left
by the roots, making the ground firm again round the tree, and placing
a strong sloping prop to take the weight on the weak side; good yields
would then often continue for some years.

When the pickers had gathered the crop, by an ancient custom all the
village children were allowed to invade the orchards for the purpose
of getting for themselves any apples overlooked. This practice is
called "scragging," but it is a custom that would perhaps be better
honoured in the breach than in the observance, for hob nails do not
agree with the tender bark of young trees. Like gleaning, or
"leasing," as it is called, it is nevertheless a pleasant old custom,
and seems to give the children huge delight.

Mistletoe did not find my apple-trees congenial, there was only one
piece on all my fruit land, and it was regarded as something of a
curiosity. But in other parts of the neighbourhood it flourished
abundantly, though I noticed that it was most frequent where the land
was poorer and the trees not so luxuriant. It was also to be seen on
tall black poplars, and I have a piece--planted purposely--on a
hawthorn in my garden here. It grows in parts of the Forest,
especially on the white-beams in Sloden, in curiously small detached
pieces like lichen. The white-beam was a favourite tree of the Romans
for the wood-work of agricultural implements, being tough and strong.

Mistletoe is quite easy to propagate by rubbing the glutinous berries
and their seeds on the under side of a small branch at the angle where
it joins a limb. There it will often flourish unless snapped up by a
wandering missel-thrush. It is very slow in growth, but, when it
attains a fair size, is strikingly pretty in winter when the tree is
otherwise bare, for its peculiar shade of faded green, with its white
and glistening berries, makes an unusual effect--quite different from
that of any other green thing. It is rare on the oak, and, possibly
for that reason, the Druids regarded the oak upon which it grew as
sacred.

The transition from apples to cider is a natural one, and cider is a
great institution in Worcestershire. On all the larger farms, and in
every village, an ancient cider-mill can be found. It consists of a
circular block of masonry, perhaps ten feet in diameter, the outer
circumference of which is a continuous stone trough, about 18 inches
across, and 15 inches deep, called "the chase," in which a huge
grindstone, weighing about 15 cwt., revolves