1 1 2 
NATURE NOTES 
could procure. The revival of the cider industry, which 
necessarily involves the planting of cider fruit, is a matter the 
importance of which I have for some years in the press and on 
the platform endeavoured to impress on the people of this 
country. Cider is the natural wine of Britain. It is, I am 
happy to say, rapidly recovering the favour in which it was once 
held ; and, if the demand continues to increase, of which I have 
no doubt, the systematic renovation of our orchards of vintage 
fruit must not be delayed. 
At Eynsford on the day in question, the school -children 
planted on a bank opposite their schoolhouse and about the 
centre of the village various ornamental trees, so arranged that 
the initial letters of their names spelled the text in Proverbs, 
“ My son be wise,” as maple, yew, sumach, oak, and so on. 
The children themselves subscribed for the cost of the trees, 
and thus early joined in the commemoration of this remarkable 
reign. The farmers and cottagers planted fruit trees, chiefly 
apples ; and one villager planted an acre of ground with a 
selection of vintage varieties. In this new orchard two spaces 
were left which Sir George Birdwood and I filled up by planting 
each a tree that had been put aside for the purpose. The 
situation of the orchard seemed to me to be very well chosen, 
and I hope that before many years have passed Sir George 
Birdwood and I may be favoured with a draught of cider made 
from the fruit of the trees we assisted to plant. 
A specially interesting feature of the proceedings was the pre- 
sentation of a young apple tree to an aged villager named Howard, 
a name which is suggestive of the days when the southern 
counties of England were covered with dense woods of oak and 
beech, in which the inhabitants had rights of pannage, that is 
of turning in their swine to feed on the acorns and beechmast ; 
for in all probability the name “Howard” is an abbreviation 
or corruption of Hog Ward. Howard, it appeared, had planted 
an apple tree so far back as 1839, in an allotment still in his 
occupation, which turned out a capital and regular bearer, and 
in that year of plenty, 1895, yielded its owner no less than 
thirteen bushels of first-class fruit. In order to mark their 
sense of the old man’s forethought, and as an incentive to others 
to follow his example, the villagers presented him with a young 
tree of the same variety as the original — a Winter Quoining — to 
plant in his son’s garden. We all assisted or looked on at the 
operation, and at its conclusion the village children danced seven 
times round the tree singing the following lines used in former 
times on such occasions, which Sir George Birdwood, who has 
a store of folk-lore, had had printed and distributed as a leaflet : — 
Stand fast root, bear well top, 
I’ray God send us a good apple crop. 
Every twig, apples big, 
Every bough, apples enow, 
Hats full, caps full, 
Full quarter sacks full. 
