Re: apples on a stick

The chapter of the book I read specifically pointed
out that sweet apples can almost only come from
cuttings and that these cuttings have to be done
laboriously by hand.
Johnny Appleseed planted seeds which yield sour apples
--which are excellent if you only want to make cider,
which was a potent way of shipping something from the
frontier.
Given that the original sweet apple comes from China,
it would make sense thar sour apples did as well.
Their initial spead may have more to do with the
discovery of fermentation to make cider, beer, etc.
than horses. Horses would have been an excellent
delivery system for spreading apples, though.


--- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel J. Milton"
> <dmilt1896@...> wrote:
> >
> > I'll copy a posting I did last January. I still
> have only read
> > the article -- I haven't seen the book:
> > I'm reading an article in the Jan-Feb
> issue of The
> > American Scientist by B. E. Juniper, Plant
> Scientist at Oxford: The
> > Mysterious Origin of the Sweet Apple, summarizing
> a 2006 book by
> > Juniper and D. J. Mabberley The Story of the Apple
> (Timber Press).
> > They believe the common apple developed in the
> Tien Shan, and was
> > spread with the domestication of horses. "In the
> guts of both horse
> > and donkey, directed by human travelers, the apple
> pip moved west.
> > The sharp hooves of these animals unwittingly
> planted the apple pips
> > at every oasis." It's not clear to me whether they
> discount
> > purposeful transport of a human food.
> > Anyway, their work looks like something to be
> considered by
> > anyone concerned with the jabloko-malum problem.
>
> If that story were true, we'd have to conclude that
> the word was a
> loan from Horsish (and originally designated a horse
> apple?). Why
> couldn't there have been a Chinese Johnny Appleseed?
>
>
> Torsten
>
>
>

____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ