eautiful in spring--the
large, double flowering, and the well-known dwarf flowering. But we
regard peach-blossoms quite as ornamental, and the ripe peaches much
more so, and so prefer to cultivate them.

Almonds are extensively cultivated in the south of Europe, especially in
Portugal, as an article of commerce. They will grow equally well in this
country; but labor is so cheap in Europe, that American cultivators can
not compete with it in the almond market. But every one owning land
should cultivate a few as a family luxury.

APPLES.

The original of all our apples was the wild European crab. We have in
this country several native crabs larger and better than the European;
but they have not yet, as we are aware, been developed into fine apples.
Apple-trees are hardy and long-lived, doing well for one hundred and
fifty years. Highly-cultivated trees, however, are thought to last only
about fifty years. An apple-tree, imported from England, produced fruit
in Connecticut at the age of two hundred and eight years. The apple is
the most valuable of all fruits. The peach, the best pears, the
strawberries, and others, are all delicious in their day; but apples are
adapted to a greater variety of uses, and are in perfection all the
year; the earliest may be used in June, and the latest may be kept until
that time next year. As an article of food, they are very valuable on
account of both their nutritive and medicinal qualities. As a gentle
laxative, they are invaluable for children, who should always be allowed
to eat ripe apples as they please, when they can be afforded. Children
will not long be inclined to eat ripe fruit to their injury.

An almost exclusive diet of baked sweet apples and milk is recorded as
having cured chronic cases of consumption, and other diseases caused by
too rich food. Let dyspeptics vary the mode of preparing and using an
apple diet, until it agrees with them, and many aggravated cases may be
cured without medicine. It is strange how the idea has gained so much
currency that apples, although a pleasant luxury, are not sufficiently
nutritious for a valuable article of diet. There is no other fruit or
vegetable in general use that contains such a proportion of nutriment.
It has been ascertained in Germany, by a long course of experiments,
that men will perform more labor, endure more fatigue, and be more
healthy, on an apple diet, than on that universal indispensable for the
poor, the potato.