THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. 57 



It did not take the partridge long to find out how 

 sweet its buds were, and every winter eve she flew, and 

 still flies, from the wood, to pluck them, much to the 

 farmer s sorrow. The rabbit, too, was not slow to 

 learn the taste of its twigs and bark ; and when the 

 fruit was ripe, the squirrel half-rolled, half-carried it 

 to his hole ; and even the musquash crept up the 

 bank from the brook at evening, and greedily de 

 voured it, until he had worn a path in the grass 

 there ; and when it was frozen and thawed, the crow 

 and the jay were glad to taste it occasionally. The 

 owl crept into the first apple-tree that became hollow, 

 and fairly hooted with delight, finding it just the 

 place for him ; so, settling down into it, he has re 

 mained there ever since. 



My theme being the Wild Apple, I will merely 

 glance at some of the seasons in the annual growth 

 of the cultivated apple, and pass on to my special 

 province. 



The flowers of the apple are perhaps the most beau 

 tiful of any tree, so copious and so delicious to both 

 sight and scent. The walker is frequently tempted to 

 turn and linger near some more than usually hand 

 some one, whose blossoms are two thirds expanded. 

 How superior it is in these respects to the pear, whose 

 blossoms are neither colored nor fragrant ! 



By the middle of July, green apples are so large as 

 to remind us of coddling, and of the autumn. The 

 sward is commonly strewed with little ones which fall 

 still-born, as it were, Nature thus thinning them for 

 us. The Roman writer Palladius said : &quot; If apples 

 are inclined to fall before their time, a stone placed in 

 a split root will retain them.&quot; Some such notion, still 

 surviving, may account for some of the stones which 



