178 STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



writers. It is equally probable that it was also brought westward by 

 the Romans, who always " kuew a good tiling when they saw it," and 

 were not slow to convert everything to their use that could advance 

 the interests of the empire, and promote the happiness of the people. 

 *k They set a high price on liae varieties at a very early date in their 

 history." 



Yet " De Condole" tells us, "the inhabitants of the terra-mare of 

 Parma, and of the palajittes of the lakes of Lombardy, Savoy and 

 Switzerland, made great use of apples. They always cut them length- 

 wise and preserved them dried for winter use." "Two varieties were 

 known to the inhabitants of the lake-dwellings before they possessed 

 metals." After giving a number of sizes of dried specimens, he says : 

 " From all these facts, I consider the apple to have existed in Europe, 

 both wild and cultivated, from pre-historic times ; that the tree was 

 indigenous in Europe, and that its cultivation began early everywhere." 



Darwin thinks " that many varieties of the wild crab of England 

 are escaped seedlings, probably from the more hardy varieties of the 

 cultivated sorts." 



The lake-dwellings referred to were the homes of a pre-historic 

 and extinct people, built on piles in many lakes of Switzerland, Savoy 

 and Lombardy during the stone age. Among the ruins have been 

 found implements, instruments and manufactures representing a peo- 

 ple in all stages of civilization, from the age of stone to the dawn of 

 the iron age. Whatever periods in the history of the human family 

 these ages may mean, archaeological investigaiions down in the mud, 

 marl and peat-beds of these lakes have discovered among the charred 

 remains of these dwellings wheat, barley, bread, burnt apples, pears, 

 etc., with implements of wood, horn and bone, and in later deposits 

 flax in every stage of manufacture, from raw material to woven cloth, 

 together with tools, instruments and ornaments of iron, bronze and 

 gold, and among these ruins evidences that these extinct people used 

 both the wild and cultivated apple extensively for food, and preserved 

 it for winter use by drying, and carbonizing by fire — a process I take 

 to be somewhat similar to our present mode of evaporation. 



The Romans are said to have carried the apple into all their con- 

 quered provinces where it was not known. It is very certain they 

 introduced it into England, B. C. 55, when Julius Cnesar invaded and 

 conquered the island, planted the Roman eagle and made Britannia a 

 Roman province. After its introduction into England the early chron- 

 iclers are silent as to its history, until after the establishment of Chris- 

 tianity. 



