112 MISSOURI STATE HORTIULTURAL SOIETT. 



only the tenderest and gentlest thoughts, cultivates an ennobling love 

 for the beautiful in whatever form it may be found ; the former inspires 

 all the good, the true, the noble thoughts and deeds that make beauti- 

 ful a human life. 



THE APPLE : HISTORY— POSSIBILITIES. 



DAN CARPENTER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



At the request of the President of the Missouri State Horticul- 

 tural society, this paper is written, with little hope of either instructing 

 or amusing any one. 



I cannot, as Paul before Agrippa, say "I think myself happy to 

 answer " the request; but I do feel it an honor and esteem it a privi- 

 lege to present it before those who are "expert in all questions" con- 

 cerning horticulture. 



ANTIQUITY. 



In the beginning " The Lord planted a garden * * * and made 

 grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good 

 for food." The apple, ever having been esteemed good for food, must 

 have been in that first garden. 



Solomon, the wise, who had gathered in the royal gardens all kinds 

 of fruits, flowers and trees which could be obtained from all the coun- 

 tries and people with whom he had commercial relations, is so delighted 

 with this fruit that he compares it with his beloved, and declares "as 

 the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among 

 the sons" — or as his beloved was superior to men, so was the apple 

 among fruit trees. "That the smell of her nose (breath) is like apples ;" 

 that when he was "sick of love" he desired to be "comforted with 

 apples;" and declares that "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold 

 in pictures of silver." The wonderful love of the Lord for Israel is 

 expressed in "I raised thee up under the apple tree." These express 

 the high esteem in which the apple was held a thousand years before 

 the Christian era. 



Two hundred years later the prophet, wailing over the desolation 

 of his people, cries out: "The vine is dried up, the fig tree withered, 

 the pomegranate tree, the palm tree and the apple tree are withered," 

 and "joy had withered from the sons of men" with them. 



