The Republic of Apple Tree is a tiny, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, state-planned economy, and punitive income tax rates. The cynical, devout population of 9 million Trees are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Education, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 54.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The basket case The Tree economy, worth 119 billion Apples a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, Information Technology, and Woodchip Exports. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 13,240 Apples, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Sniffer dogs are trained to follow clouds of fruity-smelling vapor, newly synthesized elements' half-lives are a million times shorter than the time it takes to say their names, cassocked priests and choirboys believe that what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors, and any body part that can be cut off a person is no longer considered to be their property. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Apple Tree's national animal is the Parrot, which can occasionally be seen dodging aircraft in the nation's cities.

Apple Tree is ranked 197,403^rd in the world and 143^rd in Forest for Largest Cheese Export Sector, scoring 930.44 on the Mozzarella Productivity Index.