4 OUR COMMON FBUITS. 



this marvellous growth, he found it to be an elm, a tree 

 rare in those high latitudes, and which the ignorance of 

 the inhabitants, unfamiliar with the real aspect of either, 

 had invested with the name of the apple, superstition 

 stepping in afterwards with a myth to account for all 

 discrepancies. Of the two extremes which it can endure, 

 the apple seems to prefer warmth to cold, for the Apples 

 of Astrachan, if transplanted southwards, improve, while 

 the Malo di Carlo of Italy, when removed farther north, 

 deteriorates ; and though few apples are grown south of 

 Paris, yet the Departments of France which lie north of 

 that city form a district more favorable to them than even 

 England can afford. 



The tree is likewise found in some parts of India, and 

 an attempt was made some years ago to introduce its 

 culture into the northern part of that continent, when a 

 single tree, in consequence of being the only one which 

 survived, cost upwards of 70 before it was planted. In 

 S. America, too, Humboldt found excellent apples abun- 

 dant in the markets at Caracas in Venezuela, and was 

 assured that they were the growth of trees which had 

 never been grafted. 



The apple-tree asks for little depth of earth, for, having 

 no tap root, a single foot of soil will suffice it, and twice 

 this quantity gives it ample scope; but it is necessary 

 that this little should be of a certain quality, so that its 

 appearance may always be looked on as a mark of at 

 least a tolerably good soil. Like most fruit-trees, it pre- 

 fers calcareous earth, and geologists have noticed that the 

 orchard counties of England follow the track of the red 

 sandstone. Its shade is so kindly that, in the Surrey 

 nurseries, tender evergreens which would be injured by 

 spring frosts are always planted under its protecting 

 branches, and in the spaces between the trees in American 

 orchards, maize and every other kind of corn is grown, 

 except rye, a grain so very injurious to the apple-tree, 

 especially in its youth, that an eminent cultivator has 

 stated it to be his opinion that three successive crops of 

 it would quite destroy any orchard of younger growth 

 than twenty years. 



