good during several years, and even in a voyage under the line*. This circumstance also shews that the demand for the luxury of wine amongst the commercial classes (who had become of great number and importance, as the political events of those times fully prove) could not be supplied from the wine countries, probably on account of the prevalence of false principles of trade. Cider, therefore, became a general beverage before the time of Charles II., though it had been partially used for nearly a century before. Gerard, who published his Herball, as already mentioned, about the close of Elizabeth's reign, says, in his quaint way, "I have seen, about the pastures and hedgerows of a worshipful gentleman's dwelling, two miles from Hereford, called Mr. Roger Badnome, so many trees of all sortes, that the servants drink, for the most part, no other drink but that which is made of apples. The qualitie is such, that, by the report of the gentleman himselfe, the parson hath for tythe many hogsheads of cyder."

During the reigns of William III. and Anne, when there was a constant succession of wars with France, the use of cider was generally inculcated, as tending to the permanent exclusion of the wines of our great rival. Philips, a contemporary of Addison, wrote a long poem in praise of cider; and embodied in his work a good deal of the art of selecting and managing apple-trees. But he wrote as a poet, and maintained the unwise and impolitic doctrine of a nation's wholly depending on its own resources, instead of living in intercourse with its neighbours, and thus advancing the comforts and riches of all. After praising the cider of Hereford, Philips says,

"What should we wish for more? or why, in quest
Of foreign vintage, insincere and mixed,

Rymer's Fœdera;-see Pennant's London,

Traverse the extremest world? Why tempt the rage
Of the rough ocean, when our native glebe
Imparts from bounteous womb annual recruits
Of wine delectable, that far surmounts
Gallic or Latin grapes, or those that see

The setting sun near Calpe's towering height ?"

We have at length learnt that the truest way to advance the prosperity of nations, is, by exchanging the best natural products of one country for those of another. If we are to drink the cider of Hereford in preference to the claret of Bordeaux, for the sole reason that we grow it, the same principle, applied to ourselves by other nations, would cut us off from the greater part of that commerce with the whole world which constitutes our peculiar superiority. The interests of each individual, and of each country, is best consulted by the facilities with which each can secure a share of the natural advantages and the mechanical skill that belong to the rest. The advice of the well-meaning poet of cider, if acted upon by individuals as well as nations, (and if it be applicable to the one it must be applicable to the other,) would destroy society altogether, by making self the means as well as the end in every thing. The freedom of commercial intercourse has no tendency to the repression of internal improvement, but has a contrary effect. The finest cider and perry of Herefordshire is bought for exportation to the East and West Indies and to America; and this foreign demand for the better sorts keeps up an attention in the cultivators which domestic consumption alone could perhaps not induce.

The Cider counties of England have always been considered as highly interesting. They lie something in the form of a horseshoe round the Bristol channel; and the best are, Worcester and Hereford

on the north of the channel, and Somerset and Devon on the south. In appearance, they have a considerable advantage over those counties in which grain alone is cultivated. The blossoms cover an

extensive district with a profusion of flowers in the spring, and the fruit is beautiful in autumn. Some of the orchards occupy a space of forty or fifty acres; and the trees being at considerable intervals, the land is also kept in tillage. A great deal of practical acquaintance with the qualities of soil is required in the culture of apple and pear trees; and his skill in the adaptation of trees to their situation principally determines the success of the manufacturer of cider and perry. The produce of the orchards is very fluctuating: and the growers seldom expect an abundant crop more than once in three years. The quantity of apples required to make a hogshead of cider is from twentyfour to thirty bushels; and in a good year an acre of orchard will produce somewhere about six hundred bushels, or from twenty to twenty-five hogsheads. The cider harvest is in September. When the season is favourable, the heaps of apples collected at the presses are immense-consisting of hundreds of tons. If any of the vessels used in the manufacture of cider are of lead, the beverage is not wholesome. The price of a hogshead of cider generally varies from 21. to 57., according to the season and quality; but cider of the finest growth has sometimes been sold as high as 207. by the hogshead, direct from the press-a price equal to that of many of the fine wines of the Rhine or the Garonne.

The varieties of the apple are so many, and they are so rapidly multiplied, that it would be impossible for us, within our limits, to present any account of them which should be either useful or interesting

The knowledge of varieties is a part, and a very important one, of the science of the practical horticulturist; and one of the most valuable objects which individual growers of fruit, or societies for the encouragement of experiments in cultivation, could propose to themselves, would be to diminish the embarrassing list of varieties, by directing their attention to the best sorts alone. In a great public establishment, such as the gardens of the Horticultural Society, it is perhaps necessary that almost every known variety should be found. Their catalogue presents a list of more than twelve hundred sorts of apple. In the introductory observations to this list, the difficulties produced by this almost unlimited choice are thus noticed: "A considerable reduction of the names is to be anticipated whenever a general comparison of the varieties can be effected; but, after all the discovery of synonyms that can be expected, the list will remain far more extensive than can be either desirable or useful. No sufficient reduction, however, can effectually take place until a public declaration shall be made of those sorts which are undeserving further cultivation *""

Seeing, therefore, the embarrassing extent of the varieties of the apple in particular, and of fruits generally, and knowing that the progress of experiment is daily adding to their number, we forbear to touch at all upon this branch of the subject. The general history of fruits is full of amusing information; and to that, in the present work, we feel it proper to confine our attention.

It has been asserted that many of the fine old varieties of the apple are now going into decay. This may be owing partly to their being more generally

* See a valuable paper on the 'Formation of a Select Collec. tion of Apple Trees,' by Mr. Sabine. Hort. Trans. vol. iii.

cultivated, and consequently grown in a great variety of soils and situations, some of which would suit them, and others not; and that this is the case may be inferred from the fact, that in some places these sorts are to be found healthy enough. There are many theories upon this subject, which form subjects of curious inquiry to the practical horticulturist.

American apples are brought into England, as well as many French apples. About twenty thousand bushels is the average amount of the importation.

THE PEAR-Pyrus communis.

Amongst the trees which Homer describes as forming the orchard of Laertes, the father of Ulysses, we find the pear*. Pliny mentions several sorts of pears which were grown in Italy, and particularly mentions that a fermented liquor was formed of their expressed juice. It is probable that the Romans brought the cultivated pear to England, and that the monks paid great attention to its varieties. There is a tradition that King John was poisoned in a dish of pears by the monks of Swinsted; and the tale, whether true or false, would imply that the fruit was such as the churchmen would offer to the monarch as a luxury. In an old book of household accounts of Henry VIII., there is an item of twopence "to a woman who gaff the Kyng peres;" and in the time of Gerard we find that great attention was paid to their growth by the nurserymen in the neighbourhood of London. The old herbalist, after declaring that in his time to write of the sorts of apples and pears, "and those exceeding good," would require a particular volume," adds-"Master Richard

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* Odyssey, 1. xxiv., v. 337.