Want no supply, but stand secure alone,

Not trusting foreign forces but their own;

Till with the ruddy fruit their bending branches groan!

The flowers are tinged with red, and have an exceedingly sweet smell. The leaves are yellowish above and whitish underneath. The wood of this tree is tolerably hard, especially in its wild state: it is turned into cogs for wheels, and acquires a very durable polish. The bark yields a yellow dye. Pomatum receives its name from the lard of which it is principally made, being beaten up with the pulp of apples. This inestimable fruit is as abundant in our climate as the orange is in those of Portugal, Spain, and Italy, where our apples are frequently called English oranges, because the apples of those countries bear no comparison with them either for richness of flavour or abundance of juice, and will never keep for any considerable time. It is not known how we have obtained the amazing number of different kinds of this fruit, now cultivated in Great Britain; they are classed separately into four principal divisions:-1. Early or summer apples; 2. Provincial apples, or those peculiar to certain places; 3. Winter or keeping apples; 4. Cyder apples.

It has been often lamented of late years, that too little attention is now paid to the cultivation of fruit trees in general; and especially that our apple-trees have latterly been suffered to degenerate and decay throughout the land. Many of those delicious kinds with which our forefathers used to regale themselves, are wholly extinct: but as the evil has been noticed by those who are best qualified to point out the remedy, there is good ground to presume that we shall soon see the remedy applied. At the same time, however, let the private cultivators each look well to his own orchard, and he will reap an ample reward in the improved quality, as well as

quantity, of his produce. Philips, in his poem entitled Cyder,' thus elegantly enumerates the most esteemed apples:

The Pippin burnished o'er with gold; the Moile
Of sweetest honied taste: the fair Permain,

Tempered, like comeliest nymph, with red and white;
Salopian acres flourish with a growth
Peculiar, styled the Ottley: be thou first
This apple to transplant; if to the name
Its merit answer, nowhere shalt thou find
A wine more prized, or laudable of taste.
Nor does the Eliot least deserve thy care,
Nor John-Apple, whose withered rind, entrenched
With many a furrow, aptly represents

Decrepit age; nor that from Harvey named,
Quick relishing: why should we sing the Thrift,
Codling or Pomroy, or of pimple coat
The Russet, or the Cat's-head's weighty orb,
Enormous in its growth.-

But how with equal numbers shall we match
The Musk's surpassing worth! that earliest gives
Sure hopes of racy wine, and in its youth,
Its tender nonage, loads the spreading boughs
With large and juicy offspring that defies
The vernal nippings, and cold sidereal blasts!
Yet let her to the Red Streak yield, that once
Was of the sylvan kind, uncivilized,

Of no regard, till Scudamore's skilful hand
Improved her, and by courtly discipline
Taught her the savage nature to forget:

Hence styled the Scudamorean plant; whose wine
Whoever tastes, let him with grateful heart
Respect that ancient loyal house.

The same author thus beautifully expresscs himself upon the choice of a proper situation for planting apple-trees:

Whoe'er expects his lab'ring trees should bend
With fruitage and a kindly harvest yield,
Be this his first concern, to find a tract
Impervious to the winds, begirt with hills
That intercept the hyperborean blasts
Tempestuous and cold Eurus' nipping force,
Noxious to feeble buds: but to the wet
Let him free entrance grant, let zephyrs bland
Administer their tepid genial airs;

Nought fears he from the west, whose gentle warmth
Discloses well the earth's all teeming womb,
Invigorating tender secds, whose breath
Nurtures the orange and the citron groves,
Hesperian fruits, and wafts their odours sweet
Wide through the air, and distant shores perfumes.
Nor only do the hills exclude the winds:

But when the blackening clouds in sprinkling show'rs
Distil, from the high summits down the rain
Runs trickling; with the fertile moisture cheered,
The orchards smile; joyous the farmers see

Their thriving plants, and bless the heav'nly dew.

The different and difficult processes by which the produce of the fruit trees is gradually improved, are thus described in Virgil, as translated by Dryden:

But various are the ways to change the state
Of plants, to bud, to graft, t' inoculate.
For where the tender rinds of trees disclose
Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there glows.
Just in that space a narrow slit we make,
Then other buds from bearing trees we take:
Inserted thus the wounded rhyme we close,

*

*

*

*

But when the smoother bole from knots is free,
We make a deep incision in the tree;
And in the solid wood the slip inclose,

The battening stranger shoots again and grows;
And in short space the laden boughs arise,
With happy fruit advancing to the skies.
The mother-plant admires the leaves unknown
Of alien trees, and apples not her own.

The excellence of cyder, as a beverage, is well known: the counties of Devon and Hereford rival each other in the quality of that which they produce, some preferring one and some the other. It was once the practice in Devonshire to suffer the apple-juice to run into vessels of lead, which, being dissolved by the acid of the liquor, became poisonous; and many lives were lost in consequence. The disorder of the bowels which generally attacked those who drank cyder thus contaminated, has been called the Devonshire

colic. A spirituous liquor is drawn from cyder by distillation, in the same way as brandy from wine. The particular flavour of this spirit is not the most agreeable, but it may be purified and made wholly insipid. The traders in spirituous liquors are too well acquainted with the value of this spirit, as they can give it the taste of other kinds, and sell it under their names without any danger of detection. There is, also, a wine called cyder wine, made from the juice of apples taken from the press and boiled, and which, being kept three or four years, is said to resemble Rhenish. See more on this subject in T.T. for 1817, p. 305.

All sorts of apple-trees are propagated by grafting or budding upon the stocks of the same kind, for they will not take upon any other sort of fruit tree. The method of growing them from the seed is to procure the kernels: where they are pressed for verjuice or cyder, they are cleared from the pulp, and sown half an inch deep in a bed of light earth. This should be done in December, and they will appear in the spring.

APRICOT (prunus armeniacus). The apricottree rises to the height of twenty feet, with a spreading head. The stem is large, and so are the branches, which are covered with a smooth bark. The leaves are large, broad, and almost round, but pointed at the ends, and finely indented about the edges; and the flowers are white. It is not certain of what country this tree is a native. The fruit is highly esteemed. There are seven sorts, which are-1. The Masculine apricot, which is the first that becomes ripe; it is a small roundish fruit of a red colour towards the sun: as it ripens, the colour fades to a greenish yellow on the other side; it has a very quick high flavour. The tree is very apt to be covered with flowers, which are often destroyed by coming out too

early in the spring. 2. The Orange apricot is the next ripe; it is much larger than the former, and as it ripens changes to a deep yellow colour. The flesh being dry and not high flavoured, it is better for tarts and preserving than for eating raw. 3. The Algier apricot comes next into season. This kind is of an oval shape, a little compressed on the sides; it turns to a pale yellow or straw colour when ripe; the flesh is high flavoured and very full of juice. 4. The Roman apricot ripens next. It is larger than the Algier, and not so much compressed on the sides; the colour is deeper, and the flesh is not so moist as the former. 5. The Turket apricot is still larger than either of the former, and of a globular form. The colour is deeper and the flesh firmer, but not so juicy. 6. The Breda apricot came originally from Africa. It is a large roundish fruit: the flesh is soft, juicy, and of a deep orange colour within. This is the best apricot we have; when ripened on a standard, it exceeds all other kinds. 7. The Brussels apricot is the last ripe of all the kinds; for when planted against a wall it is seldom fit to eat before the beginning of August, unless the wall has a southern aspect, which spoils its flavour, but this is prejudical to the fruit. Many persons prefer the Brussels to the Breda apricot, but the latter is certainly the most juicy, and has the best flavour when planted as a standard. All the sorts should be planted against walls facing the east or west.

FEBRUARY.

SOME etymologists derive February from Februa, an epithet given to Juno, as the goddess of purification; while others attribute the origin of the name to Februa, a feast held by the Romans