152 ANNUAL REPORT. 
history that we can get of the apple, other than in its uncultivated state, 
is about the year 45 B.C., when the Romans introduced it into England. 
The wild apple, similar to our own wild crabs, was plenty there then. And 
the inhabitants were but little better than savages. As we proceed we shall 
see what the apple did for England. 
But befure visiting those countries where the apple abounds, let us look at 
the degree of civilization where it cannot be grown, or, from some cause, it. 
has not been propagated. First, Egypt, and the Barbary States bordering 
on the Mediterranean. They do not, although they might, raise the apple. 
There civilization to-day is but little, if at all, advanced beyond what it 
was in the days of Moses. Arabia, notwithstanding it was the birthplace of 
science, has lapsed almost into its primitive barbarism. England’s rule in 
India has caused but little real advancement among the people. The culti- 
vated apple does not succeed there. It soon degenerates, becomes acrid, 
astringent, and bitter. 
Latitude and altitude undoubtedly define the limits of the successful 
growth of the apple; but races of men are not confined to latitude or alti- 
tude. Persia could, but does not, produce apples. Greece, in the same lati- 
tude with Persia, and which was at that time an apple-growing country, 
was so much farther advanced in civilization in the days of Darius, who,, 
with his Persian millions, attempted to conquer that mere spot of Europe,. 
that she only was able to furnish the historians to relate the humiliating 
defeat of his mighty army. All efforts to christianize Central Africa have,. 
in my mind, proved only signal failures. Missionaries have only sacrificed 
their lives to the effort; and yet, for a period, it did seem that their labors 
in some places would not prove abortive, having so far succeeded as to 
teach them to read, and to acknowledge and worship the true and living 
God. But in an unforseen moment some wandering horde would swoop 
down upon them, destroying both books and worshippers, so that not one 
would be left to tell the sad tale of their destruction, and in a few years 
it would be entirely forgotten that a missionary had ever been among them.. 
Of this I have been assured by a devout missionary who had passed much 
time among them, and whose field of labor is still there. But build rail- 
roads across their country, the altitude of which in the interior renders it 
certain that apples will thrive, plant out orchards, and thus instill into 
their minds habits of industry and love of home; then barbarism will dis- 
appear and Christianity appear in its stead. Without this, all the teachings 
and all the prayers of all the devout men in Christendom will accomplish 
nothing. But railroads, with cannon and the orchard, will do it. But 
without the orchard, never, any more than it has in Hindustan, that has 
been half civilized for the last four thousand years. 
Our own Cherokee Indians are a home instance. As also are the Indians 
in New York and the provinces of Ontario,—by nature as savage as are any 
of the marauding tribes that at present threaten the lives of the frontiers- 
men. They are accustomed to eat of the fruit that grew in Eden, and by 
so doing they have become no longer barbarians, but men, Like other civil- 
ized beings, they have their halls, and courts of justice, and also a voice in 
the councils of the nation. 
I said, a few pages back, that the apple was introduced into England by 
the Romans. Probably upon their first entry there, about in 43 B. C. Still, 
