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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 + |