JANUARY 157 



A great deal might be done by a study of the most 

 suitable Apple-trees to grow in Ireland. There seemed to 

 me no reason why they should not do as well there as in 

 Herefordshire or Normandy, but I have been since told 

 that the want of sun does interfere with their ripening. 

 This, however, only means that extra study must be given 

 as to which kinds should be planted. The chief require- 

 ments of Apple-trees are slight pruning in the winter and 

 tying round the stem in October a band of sticky paper, to 

 prevent the female moth, who has no wings, from crawling 

 up and laying her eggs in the branches, to come to life the 

 following spring and devour leaves and blossoms. Apples 

 are most excellent wholesome food. An Apple is quite as 

 nourishing as a Potato, and a roast Apple with brown 

 sugar is a far more palatable dinner for a sick child. 

 Apples very likely might be plentiful in seasons when 

 Potatoes did badly, and in districts near to markets they 

 would fetch a much more fancy price. The following 

 I must have copied out of some old book or newspaper : 

 ' Chemically, the Apple is composed of vegetable fibre, 

 albumen, sugar, gum, chlorophyll, malic acid, gallic acid, 

 lime, and much water. Furthermore, the Apple contains 

 a larger percentage of phosphorus than any other fruit 

 or vegetable. This phosphorus, says the "Family 

 Doctor," is admirably adapted for renewing the essential 

 nervous matter, lethicin, of the brain and spinal cord. 

 It is perhaps for the same reason, rudely understood, 

 that old Scandinavian traditions represent the Apple as 

 the food of the gods, who, when they felt themselves to 

 be growing feeble and infirm, resorted to this fruit for 

 renewing their powers of mind and body. Also the acids 

 of the Apple are of great use for men of sedentary habits 

 whose livers are sluggish in action, these acids serving 

 to eliminate from the body noxious matters which, if 

 retained, would make the brain heavy and dull, or bring 



