114 WINTER SUNSHINE 



lates his liver. Neither is this all. Beside its 

 hygienic properties, the apple is full of sugar and 

 mucilage, which make it highly nutritious. It is 

 said "the operators of Cornwall, England, consider 

 ripe apples nearly as nourishing as bread, and far 

 more so than potatoes. In the year 1801 — which 

 was a year of much scarcity — apples, instead of 

 being converted into cider, were sold to the poor, 

 and the laborers asserted that they could * stand their 

 work ' on baked apples without meat ; whereas a 

 potato diet required either meat or some other sub- 

 stantial nutriment. The French and Germans use 

 apples extensively ; so do the inhabitants of all Eu- 

 ropean nations The laborers depend upon them as 

 an article of food, and frequently make a dinner of 

 sliced apples and bread." 



Yet the English apple is a tame and insipid affair, 

 compared with the intense, sun-colored, and sun- 

 steeped fruit our orchards yield. The English have 

 no sweet apple, I am told, the saccharine element 

 apparently being less abundant in vegetable nature 

 in that sour and chilly climate than in our own. 



It is well known that the European maple yields 

 no sugar, while both our birch and hickory have 

 sweet in their veins. Perhaps this fact accounts for 

 our excessive love of sweets, which may be said to 

 be a national trait. 



The Russian apple has a lovely complexion, 

 smooth and transparent, but the Cossack is not yet 

 all eliminated from it. The only one I have seen 

 — the Duchess of Oldenburg — is as beautiful as a 



