9 



of dearth, apples are almost always mentioned as arti- 

 cles causing distress by their scarcity ; and in the Re- 

 membrance Office a M.S. exists in Henry the 7th' s 

 (1485 — 1509) own handwiiting, in which he records 

 that on one occasion apples were from one to two shil- 

 lings each, a red one fetching the highest price. 



We haye now arrived at the era when our agricul- 

 tural and horticultural literature commences, and we 

 find that Fitzherbert, in his " Book of Husbandry," 

 published in 1598, has many, and, in most instances, 

 good directions for the culture of the apple. They 

 are, unlike the works of his contemporaries and im- 

 mediate successors, the evident result of experience, 

 and not mere translations from the classic Geoponic 

 writers. Thus, on grafting the apple, he says, 

 " Graft that which is got of an old apple-tree first, 

 for that will bud before the graft got on a young 

 apple-tree late grafted in. For all manner of apples 

 a crab-tree stock is good, but the apple-tree stock is 

 much better." 



The varieties of the apple had now largely in- 

 creased, for Dodoens, writing in 1583, says they were 

 so numerous that it is not possible, neither neces- 

 sary, to number all the kinds." 



Gerard, writing of this fruit in his " Herball," 

 during 1597, also speaks of the infinite varieties of 

 the apple, but seems to attribute the variation much 



to the soil and cUmate." Kent," he goes on to 



