CRAB APPLE 



1621 



CRACOW 



the giant crab of Japan, which measures as 

 much as eighteen feet from tip to tip of the 

 first pair of limbs, or the great stone crab of 

 Tasmania, which often reaches a weight of 

 thirty pounds. The color of crabs varies from 

 black to white through all the colors, although 

 green, blue and gray ones are most common. 



Though related to lobsters, crabs have much 

 shorter and broader bodies, and the tail, too, 

 is very short and folds under the thorax. The 

 head and breast are united, and the whole 

 body is covered with a strong shell. The 

 young throw off this covering at different times 

 as they grow; when they are full-grown this 

 process occurs every three or four years. Crabs 

 which have just shed their shells are regarded 

 as best for the market, and are known as soft- 

 shelled crabs. 



The crab's mouth has several pairs of strong 

 jaws, and the stomach has a number of hard 

 projections for grinding food. The soft, rich, 

 yellow substance called fat is the liver. Its 

 eyes are compound and are usually placed upon 

 stalks sometimes over an inch long. Some 

 crabs have no eyes, however, while others have 

 two pairs. The first of the five pairs of limbs is 

 not used for movement, but is furnished with 

 strong claws or pincers, which are used for 

 defense and for feeling, and the right claw 

 is generally a little larger than the left. Crabs 

 are very active, and have a peculiar habit of 

 running sidewise instead of straight ahead. 



The blue crab is most esteemed for food in 

 the United States and Canada, and hundreds 

 of thousands are taken, particularly from 

 Chesapeake Bay, each year by nets and wicker 

 traps. They are, however, very destructive 

 to the oyster beds there, for they crush the 

 shells of the young and eat the flesh. Fishing 

 for edible crabs constitutes an important in- 

 dustry on many coasts. See CRAWFISH ; HER- 

 MIT CRAB; HORSESHOE CRAB. M.S. 



CRAB APPLE, a useful and ornamental tree 

 found both wild and cultivated in temperate 

 zones. The name was perhaps suggested by 

 the astringency of the hard, sour fruit it bears. 

 Although now often incorrectly applied to any 

 long-stemmed, small, sour apple not adapted 

 for dessert use, the name belongs strictly to 

 the wild variety. The cultivated crab is 

 thought to be a cross between the Siberian 

 crab of Asia and the common apple of Europe, 

 and is seen in all shades of yellow and red. 

 Some varieties, like the Whitney, grown in 

 Illinois, are excellent when eaten raw. But it 

 is for jellies and preserves that this hard little 



apple is most esteemed; put to such use its 

 flavor is unexcelled; and, too, some of the 

 best cider is made from crabs. The Bitter 

 Root Valley in Montana is celebrated for its 

 fine quality of crab apples. 



The Wild Crab Apple Tree. When you see 

 a low, bushy tree about twenty to thirty feet 

 high, with reddish-brown scaly bark, and angu- 

 lar, thorny twigs covered with oval, sharply- 

 toothed, blunt-pointed leaves about three or 



WILD CRAB APPLE 

 Leaves, flowers and fruit. 



four inches long and velvety beneath, you will 

 know it is a wild crab apple tree. If the time 

 be May or June the spicy fragrance of perfect 

 white, pink or deep-rose blossoms will tell 

 you that this is the tree which in fall will 

 bear fragrant, hard, sour little yellow fruits 

 called crab apples. And, in winter, the farmer 

 owning that tree may have a shelf of jars of 

 rose-amber jelly and delicious crab-apple pre- 

 serves. The wood of the tree is soft and red- 

 dish-brown, but useful for levers, tool handles, 

 and such articles. 



American crab apple trees grow from On- 

 tario west to Michigan and as far south as 

 South Carolina. Narrow-leaved crabs, with 

 dark, shining, almost evergreen, leaves grow 

 from New Jersey to Illinois and Kansas, and 

 south to Florida and Louisiana. The fruit of 

 the white-flowered Oregon crab, growing frora 

 Northern California into Alaska, is scarcely 

 worth gathering. Most of New England's 

 mistletoe grows attached to wild crab apple 

 trees. M.S. 



CRACOW or KRACOW, kra'ko (Polish), or 

 krah' kou (German), an historic city, once 

 capital of Poland, until 1919 the capital of the 

 Austrian province of Galicia. It was the an- 

 cient center of Polish culture, where Poland's 

 kings were crowned, and its cathedral contains 

 the remains of John III Sobieski, Kosciusko, 

 Poniatowski, Mickiewicz and other Polish 

 heroes. It is separated from Russia by the 



