246 TEANSACTIONS OF THE HOKTICULTUEAL 



A POEM — THE APPLE. 



SERVED IN DUMPLINGS. 



BY E. R. BROWN, ELMWOOD. 



'• Comfort me with apples."— Song of Solomon. 2-5. 



The Poet spreadeth himself and extolleth the Apple — His mouth 

 greatly watereth over the rehearsal of the varieties and the appela- 

 tions thereof — He seeketh the old orchard with the oriole and the 

 yellowhammer, and intervieweth the caterpillar in the door of her 

 tent — The Poet also hath a vision, after the manner of Saint Peter — 

 He reveleth in Apple Paring Parties, and recalleth the outside and 

 inside, and the cider of those occasions — He giveth a recipe for 

 hot apple pie, and then, like the fragrant steam thereof, quickly 

 subsideth, 



DUMPLING NO. 1. 



THE APPLE IS KING. 



I sin«r not the fruitage of old Yucatan, 



The citrus of Spain, or the plums of Japan ; 



The Florida orange may glow in the south, 



The peach of New Jersey may melt in your mouth ; 



The broad-breasted quince has a heavenly smell, 



And I love California's apricots well ; 



Bananas of Nassau and Malaga grapes, 



In clustering richness and ravishing shapes, — 



They're beautiful, all, but bepraise them who will, 



A ruddy old monarch out-ranks them all still : 



A fruit universal, coeval with man : 



'Tis the blessed old Apple ; gainsay it who can. 



DUMPLING NO. II. 



SOME NAMED VARIETIES. 



Of the spherical beauties inspiring my verse, 



It makes my mouth water the names to rehearse ; 



It call up the flavors, the scents and the joys 



Of seedlings, beloved by the bare-footed boys ; 



The tree by the roadside, the scrub by the stream, 



With fruit at whose sourness a liluejay would scream. 



The " Dub Stem," the " Long Stem," and " Water-core Sweet," 



" Spice Apple," and " Pig Nose," — O, what a rich treat 



To the hungry boy's teeth, in the brave long ago. 



A relish no wealth-pampered palate can know. 



Boys claimed them and named them, and boys, with the worm 



And the squirrel were joined in an apple-grab firm; 



