V. 



thp: hagloe crab. 



Mr. Ma rsh all, in his Rural Economy of Gloucestershire, 

 is the first author who has mentioned this Apple ; and he 

 states it to have been raised from seed by the grandfather of 

 Mr. Bellamy of Hagloe,* in Gloucestershire, about 70 years 

 preceding the period in which he wrote, which was in 1789. 

 But 1 have reason to believe that this variety existed at an 

 earher period, and that Mr. Bellamy's ancestor, on whose 

 estate the original Tree probably grew, is rather entitled to 

 the credit of having first discovered the excellence of the 

 Apple, than to that of having raised it accidentally from 

 seed ; for some of my friends sought in vain many years 

 ago for the original Tree at Hagloe. 



Scarcely any Apple affords a finer Cider than the Hagloe 

 Crab, when it grows in a dry soil on a basis of calca- 

 reous stone, in a warm situation and season : but under less 

 favourable circumstances, the Cider it yields often retains 

 too much of the crude harshness, which distinguishes the 

 fruit, before it becomes perfectly mature. The Cider, however, 

 generally possesses great strength and body, and the speci- 

 fic gravity of the juice, though expressed from an unfavour- 

 able sample of the fruit, in the present year, was 1081. 

 The Trees are rarely very productive of fruit, and there are 

 not many soils and situations in which the Apple is capa- 

 ble of acquiring maturity and perfection. 



* In the Parish of Awie. 



