HISTORY OP THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



For ihs Talk. Apples for the table are cliar- 

 acterised by a firm juicy pulp, poignant flavour, 

 regular form, and beautiful colouring, as the 

 sugar-loaf pippin, Wormsloy pippin, autumn 

 pearmain, king of the pippins, Fearn's pippin, 

 Ribstou pippin, old pome, rosy Hertfordsliire 

 pearmain, Pennington's seedling, Rennet du 

 Canada, Butch mignonne. Sweeny nonpariel, 

 Dowton nonpariel, Newton pippin, Boston rus- 



60t. 



For the Kitclien. Apples for cooking are 

 characterised by the property of what is tech- 

 nically called falling, or forming by the aid of 

 heat, into a general pulpy mass of equal consis- 

 tency, as also by their large size, and keeping 

 properties. Some have this property of fall- 

 ing when green, as the Keswick, Carlisle, and 

 riawthornden codlius ; others, again, only after 

 they are ripe, as the russet tribe. The following 

 may suit either for dessert or kitchen use. Gra- 

 venstein and Blenheim pippin, Bedfordshire 

 foundling, Brabant bellefloijr, London pippin, 

 wliite winter calville, northeirn greening, Rhode 

 island greening. 



For Cider. For the purpose of making into 

 cider, the apples must have a considerable degree 

 of astringency, with or without firmness of pulp 

 (ir richness of juice. The best kinds, according 

 to Knight, are often tough, dry, and fibrous; and 

 t]ie Siberian liarrey, wliich he recommends .as 

 one of the very best cider apples, is unfit either 

 ibr culinary purposes or the table. Knight re- 

 marked- that the specific gravity of the juice of 

 the apples vras a test of the future strengtli of 

 the cider to be made from them. 



For Cottage Gardens. Where the space will 

 admit of only one tree, the best is the Ribston 

 pippin; if two, add to this the Dutch mignonne; 

 if three, add to these the Wormsley pippin; and, 

 according to space and convenience, king of the 

 pippins, old nonpariel, Dowton nonpariel, alfris- 

 ton, Bedfordshire foundling, Pennington's seed- 

 ling. For training against the wall or roof, the 

 best are the Ribston pippin, old nonpariel; or 

 when a large kitchen apple is required, the Beil- 

 fordshire foundling, the Ilawthoinden, or non- 

 such. In cold and unfavourable situations, the 

 court pender plat, the Bedfordshire foundling, 

 the northern greening, or the Keswick codling, 

 wliicli is an excellent autumn apple for kitchen 

 xix. Unlike other fruits, the apples which ripen 

 latest are the best. The trees may be trans- 

 planted at various ages, apple trees bearing this 

 process at a, greater age tlian any others. The 

 time of transplanting may be in any open wea- 

 ther, from November till Feln-uary. 



The propagation of apple trees is accomplished 

 by seeds, cuttings, suckers, layers, or iugnifLing. 

 In raising from seed, care should be tal-im in 

 the choice of the fruit and varieties. The sorts 

 of ajiples proper for crossing, or reciprocal im- 



pregnation, appear to be those n-hich have a groat 

 many qualities in common, and some different 

 qualities. Thus, the golden pippin has been 

 crossed by other pippins or rennets, and not by 

 calvils or codlings. A small sized apple crossed 

 by a large sort, wiU be more certain of produc- 

 ing a new variety than the above mode, but will 

 be almost equally certain of producing a variety 

 destitute of valuable qualities, the qualities of 

 parents of so opposite a nature, being, as it were, 

 crudely jumbled together in the offspring. Mr 

 Knight's method was as follows. In the blossoms 

 of the variety to be impregnated, he cut out tlie 

 stamens early; and after the pistil was mature 

 and ready for the pollen, he introduced this from 

 stamens of another variety. In this way, by 

 impregnating the orange pippin with the pollen 

 of the golden pippin, he produced the dowton, 

 red and yellow ingestrie, and grange pippins. 



The seeds may be sown in autumn in light 

 earth, covered an inch, and either in beds or in 

 pots. They should be transplanted out at the 

 end of the first year. The quickest way to bring 

 them to a bearing state, according to Williams, is 

 to let the plants be furnished with lateral shoots 

 from the ground upwards, so disposed as that 

 the lea^'es of the upper shoots may not shade 

 those situated underneath, pruning away only 

 trifling shoots. In tliis way he procured fruit 

 from seedling apples at four and five years of age, 

 instead of waiting ten years, as in ordinary cases. 



By cuttings, every variety of apples may be 

 propagated. Trees raised in this way, according 

 to Bigg, from healthy one year old branches, with 

 blossom buds upon them, will continue to go on 

 bearing the finest fmit in a small compass for 

 many years; and are not liable to canker, proba- 

 h\j because they spread out their roots horizon- 

 tally, and do not send down a long tap root. 

 The cuttings are to be chosen from the young 

 wood of horizontal or oblique branches, from six 

 to eight inches or more in length, with a small 

 portion of old vrood at the lower end. The tip 

 of the shoot is to be cut off, and all their buds, ex- 

 cept two or three next the tip; the section at the 

 lower end is then to be smoothed, and the twig 

 inserted three or foirr inches in sandy loam, 

 covering with a glass, and watering and shading 

 them. The proper time for this operation is 

 early in February. 



Grafting and Inoculation. This may be said 

 to be the universal practice in propagating tlie 

 apple. There are five kinds of stocks on which 

 the graft may be inserted. Seedling apples used 

 for full standards, and riders or wall standards. 

 Seedling crabs, for standards or half standards; 

 codling apiples, from layers or cuttings, for dwarfs 

 and espaliers; paradise apples or doiiciiis, from 

 laj'ers or cuttings, for low dwarfs trained; and 

 creeper apples, from layers or cuttings, for the best 

 dwarfs or bushes. 



