THE APPLE. 5 



Cultivation not only improves the fruit, changing the 

 Crab into the apple in all its numerous varieties, but also 

 causes the leaves to become larger, thicker, and more 

 downy ; indeed, it is a common practice among those who 

 raise seedlings, to select, in the second or third year of 

 their growth, those plants which have large broad round- 

 ish leaves, throwing all the rest away; experience having 

 shown that these are much more likely to yield better, or 

 at least larger, fruit than trees with small narrow pointed 

 leaves ; for Mr. Knight affirms that the width of the leaf 

 generally indicates the size of the future fruit, but admits 

 that it does not convey a very correct idea of its merit, 

 since it may prove to be large and insipid. In its wild 

 state, too, the tree is seldom more than 20 ft. high, be- 

 sides being very crooked and distorted in its growth ; but 

 domesticated by man, it assumes a somewhat more regu- 

 lar form and attains a loftier height. In Scotland, how- 

 ever, 25 ft. is still considered high, but near London 30 ft. 

 is a fair standard. In Herefordshire 40 ft. is attained, 

 and in N. America, where it reaches its greatest perfec- 

 tion, a famous Pear main, in Homney in Virginia, is de- 

 scribed as being 45 ft. high, and the trunk upwards of 

 3 ft. in diameter, while the produce in one year amounted 

 to no less than 200 bushels, whereas the greatest amount 

 on record in England as having been gathered from one 

 tree is but 100 pecks. This American giant was a seed- 

 ling, and, though 40 years old, was still continuing to 

 grow larger; and others in that country are specially 

 mentioned by Downing, which, spending their energies 

 in expanding rather than aspiring, had attained enormous 

 bulk, the girth of one growing in Rhode Island exceeding 

 13 ft., the tree, too, having attained the remarkable age 

 of 130 years ; for though the wild plant is very long- 

 lived, fine garden sorts usually live but from 50 to 80 

 years. "With care, however, they may be maintained in 

 health and productiveness for very long periods, and at 

 Horton in Buckinghamshire, where Milton spent some 

 of his earlier years, an apple-tree was still growing quite 

 recently, which tradition asserted the poet had often 

 been accustomed to sit under. Among our Transatlantic 



