JANUARY 159 



wood, with its crimson branches beside the bright yellow 

 of the Golden Willow. 



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 ripen- 

 ing. This, however, only means that extra study must 

 be given as to which kinds should be planted. The chief 

 requirements 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, whole- 

 some food. An Apple is quite as nourishing as a Potato, 

 and a roast Apple, with brown sugar, is a far more pal- 

 atable 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 per- 

 centage of phosphorus than any other fruit or vegetable. 

 This phosphorus, says the "Family Doctor," is admir- 

 ably 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 Scandina- 

 vian 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 



