OF FRUIT TREES. 13 



regard to their sensible properties, apples have been 

 divided into spicy, acidulated, and watery. To the 

 first class belong the various species of rennet, which 

 possess a most delicate flavour, contain the least pro- 

 portion of water, and, on account of their vinous na- 

 ture, are not apt to excite flatulency. Pippins, on the 

 contrary, though affording more nutriment than the 

 former, are more fibrous, and, consequently, require a 

 more vigorous stomach to digest them ; hence they 

 should be ranked under the second class. Lastly, 

 those sweet and tender apples which are very juicy 

 and palatable, are the least fit to be eaten in a raw- 

 state, unless with the addition of bread or biscuit. 

 When baked, or dried in the open air, they make an 

 excellent substitute for raisins or plums, in puddings, 

 pies, and other dishes prepared of flour. Sour apples 

 may be much improved, both in taste and quality, by 

 either baking or digesting them in a close vessel, by 

 steam, over a slow fiie. Thus the saccharine princi- 

 ple is disengaged, and they undergo a speedy and com- 

 plete change." The honourable T. Pickering, in his 

 address to the agricultural society, Essex county, ex- 

 presses himself in the following language : "After pro- 

 viding a due proportion of apples for the table and 

 the ordinary purposes of cookery, I do not hesitate to 

 express my opinion, that, for all other uses, sweet ap- 

 ples are entitled to the preference. The best cider I 

 ever tasted, in this country, was made wholly of sweet 

 apples. They afford also a nourishing food to man 

 and all domeslick animals. What furnishes a more 

 delicious repast than a rich sweet apple baked and 

 eaten in milk ? I recollect the observation made to 

 me l>y an observing farmer, before the American rev- 

 olution, that nothing would fatten cattle faster than 

 sweet apples. Mentioning this, a fe^ 1 years since, to 

 a gentleman of my acquaintance in an adjoining state, 

 he informed me, that he \va> once advised to give 



