APPLE. This fruit, which, from its hardi ness and great abundance, combined with its excellent flavour, is one of the most important productions of cold climates, is, in its wild state, the austere crab-apple of the hedges.
England is celebrated for the excellence of its apples, and consequently of its cider, a beverage which perhaps acquires its highest degree of excellence in Herefordshire and the neighbouring counties. [CtnEn.] For cooking, the best kinds of apples are the following :—for summer use, the Keswick Codlin and the Hawthornden; for autumn the Wormsley Pippin and the Alfriston : for win ter and spring the Bedfordshire Foundling, Dumelow's Seedling, Dr. Harvey, Brabant Bellefleur, and Gravenstein ; and for drying, the Norfolk Beaufin. Of all these, the Gra venstein, Alfriston, and Brabant Bellefleur are the best.
Of dessert apples, the varieties are endless ; but by far the greater part of the local sorts and of those commonly cultivated, is of only second-rate quality. The finest variety of all is the Cornish Gilliflower ; no other equals this in excellence, but it is unfortunately a bad bearer. Of those which combine produc tiveness and healthiness with the highest quality, the six following must be considered the best : —Golden Harvey, Old Nonpareil, Hubbard's Pearmain, Ribston Pippin, Dutch Mig,nonne, Court of Wick. Finally, the best selection that could be made for a small gar den, so as to obtain a constant succession of fruit from the earliest to the latest season, would be the following, which are enumerated in their order of ripening, the first being fit for use in June, and the last keeping till the end of April:—White Jnneating, Early Red Margaret, White Astrachan, Sugar-Loaf Pip pin, Borovitsky, Oslin, Summer Golden Pip pin, Summer Thorle, Duchess of Oblenbnrgh, Wormsley Pippin, Kerry Pippin, Yellow In gestrie, Gravenstein, Autumn Pearmain, Gol den Reinette, King of the Pippins, Ribston Pippin, Fearn's Pippin, Court of Wick, Golden Harvey, Golden Pippin, Beachamwell, Adam's Pearmain, Pennington's Seedling, Hughes's Golden Pippin, Cornish Gilliflower, Dutch Mignonne, Reinette du Canada, Syke-House Russet, Braddick's Nonpareil, Old Nonpareil, Court-Pendu Plat, Lamb-Abbey Petumain, Newtown Pippin.
Many different methods of preserving apples have been recommended, and almost every one has some favourite plan of his own. A very good method is to allow the fruits, after being gathered, to lie till their superfluous moisture has evaporated, which is what is technically called sweating ; ' the apples should then be wiped quite dry, wrapped in tissue paper, and stowed away in jars or chests of pure silver sand which has been previously dried in an oven. They should always be taken out of the sand a few days before they are wanted, and laid in dry fern or some such substance ; they then absorb oxygen, and ac quire a little sweetness, which is necessary to their perfection.
Apples are kept in good condition for the London market in the following way. A cool spot is selected, and layers are heaped up— first of straw or paper, and then of apples, alternately, to a height of about two feet: or the alternate layers are placed in baskets, and the baskets piled one on another. For do-1 mestic purposes, apples may he preserved by wrapping each in a piece of clean dry paper, placing them in small wide-mouthed jars or honey-pots, piling the pots one on another, and cementing the fissure between the pots with a paste of plaster of Paris. The pots are kept in a cool place; but shortly before using, the apples are placed in a warm room for a few days. Apples may also be preserved by immersing them in bran : each apple being separated from the rest by its envelope of bran. The Americans preserve apples for two or three years, by peeling them, cutting them into eighths, taking out the cores, and drying the rest in the sun or in a kiln until quite hard ; when about to be used, the apples are exposed for a few minutes to the action of boiling water.
Apples will yield sugar, by expressing the' juice, neutralising the acid with chalk, boiling, clarifying, and evaporating. One cwt. of apples will yield 84 lbs. of juice, from which may be obtained 12 lbs. of crude sugar.
Besides our home growths, the trade in foreign apples is now very large. In 1848 we imported no less than 331,069 bushels ; those from British Colonies pay 2d. per bushel import duty ; from foreign countries Od.