34 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1876. 



keep you awake or turn your sleep into a horrid nightmare, apples are to 

 you gold at night as well as in the morning. 



It is a popular belief that the apple was the forbi Iden fruit of the pri- 

 meval Eden of Hebrew tradition, and the average Bible reader will 

 strongly maintain that the author of the book of Genesis saj-s so. The 

 apple was, undoubtedly, one of the fruits on which primitive man sub- 

 sisted, and is worthy to have had its origin in — paradise. But that the 

 tirst estate of apples and men was better than their present, and that men 

 became wise by eating them, and thereby feW, we leave to the theologians. 

 Our creed that it is wise to eat apples is not mystical ; though time out 

 of mind apples appear to have had some mystical connection with wis- 

 dom. Theophrastus says apples were the food of ihe ancient sages of 

 India. Hence the names poma sapientium and p>oina paradisiaca (French 

 pomme de paradise,) which the botanists have given to the banana. But 

 if there be a fruit in the world that deserves these fine names, it is the 

 apple — the fruit we mean when we say apple. 



What shall be done to make growing apples pay ? That the coming 

 man will eat apples we have no doubt. And we have just as little doubt 

 that he will have to pay a remunerative price for them. The advent of 

 the commg man wants for nothing so much as the diffusion of correct 

 notions of economy — domestic as well as political oiconomia — household 

 knowledge. The coming man will know what it is good for him and his 

 family to eat and he and they will eat it. He will return to the primitive 

 instincts and usages of his prehistoric ancestors, and eat food that it is 

 natural and healthful for him to eat — of which apples were and will be 

 at least a part. Will he drink cider ? Well, we don't pretend to know 

 for certain, but rather guess he will — if he can afford to. But when 

 Apples shall come to be fully appreciated as an article of food we have 

 doubts whether it will pay to make them into cider. One of the strong 

 points of the coming man will undoubtedly be a wise economy. 



To sum up the purpose of our argument we conclude that Apple 

 growing will pay as soon as the v«lue of Apples as food is fully under- 

 stood. Meantime, O, reader, it will certainl}^ pay you to buy apples at 

 SI per barrel and eat them. 



We have awarded the following premiums : 



For the best ten Astrachan (Red), no entry $ 2 00 



For the second best, no entry 1 .50 



For the third best, no entry 1 00 



For the best ten Baldwin, S. Putnam 2 00 



For the second best, S. Sears 1 50 



For the third best, D. B. Comins 1 00 



