54 



" Here then was a little tree g-rowing wild without any care g-iven it, 

 yet it produced handsome apples of fine quality. How do you sup- 

 pose it came to be growing there?" "Somebody must have planted 

 it," declared Gordon. " No," I said "it was not planted, but grew there 

 from the seed, and was, therefore, what is called a chance seedling." 

 "The Brownies must have planted it," remarked Jean. "Well, prob- 

 ably they did," I said, " but I think the Brownies in this case were the 

 men who helped to chop down the trees in the woods ; for it is most 

 likely that they had taken with them some Snow apples to eat when they 

 felt hungry. They threw away the cores and when these rotted the seeds 

 were left on the ground, and from one of these seeds this little tree may 

 have grown." 



" What makes you think they were Snow apples," inquired Jean. 

 " Well," I said, " if you will fetch a few Snow apples from the cellar, to 

 compare with those in the dish, you will probably find the reason your- 

 self." In less time than it takes to tell, ihey were making comparisons, 

 and they agreed that there was not'much difference in appearance, except 

 that the Mclntoshes were, on the whole, a little larger and redder than 

 the Snows. "What makes those black spots on the skin," asked 

 Gordon, " they are on both kinds." ' Those," I replied, "are caused 

 by a fungous disease with which the Snow apple and its relatives are often 

 troubled. Now cut an apple of each kind and compare the flesh." 

 " Wh}', they are both nearly as white as snow, aren't they?" asked Jean. 

 "That is still further proof," I said, "that they belong to the same 

 family. Now taste them." After much tasting of one and the other, it 

 was decided that they were both so good that it was hard to say which 

 was the better ; but when asked to shut their eyes and guess the name of 

 the one they were given to taste, they found no difficulty in telling which 

 was the Mcintosh, because it had a "spicy flavor." 



"Now," I said, "I think that you have suflicient proof that these two 

 apples are related. In fact, there is little doubt that the Mcintosh, and 

 a number of other varieties I might mention, are seedlings from the 

 Snow, or, as it is more properly called, the Fameusc. None of these 

 varieties, however, take their names from their parent. The Mcintosh, 

 as you may have already guessed, received its name from the man on 

 whose farm the first tree of that kind was found." 



" But how does it come there are so many trees of that kind now ? " 

 asked Fred. " We have them, and Grandpa has them, and lots of 

 people have them." Well," I said, "that is one of the interesting 

 points in the stor}' of nearly all cultivated fruit trees. 



" All of the Mcintosh trees now growing in all parts of the country 

 have descended from that one little tree in Dundas County, not by plant- 

 ing seed from it, for that most likely would have produced other 

 varieties, but by grafting and budding other trees with cuttings and buds 

 taken from it. 



" One of the remarkable things about nearly all our cultivated fruit 

 trees is, that trees grown from their seed show endless variations. If, for 

 instance, you should plant loo Mcintosh apple seeds, probably no two ot 

 the trees from them would bear apples just alike, and most likely none of 



