306 



THE APPLE. 



early spring, and is cut off just beneath a group 

 of these points, all the smaller branches are 

 lopped off, and it is then placed about two feet 

 deep in the ground. During the ensuing summer 

 the stump thro\ys out long shoots, and sometimes 

 even bears fruit. I was shown one which had 

 produced as many as twenty-three apples, but 

 this was thought very unusual. In the third 

 season the stump is changed (as I have myself 

 seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with fruit. 

 An old man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, 

 ^ Necessity is the mother of invention,' by giving 

 an account of the several useful things he manu- 

 factured from his apples. After making cider 

 and likewise wine, he extracted from the refuse 

 a white and purely flavoured spirit ; by another 

 process he procured a sweet treacle, or, as he 

 called it, honey. His children and pigs seemed 

 almost to live, during this season of the year, in 

 his orchard." 



It is somewhat singular that a very similar 

 method of propagating Apple-trees is practised 

 in so remote a country as China. The thick 

 branch of a tree, when in full flower, is deprived 

 of a ring of bark, and the place covered round 

 with a lump of rich loam. This is kept moist 

 by water, allowed to drip from a horn suspended 

 above ; and when the roots have pushed into 

 the loam, which is usually the case vv'hen the 

 fruit is nearly ripe, the branch is cut off and 

 planted in a pot. Dwarf-trees, laden v/ith fruit, 

 are favourite ornaments among the Chinese. 

 On the occasion of certain festivals, they are 

 exposed on stands before the houses, along with 

 grotesque flgures of porcelain and pasteboard, . 



