Crab-Apples
Because it once had a wonderful crop, I went back to see how the old crab-apple tree was doing. It grows in a hedge that surrounds a copse. The first time I found it, it was covered with apples of extraordinary size. Not only was the fruit large, but it was beautifully coloured, and not as sour as crab-apples normally are. I could hardly believe that it was a crab-apple tree. It looked very like an orchard tree that had degenerated, and I was inclined to believe this because twenty or thirty yards away there was a damson tree. The following year there was hardly any fruit. It was small and woody and sour. Perhaps a crab-apple tree has a sort of bumper year once in a while ? It is ten years since this particular tree had its wonderful crop. It is not to be a bumper year this year. The fruit that is coming is small. The damson along the field has no fruit at all, and my hopes of the harvest of the hedge have faded away, for the bullace trees I know are too far off to make the journey worth while when the time comes.
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