NEXT YEAR'S APPLES 429 



trees, and eat them with the dew on them. We 

 are scarcely more likely to think of wrapping them 

 in tissue paper, and sending them to London, like 

 the peaches, that are far less choice, than of bottling 

 our Devonshire air for town consumption. 



When fruit-growers spend upon apples and pears 

 one-fifth as much as the hop-growers on their feathery 

 produce, the orchard appears from quite another 

 point of view. It is not true that our climate is 

 less kind to this fruit than many of those that send 

 us thousands of barrels. Everywhere in apple lati- 

 tudes the trees are liable to an attack of frost during 

 the vital period of fruit-setting, and, where the true 

 economic importance of the culture is recognised, 

 this damage is no more deemed inevitable than wire- 

 worm or smut in our other crops. There is but a 

 week, or a fortnight at most, of this critical period. 

 Frost does no harm to the blossom in bud, and is, 

 in fact, then welcomed, because it keeps back the 

 blossom, perhaps to a time safe from late frosts. 

 Many a man knows early in the afternoon that a 

 frost is coming that will blast his fruit blossom for 

 the year. What sum will it pay him to spend in 

 order to save his crop ? Some American farmers 

 keep their orchards warm on these critical nights 

 with a hundred little oil-lamps to the acre, raising 

 the temperature some ten degrees, and thus nullifying 

 a spring frost. As a result of this method, thousands 

 of boxes of fruit have been harvested in a district 

 naturally void of apples. The cost of the heaters 

 is less than a shilling each, while the value of the 

 crops saved can easily reach 200 an acre. 



Long ago, the writer, who is not a practical man, 



