APPLES. , I3 



varieties, also under soil and climatal influences. 1'erhaps n<> fairer average analysis can 

 he presented than tliat of rrofcssor Chun-h in one ,,]' the science handbooks of the 

 South Kensington Museum, entitled /'</'/'/. The chief constituents, omitting a small 

 quantity of essential oil, are represented as follows : 



Water 



Sugar 



Mulir arid. 



(YlllllnSr . 



Mineral matter . . . 0'4 :>s 



The practical deduction from those figures is this : For one pound of flesh-formers 

 in apples there are twenty parts of heat-givers reckoned as starch. 



It is not uncommon to find the value of apples for consumptive purposes prejudiced 

 because of the quantity of water they contain. No doubt eighty-three pounds in a 

 hundred seems a large proportion, but it is forgotten that lean beef contains seventy-three 

 pounds, and this proportion of water to solid mixed food is not enough for maintaining a 

 man in health, the requisite percentage being 81-5. Yet apart from the question of 

 nutritive properties. Dr. Church says : " Fruits are especially valuable on account of their 

 potash salts, the citrate, malate, and tartrate. When fish or meat which has been preserved 

 with common salt forms the chief article of diet the blood loses much of its potash com- 

 pounds, and becomes unhealthy unless the loss be made up. Fresh fruits effect this, and 

 they have, a nutritive value, if a small one ; and besides that their flavour and juiciness may 

 servo to stimulate a weak appetite, to give variety and lightness to our otherwise solid 

 diet, and to contribute in a palatable and refreshing form much of the water required for 

 the daily needs in digestion and assimilation." Thus the water that apples contain is an 

 essential, and ought not to be condemned ; moreover it is certain that if the bacon- 

 eating populations of rural villages, and the thousands of townsmen and children whose 

 "animal " food is confined largely to herrings, could obtain a more abundant supply of 

 good fresh fruit, it would be conducive to physical and mental strength and general 

 health improvement. 



The best samples of fruit grown in our villages and sold in our markets are too dear, 

 because scarce, for the great mass of consumers to benefit by; and the trash, which so 

 largely abounds, is the reverse of tempting in appearance, and contains too much indiges- 

 tible tissue to render it acceptable or beneficial. The great aim of cultivators should be 



VOL,, i. s s 



