apple-howling" used to be practised in various +counties of England on New-Year's eve. A troop of boys visited the +different orchards, and, encircling the apple-trees, repeated the +following words:-- + + "Stand fast, root! bear well, top! + Pray God send us a good howling crop: + Every twig, apples big; + Every bow, apples enow!" + + +"They then shout in chorus, one of the boys accompanying them on a +cow's horn. During this ceremony they rap the trees with their +sticks." This is called "wassailing" the trees, and is thought by +some to be "a relic of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona." + + Herrick sings,-- + + "Wassaile the trees that they may beare + You many a plum and many a peare; + For more or less fruits they will bring + As you so give them wassailing." + +Our poets have as yet a better right to sing of cider than of wine; +but it behooves them to sing better than English Phillips did, else +they will do no credit to their Muse. + + + + + +THE WILD APPLE. + + + + +So much for the more civilized apple-trees (urbaniores, as Pliny +calls them). I love better to go through the old orchards of +ungrafted apple-trees, at whatever season of the year,--so +irregularly planted: sometimes two trees standing close together; +and the rows so devious that you would think that they not only had +grown while the owner was sleeping, but had been set out by him in a +somnambulic state. The rows of grafted fruit will never tempt me to +wander amid them like these. But I now, alas, speak rather from +memory than from any recent experience, such ravages have been made! + +Some soils, like a rocky tract called the Easterbrooks Country in my +neighborhood, are so suited to the apple, that it will grow faster +in them without any care, or if only the ground is broken up once a +year, than it will in many places with any amount of care. The +owners of this tract allow that the soil is excellent for fruit, but +they say that it is so rocky that they have not patience to plough +it, and that, together with the distance, is the reason why it is +not cultivated. There are, or were recently, extensive orchards +there standing without order. Nay, they spring up wild and bear well +there in the midst of pines, birches, maples, and oaks. I am often +surprised to see rising amid these trees the rounded tops of apple- +trees glowing with red or yellow fruit, in harmony with the autumnal +tints of the forest. + +Going up the side of a cliff about the first of November, I saw a +vigorous young apple-tree, which, planted by birds or cows, had shot +up amid the rocks and open woods there, and had now much fruit on +it, uninjured by the frosts, when all cultivated apples were +gathered. It was a rank wild growth, with many green leaves on it +still, and made an impression of thorniness. The fruit was hard and +green, but looked as if it would be palatable in the winter. Some +was dangling on the twigs, but more half-buried in the wet leaves +under the tree, or rolled far down the hill amid the rocks. The +owner knows nothing of it. The day was not observed when it first +blossomed, nor when it first bore fruit, unless by the chickadee. +There was no dancing on the green beneath it in its honor, and now +there is no hand to pluck its fruit,--which is only gnawed by +squirrels, as I perceive. It has done double duty,--not only borne +this crop, but each twig has grown a foot into the air. And this is +such fruit! bigger than many berries, we must admit, and carried +home will be sound and palatable next spring. What care I for +Iduna's apples so long as I can get these? + +When I go by this shrub thus late and hardy, and see its dangling +fruit, I respect the tree, and I am grateful for Nature's bounty, +even though I cannot eat it. Here on this rugged and woody hillside +has grown an apple-tree, not planted by man, no relic of a former +orchard, but a natural growth, like the pines and oaks. Most fruits +which we prize and use depend entirely on our care. Corn and grain, +potatoes, peaches, melons, etc., depend altogether on our planting; +but the apple emulates man's independence and enterprise. It is not +simply carried, as I have said, but, like him, to some extent, it +has migrated to this New World, and is even, here and there, making +its way amid the aboriginal trees; just as the ox and dog and horse +sometimes run wild and maintain themselves. + +Even the sourest and crabbedest apple, growing in the most +unfavorable position, suggests such thoughts as these, it is so +noble a fruit. + + + + + +THE CRAB. + + + + +Nevertheless, our wild apple is wild only like myself, perchance, +who belong not to the aboriginal race here, but have strayed into +the woods from the cultivated stock. Wilder still, as I have said, +there grows elsewhere in this country a native and aboriginal Crab- +Apple, "whose nature has not yet been modified by cultivation." It +is found from Western New York to Minnesota and southward. Michaux +[Footnote: Pronounced mee-sho; a French botanist and traveller.] +says that its ordinary height "is fifteen or eighteen feet, but it +is sometimes found twenty-five or thirty feet high," and that the +large ones "exactly resemble the common apple-tree." "The flowers +are white mingled with rose-color, and are collected in corymbs." +They are remarkable for their delicious odor. The fruit, according +to him, is about an inch and a half in diameter, and is intensely +acid. Yet they make fine sweet-meats, and also cider of them. He +concludes, that "if, on being cultivated, it does not yield new and +palatable varieties, it will at least be celebrated for the beauty +of its flowers, and for the sweetness of its perfume." + +I never saw the Crab-Apple till May, 1861. I had heard of it through +Michaux, but more modern botanists, so far as I know, have not +treated it as of any peculiar importance. Thus it was a half- +fabulous tree to me. I contemplated a pilgrimage to the "Glades," a +portion of Pennsylvania, where it was said to grow to perfection. I +thought of sending to a nursery for it, but doubted if they had it, +or would distinguish it from European varieties. At last I had +occasion to go to Minnesota, and on entering Michigan I began to +notice from the cars a tree with handsome rose-colored flowers. At +first I thought it some variety of thorn; but it was not long before +the truth flashed on me, that this was my long-sought Crab-Apple. It +was the prevailing flowering shrub or tree to be seen from the cars +at that season of the year,--about the middle of May. But the cars +never stopped before one, and so I was launched on the bosom of the +Mississippi without having touched one, experiencing the fate of +Tantalus. On arriving at St. Anthony's Falls, I was sorry to be told +that I was too far north for the Crab-Apple. Nevertheless I +succeeded in finding it about eight miles west of the Falls; touched +it and smelled it, and secured a lingering corymb of flowers for my +herbarium. This must have been near its northern limit. + + + + + +HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS. + + + + +But though these are indigenous, like the Indians, I doubt whether +they are any hardier than those back-woodsmen among the apple-trees, +which, though descended from cultivated stocks, plant themselves in +distant fields and forests, where the soil is favorable to them. I +know of no trees which have more difficulties to contend with, and +which more sturdily resist their foes. These are the ones whose +story we have to tell. It oftentimes reads thus :-- + +Near the beginning of May, we notice little thickets of apple-trees +just springing up in the pastures where cattle have been,--as the +rocky ones of our Easter-brooks Country, or the top of Nobscot Hill +in Sudbury. One or two of these perhaps survive the drought and +other accidents,--their very birthplace defending them against the +encroaching grass and some other dangers, at first. + + In two years' time 't had thus + Reached the level of the rocks, + Admired the stretching world, + Nor feared the wandering flocks. + + But at this tender age + Its sufferings began: + There came a browsing ox + And cut it down a span. + +This time, perhaps, the ox does not notice it amid the grass; but +the next year, when it has grown more stout, he recognizes it for a +fellow-emigrant from the old country, the flavor of whose leaves and +twigs he well knows; and though at first he pauses to welcome it, +and express his surprise, and gets for answer, "The same cause that +brought you here brought me," he nevertheless browses it again, +reflecting, it may be, that he has some title to it. + +Thus cut down annually, it does not despair; but, putting forth two +short twigs for every one cut off, it spreads out low along the +ground in the hollows or between the rocks, growing more stout and +scrubby, until it forms, not a tree as yet, but a little pyramidal, +stiff, twiggy mass, almost as solid and impenetrable as a rock. Some +of the densest and most impenetrable clumps of bushes that I have +ever seen, as well, on account of the closeness and stubbornness of +their branches as of their thorns, have been these wild-apple +scrubs. They are more like the scrubby fir and black spruce on which +you stand, and sometimes walk, on the tops of mountains, where cold +is the demon they contend with, than anything else. No wonder they +are prompted to grow thorns at last, to defend themselves against +such foes. In their thorniness, however, there is no malice, only +some malic acid. + +The rocky pastures of the tract I have referred to--for they +maintain their ground best in a rocky field--are thickly sprinkled +with these little tufts, reminding you often of some rigid gray +mosses or lichens, and you see thousands of little trees just +springing up between them, with the seed still attached to them. + +Being regularly clipped all around each year by the cows, as a hedge +with shears, they are often of a perfect conical or pyramidal form, +from one to four feet high, and more or less sharp, as if trimmed by +the gardener's art. In the pastures on Nobscot Hill and its spurs +they make fine dark shadows when the sun is low. They are also an +excellent covert from hawks for many small birds that roost and +build in them. Whole flocks perch in them at night, and I have seen +three robins' nests in one which was six feet in diameter. + +No doubt many of these are already old trees, if you reckon from the +day they were planted, but infants still when you consider their +development and the long life before them. I counted the annual +rings of some which were just one foot high, and as wide as high, +and found that they were about twelve years old, but quite sound and +thrifty! They were so low that they were unnoticed by the walker, +while many of their contemporaries from the nurseries were already +bearing considerable crops. But what you gain in time is perhaps in +this case, too, lost in power,--that is, in the vigor of the tree. +This is their pyramidal state. + +The cows continue to browse them thus for twenty years or more, +keeping them down and compelling them to spread, until at last they +are so broad that they become their own fence, when some interior +shoot, which their foes cannot reach, darts upward with joy: for it +has not forgotten its high calling, and bears its own peculiar fruit +in triumph. + +Such are the tactics by which it finally defeats its bovine foes. +Now, if you have watched the progress of a particular shrub, you +will see that it is no longer a simple pyramid or cone, but out of +its apex there rises a sprig or two, growing more lustily perchance +than an orchard-tree, since the plant now devotes the whole of its +repressed energy to these upright parts. In a short time these +become a small tree, an inverted pyramid resting on the apex of the +other, so that the whole has now the form of a vast hour-glass. The +spreading bottom, having served its purpose, finally disappears, and +the generous tree permits the now harmless cows to come in and stand +in its shade, and rub against and redden its trunk, which has grown +in spite of them, and even to taste a part of its fruit, and so +disperse the seed. + +Thus the cows create their own shade and food; and the tree, its +hour-glass being inverted, lives a second life, as it were. + +It is an important question with some nowadays, whether you should +trim young apple-trees as high as your nose or as high as your eyes. +The ox trims them up as high as he can reach, and that is about the +right height, I think. + +In spite of wandering kine and other adverse circumstance, that +despised shrub, valued only by small birds as a covert and shelter +from hawks, has its blossom-week at last, and in course of time its +harvest, sincere, though small. + +By the end of some October, when its leaves have fallen, I +frequently see such a central sprig, whose progress I have watched, +when I thought it had forgotten its destiny, as I had, bearing its +first crop of small green or yellow or rosy fruit, which the cows +cannot get at over the bushy and thorny hedge which surrounds it; +and I make haste to taste the new and undescribed variety. We have +all heard of the numerous varieties of fruit invented by Van Mons +[Footnote: A Belgian chemist and horticulturist.] and Knight. +[Footnote: An English vegetable physiologist.] This is the system of +Van Cow, and she has invented far more and more memorable varieties +than both of them. + +Through what hardships it may attain to bear a sweet fruit! Though +somewhat small, it may prove equal, if not superior, in flavor to +that which has grown in a garden,--will perchance be all the sweeter +and more palatable for the very difficulties it has had to contend +with. Who knows but this chance wild fruit, planted by a cow or a +bird on some remote and rocky hillside, where it is as yet +unobserved by man, may be the choicest of all its kind, and foreign +potentates shall hear of it, and royal societies seek to propagate +it, though the virtues of the perhaps truly crabbed owner of the +soil may never be heard of,--at least, beyond the limits of his +village? It was thus the Porter and the Baldwin grew. + +Every wild-apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as +every wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a +lesson to man! So are human beings, referred to the highest +standard, the celestial fruit which they suggest and aspire to bear, +browsed on by fate; and only the most persistent and strongest +genius defends itself and prevails, sends a tender scion upward at +last, and drops its perfect fruit on the ungrateful earth. Poets and +philosophers and statesmen thus spring up in the country pastures, +and outlast the hosts of unoriginal men. + +Such is always the pursuit of knowledge. The celestial fruits, the +golden apples of the Hesperides, are ever guarded by a hundred- +headed dragon which never sleeps, so that it is an herculean labor +to pluck them. + +This is one and the most remarkable way in which the wild apple is +propagated; but commonly it springs up at wide intervals in woods +and swamps, and by the sides of roads, as the soil may suit it, and +grows with comparative rapidity. Those which grow in dense woods are +very tall and slender. I frequently pluck from these trees a +perfectly mild and tamed fruit. As Palladius says, "And the ground +is strewn with the fruit of an unbidden apple-tree." + +It is an old notion, that, if these wild trees do not bear a +valuable fruit of their own, they are the best stocks by which to +transmit to posterity the most highly prized qualities of others. +However, I am not in search of stocks, but the wild fruit itself, +whose fierce gust has suffered no "inteneration." It is not my + + "highest plot + To plant the Bergamot." + + + + + +THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR. + + + + +The time for wild apples is the last of October and the first of +November. They then get to be palatable, for they ripen late, and +they are still, perhaps, as beautiful as ever. I make a great +account of these fruits, which the farmers do not think it worth the +while to gather,--wild flavors of the Muse, vivacious and +inspiriting. The farmer thinks that he has better in his barrels; +but he is mistaken, unless he has a walker's appetite and +imagination, neither of which can he have. + +Such as grow quite wild, and are left out till the first of +November, I presume that the owner does not mean to gather. They +belong to children as wild as themselves,--to certain active boys +that I know,--to the wild-eyed woman of the fields, to whom nothing +comes amiss, who gleans after all the world,--and, moreover, to us +walkers. We have met with them, and they are ours. These rights, +long enough insisted upon, have come to be an institution in some +old countries, where they have learned how to live. I hear that "the +custom of grippling, which may be called apple-gleaning, is, or was +formerly, practised in Herefordshire. It consists in leaving a few +apples, which are called the gripples, on every tree, after the +general gathering, for the boys, who go with climbing-poles and bags +to collect them." + +As for those I speak of, I pluck them as a wild fruit, native to +this quarter of the earth,--fruit of old trees that have been dying +ever since I was a boy and are not yet dead, frequented only by the +wood-pecker and the squirrel, deserted now by the owner, who has not +faith enough to look under their boughs. From the appearance of the +tree-top, at a little distance, you would expect nothing but lichens +to drop from it, but your faith is rewarded by finding the ground +strewn with spirited fruit,--some of it, perhaps, collected at +squirrel-holes, with the marks of their teeth by which they carried +them,--some containing a cricket or two silently feeding within, and +some, especially in damp days, a shelless snail. The very sticks and +stones lodged in the tree-top might have convinced you of the +savoriness of the fruit which has been so eagerly sought after in +past years. + +I have seen no account of these among the "Fruits and Fruit-Trees of +America," though they are more memorable to my taste than the +grafted kinds; more racy and wild American flavors do they possess, +when October and November, when December and January, and perhaps +February and March even, have assuaged them somewhat. An old farmer +in my neighborhood, who always selects the right word, says that +"they have a kind of bow-arrow tang." + +Apples for grafting appear to have been selected commonly, not so +much for their spirited flavor, as for their mildness, their size, +and bearing qualities,--not so much for their beauty, as for their +fairness and soundness. Indeed, I have no faith in the selected +lists of pomological gentlemen. Their "Favorites" and "Non-suches" +and "Seek-no-farthers," when I have fruited them, commonly turn out +very tame and forgetable. They are eaten with comparatively little +zest, and have no real tang nor smack to them. + +What if some of these wildings are acrid and puckery, genuine +verjuice, do they not still belong to the Pomaceae, which are +uniformly innocent and kind to our race? I still begrudge them to +the cider-mill. Perhaps they are not fairly ripe yet. + +No wonder that these small and high-colored apples are thought to +make the best cider. Loudon quotes from the Herefordshire Report +that "apples of a small size are always, if equal in quality, to be +preferred to those of a larger size, in order that the rind and +kernel may bear the greatest proportion to the pulp, which affords +the weakest and most watery juice." And he says, that, "to prove +this, Dr. Symonds of Hereford, about the year 1800, made one +hogshead of cider entirely from the rinds and cores of apples, and +another from the pulp only, when the first was found of +extraordinary strength and flavor, while the latter was sweet and +insipid." + +Evelyn [Footnote: An English writer of the seventeenth century.] +says that the "Red-strake" was the favorite cider-apple in his day; +and he quotes one Dr. Newburg as saying, "In Jersey 't is a general +observation, as I hear, that the more of red any apple has in its +rind, the more proper it is for this use. Pale-faced apples they +exclude as much as may be from their cider-vat." This opinion still +prevails. + +All apples are good in November. Those which the farmer leaves out +as unsalable, and unpalatable to those who frequent the markets, are +choicest fruit to the walker. But it is remarkable that the wild +apple, which I praise as so spirited and racy when eaten in the +fields or woods, being brought into the house, has frequently a +harsh and crabbed taste. The Saunter-er's Apple not even the +saunterer can eat in the house. The palate rejects it there, as it +does haws and acorns, and demands a tamed one; for there you miss +the November air, which is the sauce it is to be eaten with. +Accordingly, when Tityrus, seeing the lengthening shadows, invites +Meliboeus to go home and pass the night with him, he promises him +mild apples and soft chestnuts. I frequently pluck wild apples of so +rich and spicy a flavor that I wonder all orchardists do not get a +scion from that tree, and I fail not to bring home my pockets full. +But perchance, when I take one out of my desk and taste it in my +chamber I find it unexpectedly crude,--sour enough to set a +squirrel's teeth on edge and make a jay scream. + +These apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have +absorbed the qualities of the weather or season, and thus are highly +seasoned, and they pierce and sting and permeate us with their +spirit. They must be eaten in season, accordingly,--that is, out-of- +doors. + +To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it +is necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November +air. The out-door air and exercise which the walker gets give a +different tone to his palate, and he craves a fruit which the +sedentary would call harsh and crabbed. They must be eaten in the +fields, when your system is all aglow with exercise, when the frosty +weather nips your fingers, the wind rattles the bare boughs or +rustles the few remaining leaves, and the jay is heard screaming +around. What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some +of these apples might be labelled, "To be eaten in the wind." + +Of course no flavors are thrown away; they are intended for the +taste that is up to them. Some apples have two distinct flavors, and +perhaps one-half of them must be eaten in the house, the other out- +doors. One Peter Whitney wrote from Northborough in 1782, for the +Proceedings of the Boston Academy, describing an apple-tree in that +town "producing fruit of opposite qualities, part of the same apple +being frequently sour and the other sweet;" also some all sour, and +others all sweet, and this diversity on all parts of the tree. + +There is a wild apple on Nawshawtuck Hill in my town which has to me +a peculiarly pleasant bitter tang, not perceived till it is three- +quarters tasted. It remains on the tongue. As you eat it, it smells +exactly like a squash-bug. It is a sort of triumph to eat and relish +it. + +I hear that the fruit of a kind of plum-tree in Provence is "called +Prunes sibarelles, because it is impossible to whistle after having +eaten them, from their sourness." But perhaps they were only eaten +in the house and in summer, and if tried out-of-doors in a stinging +atmosphere, who knows but you could whistle an octave higher and +clearer? + +In the fields only are the sours and bitters of Nature appreciated; +just as the wood-chopper eats his meal in a sunny glade, in the +middle of a winter day, with content, basks in a sunny ray there, +and dreams of summer in a degree of cold which, experienced in a +chamber, would make a student miserable. They who are at work abroad +are not cold, but rather it is they who sit shivering in houses. As +with temperatures, so with flavors; as with cold and heat, so with +sour and sweet. This natural raciness, the sours and bitters which +the diseased palate refuses, are the true condiments. + +Let your condiments be in the condition of your senses. To +appreciate the flavor of these wild apples requires vigorous and +healthy senses, papillae [Footnote: A Latin word, accent on the +second syllable, meaning here the rough surface of the tongue and +palate.] firm and erect on the tongue and palate, not easily +flattened and tamed. + +From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may +be reason for a savage's preferring many kinds of food which the +civilized man rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. +It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit. + +What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of +life, the apple of the world, then! + + "Nor is it every apple I desire, + Nor that which pleases every palate best; + 'T is not the lasting Deuxan I require, + Nor yet the red-cheeked Greening I request, + Nor that which first beshrewed the name of wife, + Nor that whose beauty caused the golden strife: + No, no! bring me an apple from the tree of life." + +So there is one thought for the field, another for the house. I +would have my thoughts, like wild apples, to be food for walkers, +and will not warrant them to be palatable, if tasted in the house. + + + + + +THEIR BEAUTY. + + + + +Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and +crabbed and rusty to look at. The gnarliest will have some redeeming +traits even to the eye. You will discover some evening redness +dashed or sprinkled on some protuberance or in some cavity. It is +rare that the summer lets an apple go without streaking or spotting +it on some part of its sphere. It will have some red stains, +commemorating the mornings and evenings it has witnessed; some dark +and rusty blotches, in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days +that have passed over it; and a spacious field of green reflecting +the general face of Nature,--green even as the fields; or a yellow +ground, which implies a milder flavor,--yellow as the harvest, or +russet as the hills. + +Apples, these I mean, unspeakably fair,--apples not of Discord, but +Concord! Yet not so rare but that the homeliest may have a share. +Painted by the frosts, some a uniform clear bright yellow, or red, +or crimson, as if their spheres had regularly revolved, and enjoyed +the influence of the sun on all sides alike,--some with the faintest +pink blush imaginable,--some brindled with deep red streaks like a +cow, or with hundreds of fine blood-red rays running regularly from +the stem-dimple to the blossom-end, like meridional lines, on a +straw-colored ground,--some touched with a greenish rust, like a +fine lichen, here and there, with crimson blotches or eyes more or +less confluent and fiery when wet,--and others gnarly, and freckled +or peppered all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on a +white ground, as if accidentally sprinkled from the brush of Him who +paints the autumn leaves. Others, again, are sometimes red inside, +perfused with a beautiful blush, fairy food, too beautiful to eat,-- +apple of the Hesperides, apple of the evening sky! But like shells +and pebbles on the sea-shore, they must be seen as they sparkle amid +the withering leaves in some dell in the woods, in the autumnal air, +or as they lie in the wet grass, and not when they have wilted and +faded in the house. + + + + + +THE NAMING OF THEM. + + + + +It would be a pleasant pastime to find suitable names for the +hundred varieties which go to a single heap at the cider-mill. Would +it not tax a man's invention,--no one to be named after a man, and +all in the lingua vernacula?[Footnote: Lingua vernac'ula, common +speech.] Who shall stand god-father at the christening of the wild +apples? It would exhaust the Latin and Greek languages, if they were +used, and make the lingua vernacula flag. We should have to call in +the sunrise and the sunset, the rainbow and the autumn woods and the +wild flowers, and the woodpecker and the purple finch, and the +squirrel and the jay and the butterfly, the November traveller and +the truant boy, to our aid. + +In 1836 there were in the garden of the London Horticultural Society +more than fourteen hundred distinct sorts. But here are species +which they have not in their catalogue, not to mention the varieties +which our Crab might yield to cultivation. Let us enumerate a few of +these. I find myself compelled, after all, to give the Latin names +of some for the benefit of those who live where English is not +spoken,--for they are likely to have a world-wide reputation. + +There is, first of all, the Wood-Apple (Malus sylvatica); the Blue- +Jay Apple; the Apple which grows in Dells in the Woods +(sylvestrivallis), also in Hollows in Pastures (campestrivallis); +the Apple that grows in an old Cellar-Hole (Malus cellaris); the +Meadow-Apple; the Partridge-Apple; the Truant's Apple (Cessatoris), +which no boy will ever go by without knocking off some, however late +it may be; the Saunterer's Apple,--you must lose yourself before you +can find the way to that; the Beauty of the Air (Decks Aeris); +December-Eating; the Frozen-Thawed (gelato-soluta), good only in +that state; the Concord Apple, possibly the same with the Musketa- +quidensis; the Assabet Apple; the Brindled Apple; Wine of New +England; the Chickaree Apple; the Green Apple (Malus viridis);--this +has many synonyms; in an imperfect state, it is the Cholera +morbifera aut dysenterifera, puerulis dilectissima; [Footnote:The +apple that brings the disease of cholera and of dysen-tery, the +fruit that small boys like best.]--the Apple which Atalanta stopped +to pick up; the Hedge-Apple (Malus Sepium); the Slug-Apple +(limacea); the Railroad-Apple, which perhaps came from a core thrown +out of the cars; the Apple whose Fruit we tasted in our Youth; our +Particular Apple, not to be found in any catalogue,--Pedestrium +Solatium; [Footnote: The tramp's comfort.] also the Apple where +hangs the Forgotten Scythe; Iduna's Apples, and the Apples which +Loki found in the Wood; [Footnote See p. 172 (Proof readers note: +paragraph 25)] and a great many more I have on my list, too numerous +to mention,--all of them good. As Bodaeus exclaims, referring to the +culti-vated kinds, and adapting Virgil to his case, so I, adapting +Bodaeus,-- + + "Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, + An iron voice, could I describe all the forms + And reckon up all the names of these wild apples." + + + + + +THE LAST GLEANING. + + + + +By the middle of November the wild apples have lost some of their +brilliancy, and have chiefly fallen. A great part are decayed on the +ground, and the sound ones are more palatable than before. The note +of the chickadee sounds now more distinct, as you wander amid the +old trees, and the autumnal dandelion is half-closed and tearful. +But still, if you are a skilful gleaner, you may get many a pocket- +full even of grafted fruit, long after apples are supposed to be +gone out-of-doors. I know a Blue-Pearmain tree, growing within the +edge of a swamp, almost as good as wild. You would not suppose that +there was any fruit left there, on the first survey, but you must +look according to system. Those which lie exposed are quite brown +and rotten now, or perchance a few still show one blooming cheek +here and there amid the wet leaves. Nevertheless, with experienced +eyes, I explore amid the bare alders and the huckleberry-bushes and +the withered sedge, and in the crevices of the rocks, which are full +of leaves, and pry under the fallen and decaying ferns, which, with +apple and alder leaves, thickly strew the ground. For I know that +they lie concealed, fallen into hollows long since and covered up by +the leaves of the tree itself,--a proper kind of packing. From these +lurking-places, anywhere within the circumference of the tree, I +draw forth the fruit, all wet and glossy, maybe nibbled by rabbits +and hollowed out by crickets and perhaps with a leaf or two cemented +to it (as Curzon [Footnote: Robert Curzon was a traveller who +searched for old manuscripts in the monasteries of the Levant. See +his book, Ancient Monasteries of the East.] an old manuscript from a +monastery's mouldy cellar), but still with a rich bloom on it, and +at least as ripe and well kept, if not better than those in barrels, +more crisp and lively than they. If these resources fail to yield +anything, I have learned to look between the bases of the suckers +which spring thickly from some horizontal limb, for now and then one +lodges there, or in the very midst of an alder-clump, where they are +covered by leaves, safe from cows which may have smelled them out. +If I am sharp-set, for I do not refuse the Blue-Pearmain, I fill my +pockets on each side; and as I retrace my steps in the frosty eve, +being perhaps four or five miles from home, I eat one first from +this side, and then from that, to keep my balance. + +I learn from Topsell's Gesner, whose authority appears to be +Albertus, that the following is the way in which the hedgehog +collects and carries home his apples. He says: "His meat is apples, +worms, or grapes: when he findeth apples or grapes on the earth, he +rolleth himself upon them, until he have filled all his prickles, +and then carrieth them home to his den, never bearing above one in +his mouth; and if it fortune that one of them fall off by the way, +he likewise shaketh off all the residue, and walloweth upon them +afresh, until they be all settled upon his back again. So, forth he +goeth, making a noise like a cart-wheel; and if he have any young +ones in his nest, they pull off his load wherewithal he is loaded, +eating thereof what they please, and laying up the residue for the +time to come." + + + + + +THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE. + + + + +Toward the end of November, though some of the sound ones are yet +more mellow and perhaps more edible, they have generally, like the +leaves, lost their beauty, and are beginning to freeze. It is +finger-cold, and prudent farmers get in their barrelled apples, and +bring you the apples and cider which they have engaged; for it is +time to put them into the cellar. Perhaps a few on the ground show +their red cheeks above the early snow, and occasionally some even +preserve their color and soundness under the snow throughout the +winter. But generally at the beginning of the winter they freeze +hard, and soon, though undecayed, acquire the color of a baked +apple. + +Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first +thawing. Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite +unpalatable to the civilized taste, such at least as were frozen +while sound, let a warmer sun come to thaw them, for they are +extremely sensitive to its rays, are found to be filled with a rich, +sweet cider, better than any bottled cider that I know of, and with +which I am better acquainted than with wine. All apples are good in +this state, and your jaws are the cider-press. Others, which have +more substance, are a sweet and luscious food,--in my opinion of +more worth than the pine-apples which are imported from the West +Indies. Those which lately even I tasted only to repent of it,--for +I am semi-civilized,--which the farmer willingly left on the tree, I +am now glad to find have the property of hanging on like the leaves +of the young oaks. It is a way to keep cider sweet without boiling. +Let the frost come to freeze them first, solid as stones, and then +the rain or a warm winter day to thaw them, and they will seem to +have borrowed a flavor from heaven through the medium of the air in +which they hang. Or perchance you find, when you get home, that +those which rattled in your pocket have thawed, and the ice is +turned to cider. But after the third or fourth freezing and thawing +they will not be found so good. + +What are the imported half-ripe fruits of the torrid South to this +fruit matured by the cold of the frigid North? These are those +crabbed apples with which I cheated my companion, and kept a smooth +face that I might tempt him to eat. Now we both greedily fill our +pockets with them,--bending to drink the cup and save our lappets +from the overflowing juice,--and grow more social with their wine. +Was there one that hung so high and sheltered by the tangled +branches that our sticks could not dislodge it? + +It is a fruit never carried to market, that I am aware of,--quite +distinct from the apple of the markets, as from dried apple and +cider,--and it is not every winter that produces it in perfection. + +"Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye in-habitants of the +land! Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your +fathers? . . . + +"That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and +that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that +which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. + +"Awake, ye drunkards, and weep! and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, +because of the new wine! for it is cut off from your mouth. + +"For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, +whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of +a great lion. + +"He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made +it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made +white. . . . + +"Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen! howl, O ye vine-dressers! . . . + +"The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the +pomegranate-tree, the palm tree also, and the apple-tree, even all +the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away +from the sons of men." [Footnote: Joel, chapter i., verses 1-12.] + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Wild Apples +by Henry David Thoreau + diff --git a/old/wldpp10.zip b/old/wldpp10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f663bce --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wldpp10.zip |