Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/636

 600 APPLE the ashes of sap wood 16 parts potash, 18 lime, 17 phosphate of lime ; in 100 parts of the ashes of bark, 4 parts potash, 51 lime. The young trees should be planted in holes of considerable size and depth, setting the tree at the same depth it was in the nursery, taking care to re- place none of the barren subsoil, and covering the surface of the ground with a mulching to re- tain water or liquid manure, which may then be applied without danger of caking the earth about the rootlets. The distance between trees should be from 25 to 40 feet, according to variety, some spreading much more than others. Usu- ally in New England the trees are planted too closely; and the system of lining the stone walls with these trees has much to commend it, as the walls retain moisture and also allow the leaves and snow to drift and accumulate at their sides, thus supplying needed nourish- ment to the trees ; and, moreover, as the rocks wear away they replace the potash in the soil, or, if it be a limestone rock, the limestone which the tree so much needs. Apple trees will not grow well in wet soil, nor where the sod sur- rounds them ; the ground should be stirred up about the trees and well manured with plaster or animal manures, as indicated by the soil, for several years after planting. Alkaline washes on the trunk will preserve the even green bark until the tree is 10 or 16 years old. The rich soils of the western states yield apples of unequalled size, but the flavor is inferior to those produced on eastern limestone soils, or where the proportion of vegetable matter in the soil is less and that of the red oxide of iron greater. Dwarf apple trees are sometimes cul- tivated for hedges or ornament, and the Chi- nese raise the tree in pots. Many varieties grafted on the wild crab do well and are dwarfed ; but in Europe the favorite stock for dwarfing is the French paradise apple, a natu- rally small tree, or the English domain. In England and France the trees are trained on walls, as espaliers and balloon-shaped, to insure ripening; but in the United States no such precaution is necessary. Of ornamental blos- soming apple trees, the common crab and the double-flowered Siberian crab, both red and white, are much cultivated. The wood of the apple tree in its wild state is fine-grained, hard, and of a light brown color ; and, in exception to the general rule, the cultivated wood is of a still finer and closer grain, weighing in the proportion of about 66 to 45 of the wild wood. In a green state the wood weighs from 48 to 66 Ibs. per cubic foot, and it loses in drying about a tenth of its weight and from an eighth to a twelfth of its bulk. It is much used by turners and for the manufacture of shoe lasts, cogs for wheels, and some kinds of furniture ; stained black and polished, it passes for ebony ; and the wood of the roots is cut into thin sheets or veneers for interior decorations. The apple as an article of food is probably unsurpassed except by the banana for its agreeable and nu- tritive properties. Unlike most tropical fruits, it requires no training to become acceptable to the palate, and, whether baked, boiled, made into jellies, or preserved with cider in the Sha- ker apple sauce or apple butter, is popular everywhere. The exportation of New England ice was accompanied by the exportation of New England apples, which are better suited for this purpose than western ones; and at the ice ports of China and India American apples are to be purchased in as fine a condition as in our own markets. American apples always com- mand a good price in England. Every farmer cuts and dries a supply of apples for use in the late spring and early summer, and immense quantities of apples are pared and cut by ma- chinery, and slowly dried in ovens or in the sun, furnishing an important article of trade. The flavor is much injured by long exposure to the sun. When properly prepared, dried ap- ples will remain good for five or six years if kept in a dry place ; and for use it is only ne- cessary to soak them in water a short time previous to boiling. Crab apples make the best jelly, and are also much used for a sweet pickle. The raisine compose of the French is made by boiling apples in must or new wine. By mixing the juice with water and sugar a light fruit wine is obtained. Cider in the United States has never acquired much celebrity from the care of its manufacture, as it has usually been made from the refuse of the orchard. That made from wild apples or seedlings is much the best. In England, in the counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Devonshire, much cider is made of superior quality. (See CIDKB.) To these uses of the apple it may be added that a mixture of apple pulp and lard was the original pomatum. The orchard prod- ucts of the United States (mostly apples) are stated in the census returns for 1870 to be worth $47,335,189. More than a million acres are under cultivation as orchards, but many more acres of hilly land might be used profit- ably for this purpose, where no other fruit would grow well. In New England the crop is apt to be irregular, and some years the abun- dance is so great that the fruit will not pay for picking and sending to market, and is used for cider or to feed swine. The apple tree is not subject to disease, and years ago the fruit was perfectly fair and uninjured by worm or cater- pillar in New England, as still in Oregon and the West ; but now the borer (saperda Mmtta- ta) attacks the stem, perforating it a little above the ground ; the woolly aphis attacks the tender shoots; the caterpillar (clisiocampa Americana) builds its cobweb nests and devours the leaves ; the canker-worm (anisopteryx vernata) also devours all foliage ; the apple moth (carpocapaa pometaria) lays its egg at the edge of the calyx, and the larva when hatched enters the fruit ; and the bark louse (coccus) attacks the bark. The borer may be destroyed, as well as the bark louse and aphis, by potash washes (H Ibs. of potash to 2 gallons of water), if applied when the egg is unhatched ; but after