168 CIDER- HUSBANDRY OF NORMANDY. 



which the American Pomological ConventioD may use- 

 fully keep in view is the purification of the nomenclature 

 of fruits. In Normandy, where the apple-culture for 

 the manufacture of cider is an important source of 

 revenue upon every farm, there are upwards of 5000 

 differently named varieties of the acid or bitter apple, 

 which yield the cider. These have all been collected 

 and examined by Professor Girardin of Rouen, grafted 

 on stocks, grown, figured, and analysed, and he informed 

 me that the same apple was sometimes known by as 

 many as eighteen different names in different parts of 

 that country. I was struck, during a tour in Normandy 

 two years ago, w^lth the little skill and the antique and 

 rude tools which appear to be there devoted to a branch 

 of industry which is of much economical value to the 

 farmers of the province. There are no hedgerows upon 

 the farms, but the divisions of the fields are marked out 

 by rows of apple-trees; and the crop of fruit, which 

 there, as in so many other countries, is good only every 

 second year, is expected to pay the whole rent of the 

 land. In behalf of an industry of so much consequence 

 to the rural population of a large province in France, to 

 Avhole counties in England, and to large portions of other 

 countries of Europe, and which is likely to be extensively 

 prosecuted in America, it is time to ask whether the 

 sciences of botany, meteorology, chemistry, and physi- 

 ology cannot now be made to render them more direct 

 economical aid than they have hitherto done. 



In the United States only the finest apples are sent to 

 market — the waste or refuse are generally made into 

 cider. But those varieties which are best for the table 

 are unfit alone to make a palatable cider. The culture, 

 growth, and selection of cider apples, the proper ad- 

 mixture of varieties In the crushing-mill, &c., is a branch 

 of special husbandry requiring special knowledge, the 

 acquisition and diffusion of which may be greatly 



