Rural School Leaflet. 



831 



ABOUT APPLES 



E WANT you to have an apple exhibit this fall, 

 as suggested in the teacher's Leaflet. Ask the 

 teacher to tell you about it. 



There is nut a boy or girl in city or country 

 who would want to get along without 

 apples. What would we do through 

 the long winter evenings when we 

 sit before the fireplace if there were 

 not a good northern spy, or spitzen- 

 bcrg, or king, or greening at hand? 

 We like to go down into the cellar and get them. How cold and crisp 

 they are ! We enjoy eating them while we read a good book. 



It is good to think of an apple orchard in the autumn days and to 

 take the apples off the trees ourselves, with the stems on them and 

 sometimes a leaf or two. We like the color of the apples ; we like the 

 odor ; we like the taste. It is a pleasure to think that they have grown 

 on our own farm lands and that whenever we want to we can find a 

 place in which to plant an apple tree for others to enjoy. 



Sometime this year we should like to have an apple tree planted in 

 the vicinity of every country school in this State, a tree planted by boys 

 and girls and grafted or budded by them ; a tree that will have an interest 

 for them all the coming years. You will get enjoyment from doing this 

 yourself. You will probably enjoy some of the apples that grow on it. 

 ^'ou will like the shade many a day when you go back to visit the old 

 school. In future years many persons will enjoy the apples, and will 

 sit beneath the shade of the tree. Perhaps little children will have 

 a swing from one of the limbs of the tree you planted. 



Ohio has become famous as a fruit-growing state, and it has been 

 said that it may be due to the fact that years ago seeds were planted 

 by an old man who was called "Ajipleseed John," This man went 

 through the country planting applesecds. He went far and worked hard, 

 not for himself but for the people who would live after him. Th.is was 

 Appleseed John's way of making his patii through the world count for 

 ethers. Many a boy and girl in the State of Ohio recall the story of 

 Appleseed John as they fill their caps and aprons with apples, and I 

 dare say some of them, instead of throwing away the cores, will plant 

 them as the dear old man did in the days gone by. 



