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descendants of the crabtree that still lingers in the 

 country hedgerow number now two thousand separate 

 varieties. It was not, like the peach, the cherry, and the 

 apricot, imported from the East. The fruit, indeed, is 

 not a native of the East. Canon Tristram considers 

 that the tl apples " of the Song of Solomon were apricots ; 

 and although the fruit of the Forbidden Tree is often 

 called an apple, it is not so named in the sacred narrative. 



Even in Roman times apples were cultivated in 

 Britain, and Somersetshire was evidently in King 

 Arthur's days an apple country. The " orchard-lawns " 

 that gave the name to " the island valley of Avilion " 

 are not alluded to in the Survey ; though the vineyards 

 in Terra See. Marie Glastingberiensis, and in "other 

 islands" near it are mentioned, clearly as a source of 

 revenue. 



Uncertain as must ever be the nature of the apple 

 harvest, its chances are doubtless very much diminished 

 by the manner in which too frequently the trees are 

 treated. When the unpruned, neglected state of the 

 trees in an ordinary West Country orchard is considered, 

 the wonder is that there should be any yield at all. 



Much of the Somersetshire apple crop is of value only 

 to make cider ; and the scent of the crushed apples and 

 the rumble of the cider-mill are there as characteristic 

 of the season of autumn as the thud of the flail upon 

 the old barn floor or the yellow ricks in the well-ordered 

 stackyard. 



Cider apples are often remarkable for their beauty 

 but it is a beauty that is only skin deep. Mingled with 



