January, 1917 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
71 
Here we see the once mighty Queen in a state of great alarm tinged with sorrow 
at her almost total eclipse by the rapidly growing apple orchards of Wisconsin and 
standing on her hind legs in order to be seen at all Time 1927. 
The first two years after the or- 
chard is set out I never use a 
knife; I just break off such new 
growth as ought not to be there 
with my hands and then after 
the tree has been out two years 
to make it spread out and give 
it a good top and so that it will 
not grow too tall, I cut off all 
the third year growth that is 
inclined to shoot straight up. 
This will cause the tree to spread 
out and in a few years it will have 
a well shaped top and not too 
tall. We do not like to pick 
apples from a twenty foot lad- 
der. This is about all I have 
had time to write about my ex- 
perience in orcharding but I am 
ready for questions if any one 
has any to ask. 
Still King 
So far as history reveals, the 
apple was one of the earliest 
fruits cultivated by mankind. 
According to Brand’s Popular 
Antiquities, the apple was king 
of fruits in the early days of 
Merry England and was one of 
the chief means by which our 
English forebears dispensed hos- 
pitality. Some curious customs 
were in vogue in those early 
days, as may be seen from the 
following account: 
“On Christmas eve the farmers 
and their men in Devonshire take 
a large bowl of cider, with a toast 
in it, and carrying it in state to 
the orchard, they salute the 
apple trees with much ceremony, 
in order to make them bear well 
the next season.” 
The ceremony consists in 
“throwing some of the cider 
about the roots of the tree, 
placing bits of the toast on the 
branches,” and, finally, “encircl- 
ing one of the best bearing 
trees in the orchard, they drink 
the following toast three several 
times: 
‘Here’s to thee, old apple tree. 
Whence thou mayest bud, and whence 
thou mayest blow, 
And whence thou mayest bear apples 
enow! 
Hats full! Caps full! 
Bushel, bushel, sacks-full! 
And my pockets full, too! Hurra!’ ” 
On New Year’s eve, it was the 
custom for the boys to organize 
“apple-howling” parties and go 
from orchard to orchard, merry- 
making, in order to show their 
gratitude for past bounties and 
to court a continuance of the 
favors of the goddess bountiful. 
One of the songs runs: 
“Stand fast, root! bear well, top! 
Pray God send us a good howling crop: 
Every twig, apples big; 
Every bow, apples enow!” 
“Then they shout in chorus, 
one of the boys accompanying 
them on a cow’s horn. During 
this ceremony, they rap the 
trees with their sticks.” This is 
known as “wassailing” the trees. 
The ceremony was concluded by 
a kind of dance in which the 
boys hopped about the tree 
singing: 
“Wassaile the trees that they may beare 
You many a plum and many a peare; 
For more or less fruits they will bring 
As you so give them wassailing.” 
|| They say the Lion and the Lizard | 
f* keep 
The Courts where Jamshyd glor- I 
ied and drank deep: 
H And Braham, that great Hunter — | 
the Wild Ass 
fl Stamps o’er his Head, but cannot | 
break his Sleep. 
