The apple-tree (Pyrus malus) belongs chiefly to the northern temperate zone.  Loudon says, that “it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe except the frigid zone, and throughout Western Asia, China, and Japan.”  We have also two or three varieties of the apple indigenous in North America.  The cultivated apple-tree was first introduced into this country by the earliest settlers, and it is thought to do as well or better here than anywhere else.  Probably some of the varieties which are now cultivated were first introduced into Britain by the Romans.

Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says,—­“Of trees there are some which are altogether wild (sylvestres), some more civilized (urbaniores).”  Theophrastus includes the apple among the last; and, indeed, it is in this sense the most civilized of all trees.  It is as harmless as a dove, as beautiful as a rose, and as valuable as flocks and herds.  It has been longer cultivated than any other, and so is more humanized; and who knows but, like the dog, it will at length be no longer traceable to its wild original?  It migrates with man, like the dog and horse and cow:  first, perchance, from Greece to Italy, thence to England, thence to America; and our Western emigrant is still marching steadily toward the setting sun with the seeds of the apple in his pocket, or perhaps a few young trees strapped to his load.  At least a million apple-trees are thus set farther westward this year than any cultivated ones grew last year.  Consider how the Blossom-Week, like the Sabbath, is thus annually spreading over the prairies; for when man migrates, he carries with him not only his birds, quadrupeds, insects, vegetables, and his very sward, but his orchard also.

The leaves and tender twigs are an agreeable food to many domestic animals, as the cow, horse, sheep, and goat; and the fruit is sought after by the first, as well as by the hog.  Thus there appears to have existed a natural alliance between these animals and this tree from the first.  “The fruit of the Crab in the forests of France” is said to be “a great resource for the wild-boar.”

Not only the Indian, but many indigenous insects, birds, and quadrupeds, welcomed the apple-tree to these shores.  The tent-caterpillar saddled her eggs on the very first twig that was formed, and it has since shared her affections with the wild cherry; and the canker-worm also in a measure abandoned the elm to feed on it.  As it grew apace, the blue-bird, robin, cherry-bird, king-bird, and many more, came with haste and built their nests and warbled in its boughs, and so became orchard-birds, and multiplied more than ever.  It was an era in the history of their race.  The downy woodpecker found such a savory morsel under its bark, that he perforated it in a ring quite round the tree, before he left it,—­a thing which he had never done before, to my knowledge.  It did not take the partridge long to find out how sweet its buds were, and every