WILD APPLE TREES 101 



will not and it may be that their planting will 

 some day give us so beautiful and well flavored a 

 wild apple that we too shall be moved to plant 

 and the country blossom with orchards once 

 more. All the best varieties were thus seedlings 

 originally and have been perpetuated by trans- 

 ferring their buds to the limbs of less valued 

 stock. 



Just as in man bone and sinew count really 

 for little and it is only the subtle essence of be- 

 ing, the spirit behind and within, that matters, 

 so it is the sweet and kindly soul within the apple 

 tree that radiates love to all comers. In apple- 

 blossom time the bees will desert all other flowers 

 for them, not because the honey is sweeter or 

 more plentiful within them but because the woo- 

 ing fragrance has more of a pull on their heart 

 strings than any other. Again in the late au- 

 tumn they come to the ripe fruit for final winter 

 stores, drawn by the same subtle essence, distilled 

 from disintegrating, pulpy cells. I believe the 

 first cider making was a rude attempt to imprison 

 and perpetuate this charm, rather than to simply 

 make a spirituous liquor. So richly does the 

 apple tree give forth this spirit of generous de- 

 light that to all of us the trees seem to brood and 



