Apple (fruit)

“ The apple is successfully cultivated in higher latitudes than any other fruit tree, growing up to 65° N., but notwithstanding this, its blossoms are more susceptible of injury from frost than the flowers of the peach or apricot. It comes into flower much later than these trees, and so avoids the night frost which would be fatal to its fruit-bearing. The apples which are grown in northern regions are, however, small, hard, and crabbed, the best fruit being produced in hot summer climates, such as Canada and the United States. ”

“ The apple-trees grow tall and slender, the blossoms break out on the top of each branch in a cluster; the fruit, when ripe, is about the size of small crabs, and shaped like golden-pippins, without any acidity, but the sweetness rather resembles turnips than the well-flavoured apple. ”

“ The apple is the representative fruit, and owes most to culture in its ancient varieties of quince, pear, pomegranate, citron, peach; as it comprehended all originally. Of these, pears and peaches have partaken more largely of man's essence, and may be called creations of his, being civilized in the measure he is himself; as are the apple and the grape. These last are more generally diffused over the earth, and their history embraces that of the origin and progress of mankind, the apple being coeval with man ”

“ In the summer and autumn, when the fruit is at its best, no additional flavor is needed. Toward spring, when it becomes less palatable, the deficiency may be best supplied with a little lemon juice and grated rind, a bit of pineapple or quince, a few drops of almond extract or rose water, or a few whole cloves. Sweet apples which are dry and rather tasteless may be utilized satisfactorily if stewed, canned or preserved with one-third their bulk of quince. ”

“ One likes to linger on an apple, to sit by a fireside to eat it, to munch it waiting on a log when there is no hurry, to have another apple with which to invite a friend.
Now I am not thinking of the Ben Davis apple or any of its kind. I do not want to be doomed to one variety of apple, or even to half a dozen kinds, and particularly I do not want a poor one. There are enough good apples, if we can get them. The days of the amateur fruit-growers seem to be passing. At least we do not hear much of them in society or in many of the meetings of horticulturists. ”

“ The fruits will then generally part readily from the twigs, without either breaking them or rupturing the [285] fruit-stem, which should always be preserved, and from the apple especially, it should never be pulled out, as is apt to happen in certain varieties, when proper care is not exercised in picking them. Some of the apples that require to be gathered early, are, the Rambo, Pryor's Red, Hubbardston, Westfield, Rhode Island Greening, several Russets, and all those which evince a tendency to fall prematurely. ”

“ Cooked entire, and without any addition, the well-flavored apple is among the most perfect and economical of the subacid fruits for every-day use, and for the invalid's tray is seldom surpassed. Baked in its own juice, with sugar and additional flavoring, or boiled in syrup, it is relished equally with the breakfast mush, the dinner meat, and the supper bread and cake. Combined with cream, custard, whipped white of egg, or tapioca, which add nutriment without destroying the fruit flavor, it affords a delicate dessert, inexpensive and easily prepared. ”

“ Apple, the “King of Fruits,” thrives over a wider range of territory and under more varied conditions than any other tree fruit. This means that it is easy to grow. In fact, it is so easy to grow that it usually is neglected; and people wonder why the trees do not bear.
The selection of varieties of Apples for home use is, to a large extent, a personal matter; and no one may say what to plant. A variety that is successfully grown in one section may prove disappointing in another. ”

“ Chemically, the Apple is composed of vegetable fibre, albumen, sugar, gum, chlorophyll, malic acid, gallic acid, lime, and much water. Furthermore, German analysts say that the Apple contains a larger percentage of phosphorus than any other fruit or vegetable. This phosphorus is specially adapted for renewing the essential nervous "lethicin" of the brain and spinal cord. Old Scandinavian traditions represent the Apple as the food of the gods, who, when they felt themselves growing feeble and infirm, resorted to this fruit for renewing their powers of mind and body. ”

“ This delicious table apple is a universal favorite with all who can appreciate delicacy of flavor and fineness of flesh in an apple, and yet it is not a profitable variety for orchard planting, because the fruit is very apt to be imperfect. ”

“ This apple is of middling size, of a shape not very uniform, varying from oblong to flat; the color when ripe is a bright yellow, with clouds of black spots; the flesh is yellow, rich, breaking, and juicy; of a fine flavor as a table apple, and producing cider of an exquisite taste. The stalk is of the ordinary length, inserted in a cavity of medium depth; the crown is moderately deep. The time of ripening is about the first of October, after which the fruit soon falls and is fit for cider. It does not keep long, but while in season is a delicious table apple. ”

“ In varieties that mature before winter, the apple is of [Pg 103] best quality when it ripens on the tree and is picked when fit to eat. In this respect it differs from the pear. One reason why store apples are usually poor is because they must be picked long before ripe to stand shipment. In my experience it is most difficult to find a man who will pick apples when ripe; he is usually possessed to pull them green, thinking that if the fruit is full grown and has a red cheek it is therefore ready to be plucked. ”

“ The subject of the ripening of fruits like the apple has been extensively studied, as has also that of the subsequent decay. According to recent researches, early varieties of apples contain little starch when picked, and do not keep well. The season, soil, and age of the tree affect the composition of the fruit. It has been shown that sugar is sure to be formed from the starch in the process of ripening, after the fruit is taken from the tree, and during the winter the cane sugar is gradually, and finally almost entirely, changed to directly-reducing sugar. ”

“ The Ladies’ Sweeting, we consider the finest winter sweet apple for the dessert, yet known or cultivated in this country (America.) Its handsome appearance, delightful perfume, sprightly flavor, and the long time in which it remains in perfection, render it universally admired wherever it is known, and no garden should be without it.
The fruit is large, roundish-ovate. Skin, very smooth, covered with red next the sun, but pale yellowish-green in the shade, with broken stripes of pale red. ”

“ A very superior dessert fruit; good for all purposes, and seems to do well everywhere. Its excellence has caused it to be called, particularly, a gentleman's apple, though quite acceptable to the farmers' boys.
Tree of rather slender growth; hence top-grafted in the orchard and stock-grafted in the nursery to produce [680] early results; Spreading, rather drooping, productive; Shoots slender, light brown, buds small; Foliage rather sparse, grayish.
Fruit medium, round or oblong, conic, truncated, regular; Surface very smooth, waxy yellow, wholly covered brilliant dark red, mixed and striped ”

“ Yet on a good amateur interest in fruits depends, in the end, the real success of commercial fruit-growing. Just now we are trying to increase the consumption of apples, to lead the people to eat an apple a day: it cannot be accomplished by customary commercial methods. To eat an apple a day is a question of affections and emotions.
We have had great riches in our varieties of apples. It has been a vast resource to have a small home plantation of many good varieties, each perfect in its season. ”

“ There are also great polished apples in the markets, coming from cooler regions, tied by their stems, good to look at but impossible to relish; and I understand how these people of the tropics think the apple an inferior fruit, so successfully do the poor varieties stop the desire for more. ”

“ It considerably resembles the Yellow Newtown Pippin, with more tender flesh, and is scarcely inferior to it in flavor. The tree is a moderate, upright, spreading grower, but bears regularly and well, and the fruit commands a high price in the market. The apples on the lower branches of old trees are flat, while those on the upper branches are nearly conical. Young shoots reddish brown, slightly downy. ”

“ The apple is perhaps the best all-round fruit of all. It is grown in many lands and climates. It is possible to get apples of various kinds, from those that are very tart to those that are so mild that the acid is hardly perceptible to the taste. Stout people can eat sour apples with benefit. Thin, fidgety ones should use the milder varieties. The juice from apples, sweet cider, freshly expressed, is a very pleasant drink, and may be taken with fruit meals.
The avocado is a good salad fruit. It is quite oily. A combination of avocado and lettuce makes a good salad. ”

“ This apple has succeeded in almost all parts of the country, North and South, and has proved remarkably hardy. The quality of the fruit varies with the soil, being best and most highly flavored and colored [693] on exposed ridges of rather thin soil, while those on rich low bottoms or prairies are slow in bearing, and then produce very large fruit. The crops, however, are not always satisfactory in such situations, though the trees become very large; the blossoms are often destroyed by spring frosts. ”

“ One would expect the best summer and fall apples to come from nearby local orchards, but practically this is not the case because the grower will not allow them to remain on the tree until they are fit. Of course the really ripe apple will not keep long and it does not stand rough handling, but this does not affect the fact that, for eating, an apple should be naturally ripe. In every city, small or large, a good trade can be built up for local ripe hand-picked fruit of the first quality, in competition with the best commercial supply. ”

“ This valuable winter sweet apple is much cultivated throughout the West on account of its productiveness, and the amount of nutriment it furnishes to both man and [397] animals. Tree vigorous, healthy, spreading, round, with branches sufficiently open; Shoots dark olive; Foliage large, dark green.
Fruit medium to large, globular-oblate, regular; Surface smooth, greenish-yellow, covered with dull red in confused stripes and shaded with gray that gives the fruit a purple hue; Dots minute and few; Skin thick. ”

“ Any recipe for the stewing of winter pears will answer for dried ones; and they must be soaked over-night to ensure their being tender. It is well to remember that the less water used, the more flavour in the pear, and the syrup should not be very abundant.
And now we come to that most useful of all fruits—the apple. This has been dried in many forms, and canned as well. The most recent are the evaporated apple rings—the apple cut into rounds horizontally through the fruit. ”

“ There are several kinds of apples, and the varieties are every day increasing, through the attention that is paid, by different individuals, to the culture of this valuable fruit. Those best known as eating apples are the American apple called Newtown pippin, the non-pareil, golden pippin, ribstone pippin, golden rennet, and lemon pippin; for the kitchen, the codlin and russet; and for cider, the golden pippin, coccagee, and red streak. ”

“ The original of all the varieties of the cultivated apple is the wild crab, which has a small and extremely sour fruit, and is a native of most of the countries of Europe. Apples have been used as food and cultivated for upwards of 4000 years, and were probably introduced into Britain by the Romans. The greater number of the varieties now grown have, however, been cultivated only within the last century or so. ”

“ My trees are troubled with canker-worms, and my apples with codling-moth. I spray with London purple and Paris green three times, when we have the time and water to spare. Think I have reduced the codling-moth. I pick my fruit by hand and sell some apples to the neighbors in the orchard. I feed culls to pigs. I never tried distant markets. I have apples dried on shares for family use. It does not pay to dry for market. I am partially successful in storing apples in barrels in a cellar under the house. I find Rhode Island Greening, Ben Davis, Duchess of Oldenburg and Emperor keep best. ”

“ Few fruits can be utilized in as many ways as can the apple. In addition to the common use of the fresh fruit out of hand and of the fresh, sweet juice as cider, this "King of Fruits" can be cooked, baked, dried, canned, and made into jellies and other appetizing dishes, to enumerate all of which would be to prepare a list pages long. Few who have tasted once want to be without their apple sauce and apple pies in season, not to mention the crisp, juicy specimens to eat out of hand by the open fireplace in the long winter evenings. ”

“ The Peare apple is a small fruit, but well rellished being ripe, and is for shape very like vnto a small short Peare, and greene.
The Paradise apple is a faire goodly yellow apple, but light and spongy, and of a bitterish sweet taste, not to be commended.
The apple without blossome, so called because although it haue a small shew of a blossome, yet they are but small threds rather then leaues, neuer shewing to bee like a flower, and therefore termed without blossome: the apple is neyther good eating nor baking fruit. ”