Who Was Johnny Appleseed 苹果核约翰尼 Chapter 9 Hard Work

After the war ended, Johnny began buying more land. Some of his orchards¹ were less than an acre in size. Others covered hundreds of acres. He took care of his orchards all by himself for most of his life.

Sometimes he needed help for certain jobs. When he was forty-five, he hired two boys for a few days. They helped him build a one-room cabin on some of his wilderness³ land. Each night, they shared his simple dinner, then slept on the ground beside Johnny’s campfire. Wolves howled and owls⁴ screeched⁵ all around them. At first, the boys were scared, but Johnny told them not to worry. He was used to such things and knew the animals wouldn’t hurt them.

Johnny’s brother-in-law often helped in his orchards. However, none of Johnny’s family knew how much land he owned or how much money he had. He sometimes buried his money among the roots of a favorite tree. He didn’t trust banks.

America’s banks got in trouble in the 1820s. Many businesses failed. Times were hard for Johnny, too. Squatters took over some of his land. And he also had trouble repaying some loans. He soon lost all of his orchards in Pennsylvania and many of those in Ohio. But he didn’t give up.

Around 1830, he planted his first orchard² in Indiana. By now most people knew him as Johnny Appleseed rather than John Chapman. In the following years, he bought 140 acres for only $250. He worked in his Indiana orchards for the rest of his life.

Johnny never got married or had children. Growing up in a noisy house as a boy may be one reason he preferred to live alone!

Still, there were many rumors⁶ about his love life. One says that he fell in love with a woman named Dorothy Durand. The story goes that she loved him, too. But their families kept them apart because they believed in different religions. Dorothy died of a broken heart. Johnny never got over her. He often returned to place apple blossoms on her grave.

In the last years of his life, Johnny owned thousands of apple trees and lots of land, perhaps as many as twelve hundred acres. This didn’t mean he was rich, but it’s likely he was too busy to go farther west. Besides, settlement on the West Coast hadn’t gathered much steam yet. But who knows—if he had lived long enough he might have beaten settlers to the Pacific coast and planted apple trees there, too.

Johnny Appleseed did what he loved all his life. He grew apples, took long hikes, and never settled down in a home or owned many things.

As the years passed, he continued to roam, sometimes renting places to sleep in farmhouses⁷. He was always traveling and probably spent ten thousand or more nights sleeping under the stars.

After walking through a snowstorm to care for some apple trees, Johnny got sick with pneumonia⁸. He died in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on March 18, 1845, when he was seventy years old.

By the time Johnny died, there were twenty-seven states. He had planted orchards in three of them—Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. They are shaded in gray on the map.

The United States was a very different country from the one Johnny knew as a boy. In 1845 Texas became a state. The big migration⁹ along the Oregon Trail began right around the time that Johnny Appleseed died. The Gold Rush in California began in 1849. At that time, California still belonged to Mexico. But it became a state in 1850. Now the country went all the way from “sea to shining sea.”

DISCOVERING NEW APPLES

ABOUT SEVENTY-FIVE HUNDRED KINDS OF APPLES ARE GROWN WORLDWIDE. APPLES CAN BE RED, YELLOW, GREEN, OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN. SOME TASTE SWEET. SOME ARE SOUR OR TART¹⁰. THE LIST OF MOST POPULAR APPLES INCLUDES McINTOSH, ROME, GRANNY SMITH, RED DELICIOUS, GOLDEN DELICIOUS, AND JONATHAN. THIS IS HOW SOME OF THEM WERE NAMED:

IN 1811, JOHN McINTOSH DISCOVERED A NEW KIND OF APPLE ON HIS FARM IN ONTARIO, CANADA. HE NAMED IT THE McINTOSH RED.

THE ROME APPLE WAS DISCOVERED IN OHIO’S ROME TOWNSHIP IN 1816.

LEGEND HAS IT THAT MARIE ANN SMITH DISCOVERED THE GRANNY SMITH APPLE IN AUSTRALIA. IN THE 1860S, SHE THREW AWAY A PILE OF CRAB¹¹ APPLES. A NEW KIND OF TREE SPROUTED¹² FROM THE SEEDS. ITS GREEN APPLES WERE CALLED GRANNY SMITHS IN HER HONOR.

IN 1872, JESSE HIATT DISCOVERED AN UNUSUAL SEEDLING¹³ IN HIS APPLE ORCHARD IN PERU, IOWA. HE CUT IT DOWN TWICE. BUT IT KEPT GROWING BACK. IT FINALLY GREW INTO A TREE THAT PRODUCED PRIZE-WINNING APPLES. A JUDGE IN AN APPLE-TASTING CONTEST IN MISSOURI SAID THE APPLES WERE “DELICIOUS.” THE LABEL STUCK, AND THE APPLES WERE CALLED RED DELICIOUS.

THE FUJI APPLE IS A POPULAR APPLE THAT WAS INTRODUCED IN 1962. JAPANESE RESEARCHERS BLENDED TWO KINDS OF APPLES TOGETHER TO MAKE IT.

NEW KINDS OF APPLES ARE BEING GROWN ALL THE TIME.
 

1 orchards   

（通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They turned the hills into orchards and plains into granaries. 他们把山坡变成了果园，把平地变成了粮仓。
• Some of the new planted apple orchards have also begun to bear. 有些新开的苹果园也开始结苹果了。

2 orchard   

n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场

参考例句：

• My orchard is bearing well this year.今年我的果园果实累累。
• Each bamboo house was surrounded by a thriving orchard.每座竹楼周围都是茂密的果园。

3 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

4 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句

5 screeched   

v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫

参考例句：

• She screeched her disapproval. 她尖叫着不同意。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The car screeched to a stop. 汽车嚓的一声停住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 farmhouses   

n.农舍，农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Then perhaps she is staying at one of cottages or farmhouses? 那么也许她现在住在某个农舍或哪个农场的房子里吧？ 来自辞典例句
• The countryside was sprinkled with farmhouses. 乡间到处可见农家的房舍。 来自辞典例句

8 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

9 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

10 tart   

adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇

参考例句：

• She was learning how to make a fruit tart in class.她正在课上学习如何制作水果馅饼。
• She replied in her usual tart and offhand way.她开口回答了，用她平常那种尖酸刻薄的声调随口说道。

11 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

12 sprouted   

v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• We can't use these potatoes; they've all sprouted. 这些土豆儿不能吃了，都出芽了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rice seeds have sprouted. 稻种已经出芽了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 seedling   

n.秧苗，树苗

参考例句：

• She cut down the seedling with one chop.她一刀就把小苗砍倒了。
• The seedling are coming up full and green.苗长得茁壮碧绿。