HOW TO GROW GOOD ORCHARDS
CHAPTER XLVII.
ON THE APPLE AND PEAR AS ORCHARD FRUITS.
In discussing the subject of fruit in relation to the farm, we shall find that the number of species is exceedingly limited, being, indeed, confined to two: the apple and the pear. This paucity of species, however, is amply compensated for in an extended and constantly extending list of sorts, or varieties, which, in both species, amount to several hundreds.
The apple, which we shall first describe, is admitted on all hands to be derived from the wild crab-apple (Pyrus malus), which is considered to be a native tree, to which position its general appearance in woods and hedges all over the island would seem to give it no small claim.
The fruit of the crab is exceedingly austere, and hence sour-tempered people are said to be “crabbed.” The expressed juice makes a strong vinegar, called “Verjuice”—in the vulgar, “Varjes”—and hence Akerman, in his “Wiltshire Tales,” has given a cross-grained woman the name of “Mistress Varjes.” Verjuice is a very popular remedy for sprains and bruises, and hence on most farms having trees of crab-apples, the fruit is made into vinegar, and kept separately for medicinal or domestic use.
The wild crab is very various in the size, colour, and flavour of its fruit, varying in the latter point from an austerity that, on biting an apple, would make one wince again, to that of an agreeable acid flavour, almost equal to some of our domestic apples.
Taking into consideration this disposition to run into varieties, even in a wild state, we shall not be surprised that, in cultivation, the sorts of apples should be endless, so much so, indeed, that Don, in his “General System of Gardening and Botany,” has copied a list[30] in which are described no less than one thousand four hundred sorts, and in a nurseryman’s list now before us, “Descriptive Catalogue of Fruit Trees, by John Scott, of Merriott Nurseries, Crewkerne, Somerset,” are described as many as one hundred and sixty-six sorts, which he is prepared to supply to purchasers.