Apple

The apple, often called “the kings of fruits,” is the most important tree fruit of the temperate regions of the world. Apples have been grown and used as food since the dawn of history. Cahrred remains found in stone age lake dwellings in central Europe show that prehistoric man ate apples. There are carvings of apples on ancient tombs and monuments in the Near East.

The apple appears often in the myths and folklore of ancient civilization. In greek mythology Hercules traveled to the end of world to bring back the golden apples of the Hesperides. The apple of discord the prize in a beauty contest caused a quarrel between the gods that led to the Trojan War. A Norse myth tells of magic apples that kept people young forever. The Halloween gane of dipping for apples had its beginning among the Celtic peoples of Britain, as a way of foretelling the future.

Apples were brought to America by the earliest European settlers. At first apples were used mainly for cider, which was a popular beverage in England and northern France, where most of the early colonist came from. (cider another name for apple juice that has fermented. It contains a small percentage of alcohol-about as much as beer).
As the frontier moved westward, apple tress followed it. One of the first things settler attended to after the land was cleared and the cabin raised was planting a few apple tress in the yard.

Origin of the apple
Although there are numerous kinds of wild, or crab, apples native to different part of the world, the kind from which the familiar cultivated apple developed came from the mountains of southwestern and central Asia, between the regions of the black and Caspian seas and eastward from there. This ancestor of the modern aplle, which still grows wild, is smaller and more sour than our present fine varieties, but the tree on which it grows resembles our present cultivated trees.

People selcted the best fruit from the wild trees for eating and used seed from the better fruit for planting. In this way quality of apples was gradually improved.

Uses of apples
Apples have many uses. They are eaten fresh, cooked, dried, and canned. Their juice is used for drinking and making vinegar. Aplles furnish valuable minerals and vitamins and add bulk to the diet. Fres apples help clean the teeth and reduce tooth decay.
Almost 49,000,000 metric tons (160,000,000 bushels) of apples are produced each year in commercial orchards in the United States alone. About 60 percent of the crop is sold as fresh fruit. The rest in canned commercially as applesuece and sliced apples, is frozen, or is crushed and pressed for apple juice or vinegar. Apple pie is a favorite dessert in United State and Canada.