,
with the marks of their teeth by which they carried them,--some
containing a cricket or two silently feeding within, and some,
especially in damp days, a shelless snail. The very sticks and stones
lodged in the tree-top might have convinced you of the savoriness of
the fruit which has been so eagerly sought after in past years.

I have seen no account of these among the "Fruits and Fruit-Trees of
America," though they are more memorable to my taste than the grafted
kinds; more racy and wild American flavors do they possess, when
October and November, when December and January, and perhaps February
and March even, have assuaged them somewhat. An old farmer in my
neighborhood, who always selects the right word, says that "they have a
kind of bow-arrow tang."

Apples for grafting appear to have been selected commonly, not so much
for their spirited flavor, as for their mildness, their size, and
bearing qualities,--not so much for their beauty, as for their fairness
and soundness. Indeed, I have no faith in the selected lists of
pomological gentlemen. Their "Favorites" and "Non-suches" and
"Seek-no-farthers," when I have fruited them, commonly turn out very
tame and forgetable. They are eaten with comparatively little zest, and
have no real tang nor smack to them.

What if some of these wildings are acrid and puckery, genuine verjuice,
do they not still belong to the Pomaceae, which are uniformly innocent
and kind to our race? I still begrudge them to the cider-mill. Perhaps
they are not fairly ripe yet.

No wonder that these small and high-colored apples are thought to make
the best cider. Loudon quotes from the Herefordshire Report that
"apples of a small size are always, if equal in quality, to be
preferred to those of a larger size, in order that the rind and kernel
may bear the greatest proportion to the pulp, which affords the weakest
and most watery juice." And he says, that, "to prove this, Dr. Symonds
of Hereford, about the year 1800, made one hogshead of cider entirely
from the rinds and cores of apples, and another from the pulp only,
when the first was found of extraordinary strength and flavor, while
the latter was sweet and insipid."

Evelyn[11] says that the "Red-strake" was the favorite cider-apple in
his day; and he quotes one Dr. Newburg as saying, "In Jersey 't is a
general observation, as I hear, that the more of red any apple has in
its rind, the more proper it is for this use. Pale-faced apples