902 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
Thomson, in his Seasons, speaking of the apple-gathering, says, — 
“* The fragrant stores, the wide projected heaps 
Of apples, which the lusty-handed Year, 
Innumerous o’er the blushing orchard shakes : 
A various spirit, fresh, delicious, keen, 
Dwells in their gelid pores ; and, active, points 
The piercing cider for the thirsty tongue.” 
Soil and Situation. The apple, as a fruit tree, will do no good except in a 
fertile soil, and a sheltered situation. All the best apple orchards of England, 
and more especially those of the cider districts, it has been observed by 
geologists, follow the track of red sandstone, which stretches across the island 
from Dorsetshire to Yorkshire. It has been observed in Ireland (see 
Dublin Soc. Trans.), that the best orchards there are on limestone gravel ; 
and, in Scotland, that the few orchards which are to be found in that country 
are on soils more or less calcareous. On the Continent, the two districts 
most famous for apple trees are Normandy and the Vale of Stuttgard; and 
the subsoil, in both countries, is well known to be limestone. In short, every 
kind of fruit, to be brought to perfection, requires a soil more or less calca- 
reous. In general, the observations made with reference to the pear tree 
will apply in the case of the apple tree; but the latter tree is more injurious 
to hedges, from its low spreading head; and less favourable to culinary 
crops in gardens, and to pasture in orchards, for the same reason; and the 
fruit, being larger, is more liable to be blown down by high winds. 
The Propagation and Culture of the apple are the same as those of the 
pear tree. Wild crabs, like wild pears, are gathered when they are fully ripe, 
and either laid in a heap to rot, or passed between fluted rollers, and the 
crushed fruit pressed for the juice, which is made into an inferior kind of 
cider or perry, and the seeds are afterwards separated from the pomace by 
maceration in water and sifting. This is the mode practised in the Goldworth 
Nursery, where fruit tree stocks are raised on a more extensive scale than 
any where else in Britain. Where seedlings are to be raised from cultivated 
apples, pears, or other fruits, application is made to the manufacturers of cider 
or perry, or to the confectioners ; and from these persons seeds of the different 
kinds of garden fruits are obtained. The mode of sowing these has nothing 
specific, and will be found detailed under the proper head (Nursery Culture) 
in Part VI. of this work. The apple, like the pear, may be grafted on the 
common thorn; but it does not form nearly so desirable a tree on that stock 
as the pear does, and, therefore, crab stocks are always to be preferred. As 
a fruit tree, where it is intended to be grown as a dwarf, the paradise stock 
effects for it what the quince does for the pear, and the Cérasus Mahaleb for 
the cherry. (See Encyc. of Gard., edit. 1835.) 
Accidents, Diseases, and Insects. The apple tree is more liable to the 
attacks of insects, and to diseases, than the pear tree. It is subject to canker; 
more especially when planted deep, or in soil which is annually dug round it 
to some depth, and cropped with vegetables. In some soils, also, especially 
those which contain much oxide of iron, the tree is liable to canker under any 
mode of culture ; and the remedy, or palliative, in such soils, is, liming abun- 
dantly, to neutralise the oxide; planting en the surface, and not digging the 
ground, but only hoeing it, or keeping it entirely in pasture. The leaves, 
flowers, and fruit of the apple tree are liable to the attacks of many insects, 
against which there are few or no remedies; but, at all events, this branch of 
culture belongs more to horticulture than to arboriculture. The American 
blight, or woolly aphis, is one of the most common enemies of apple trees ; 
and to destroy it the most simple modes appear to be, to brush it off with a 
mixture of salt and water, or with soot and salt, or alkali, or soap and water. 
It will, however, be treated on more in detail hereafter. In the spring, the 
caterpillars of different moths and sawflies attack the leaves and flowers 
(see Gard. Mag., vol. ix. p. 341.); and, in orchards, it is sometimes found 
worth while to produce a dense smoke among the trees, by burning moist 
straw or weeds under them; the pyroligneous acid of the smoke poisoning 
