American Pomology. Apples

It were an interesting and not unprofitable study to trace the various sources and routes by which fruits have been introduced into different parts of our extended country. In some cases we should find that we were indebted for these luxuries to the efforts of very humble individuals, while in other regions the high character of the orchards is owing to the forethought, knowledge, enterprise, and liberality of some prominent citizen of the infant community, who has freely spent his means and bestowed his cares in providing for others as well as for his own necessities or pleasures. But it is to the intelligent nurserymen of our country that we are especially indebted for the universal diffusion of fruits, and for the selection of the best varieties in each different section. While acting separately, these men were laboring under great disadvantages, and frequently cultivated certain varieties under a diversity of names, as they had received them from various sources. This was a difficulty incident to their isolation, but the organization of Pomological Societies in various parts of the country, has enabled them in a great measure to unravel the confusion of an extended synonymy, and also by comparison and consultation with the most intelligent fruit-growers, they have been prepared to advise the planter as to the best and most profitable varieties to be set out in different soils and situations.

Most of our first orchards were planted with imported trees. The colonists brought plants and seeds. Even now, in many parts of the country, we hear many good fruits designated as English, to indicate that they are considered superior to the native; and we are still importing choice varieties from Europe and other quarters of the globe.

The roving tribes of Indians who inhabited this country when discovered and settled by the whites, had no orchards—they lived by the chase, and only gathered such fruits as were native to the soil. Among the earliest attempts to civilize them, however, those that exerted the greatest influence, were efforts to make them an agricultural people, and of these the planting of fruit-trees was one of the most successful. In many parts of the country we find relics of these old Indian orchards still remaining, and it is probable that from the apple seeds sent by the general government for distribution among the Cherokees in Georgia, we are now reaping some of the most valuable fruits of this species. The early French settlers were famous tree-planters, and we find their traces across the continent, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. These consist in noble pear and apple trees, grown from seeds planted by them, at their early and scattered posts or settlements. These were made far in advance of the pioneers, who have, at a later period, formed the van of civilization, that soon spread into a solid phalanx in its march throughout the great interior valley of the continent.

On the borders of civilization we sometimes meet with a singular being, more savage than polished, and yet useful in his way. Such an one in the early settlement of the northwestern territory was Johnny Apple-seed—a simple-hearted being, who loved to roam through the forests in advance of his fellows, consorting, now with the red man, now with the white, a sort of connecting link—by his white brethren he was, no doubt, considered rather a vagabond, for we do not learn that he had the industry to open farms in the wilderness, the energy to be a great hunter, nor the knowledge and devotion to have made him a useful missionary among the red men. But Johnny had his use in the world. It was his universal custom, when among the whites, to save the seeds of all the best apples he met with. These he carefully preserved and carried with him, and when far away from his white friends, he would select an open spot of ground, prepare the soil, and plant these seeds, upon the principle of the old Spanish custom, that he owed so much to posterity, so that some day, the future traveler or inhabitant of those fertile valleys, might enjoy the fruits of his early efforts. Such was Johnny Apple-seed—did he not erect for himself monuments more worthy, if not more enduring, than piles of marble or statues of brass?

In tracing the progress of fruits through different portions of our country, we should very naturally expect to find the law that governs the movements of men, applying with equal force to the fruits they carry with them. The former have been observed to migrate very nearly on parallels of latitude, so have, in a great degree, the latter; and whenever we find a departure from this order, we may expect to discover a change, and sometimes a deterioration in the characters of the fruits thus removed to a new locality. It is true, much of this alteration, whether improvement or otherwise, may be owing to the difference of soil. Western New York received her early fruits from Connecticut, and Massachusetts; Michigan, Northern Illinois, and later, Wisconsin and Iowa received theirs in a great degree from New York. Ohio and Indiana received their fruits mainly from New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and we may yet trace this in the prevalence of certain leading varieties that are scarcely known, and very little grown on different parallels. The early settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum river, was made by New England-men, and into the "Ohio-purchase," they introduced the leading varieties of the apples of Massachusetts. Among these, the Boston or Roxbury Russet was a prominent favorite, but it was so changed in its appearance as scarcely to be recognized by its old admirers, and it was christened with a new name, the Putnam Russet, under the impression that it was a different variety. Most of the original Putnam varieties have disappeared from the orchards. Kentucky received her fruits in great measure from Virginia; Tennessee from the same source and from North Carolina, and these younger States sent them forward on the great western march with their hardy sons to southern Indiana, southern Illinois, to Missouri, and to Arkansas, in all which regions we find evident traces in the orchards, of the origin of the people who planted them.

Of course, we shall find many deflections from the precise parallel of latitude, some inclining to the south, and many turning to the northward. To the latter we of the West are looking with the greatest interest, since we so often find that the northern fruits do not maintain their high characters in their southern or southwestern migrations, and all winter kinds are apt to become autumnal in their period of ripening, which makes them less valuable; and because, among those from a southern origin, we have discovered many of high merit as to beauty, flavor, and productiveness—and, especially where they are able to mature sufficiently, they prove to be long keepers, thus supplying a want which was not filled by fruits of a northern origin. There may be limits beyond which we cannot transport some sorts to advantage in either direction, but this too will depend very much upon the adaptability of our soils to particular varieties.

In every region where fruit has been cultivated we find local varieties grown from seed, many of these are of sufficient merit to warrant their propagation, and it behooves us to be constantly on the look out for them; for though our lists are already sufficiently large to puzzle the young orchardist in making his selections, we may well reduce the number by weeding out more of the indifferent fruit, at the same time that we are introducing those of a superior character. It has been estimated that there may be as many as one in ten of our seedling orchard trees that would be ranked as "good," but not one in a hundred that could be styled "best."2 Certain individuals have devoted themselves to the troublesome though thankless office of collecting these scattered varieties of decided merit, and from their collections our pomological societies will, from time to time, select and recommend the best for more extended cultivation. Such devoted men as H.N. Gillett, Lewis Jones, Reuben Ragan, A.H. Ernst, who have been industriously engaged in this good work for a quarter of a century, are entitled to the highest commendation; but there are many others who have contributed their full share of benefits by their labors in the same field, to whom also we owe a debt of gratitude. Two of the chief foci in the Ohio valley from which valuable fruits have been distributed most largely, were the settlement at the mouth of the Muskingum, with its Putnam list given below; and a later, but very important introduction of choice fruits, brought into the Miami country by Silas Wharton, a nurseryman from Pennsylvania, who settled among a large body of the religious Society of Friends, in Warren Co., Ohio. The impress of this importation is very manifest in all the country, within a radius of one hundred miles, and some of his fruits are found doing well in the northwestern part of the State of Ohio, in northern Indiana, and in an extended region westward.

There are, no doubt, many other local foci, whence good fruits have radiated to bless regions more or less extensive, and in every neighborhood we find the name of some early pomologist attached to the good fruits that he had introduced, thus adding another synonym to the numerous list of those belonging to so many of our good varieties.

A.W. Putnam commenced an apple nursery in 1794, a few years after the first white settlement at Marietta, Ohio, the first grafts were set in the spring of 1796; they were obtained from Connecticut by Israel Putnam, and were the first set in the State, and grafted by W. Rufus Putnam. Most of the early orchards of the region were planted from this nursery. These grafts were taken from the orchard of Israel Putnam (of wolf-killing memory) in Pomfret, Connecticut. In the Ohio Cultivator for August 1st, 1846, may be found the following authentic list of the varieties propagated:—

"1. Putnam Russet, (Roxbury.)

  2. Seek-no-further, (Westfield.)

  3. Early Chandler.

  4. Gilliflower.

  5. Pound Royal, (Lowell).

  6. Natural, (a seedling).

  7. Rhode Island Greening.

  8. Yellow Greening.

  9. Golden Pippin.

10. Long Island Pippin.

11. Tallman Sweeting.

12. Striped Sweeting.

13. Honey Greening.

14. Kent Pippin.

15. Cooper.

16. Striped Gilliflower.

17. Black, do.

18. Prolific Beauty.

19. Queening, (Summer Queen?)

20. English Pearmain.

21. Green Pippin.

22. Spitzenberg, (Esopus?)

Many of these have disappeared from the orchards and from the nurserymen's catalogues."

CHAPTER II

HISTORY OF THE APPLE

DIFFICULTIES IN THE OUTSET—APPLE A GENERIC TERM, AS CORN IS FOR DIFFERENT GRAINS; BIBLE AND HISTORIC USE OF THE WORD THEREFORE UNCERTAIN—ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD—BOTANICAL CHARACTERS—IMPROVABILITY OF THE APPLE—NATIVE COUNTRY—CRUDE NOTIONS OF EARLY VARIETIES—PLINY'S ACCOUNT EXPLAINED—CHARLATAN GRAFTING—INTRODUCTION INTO BRITAIN—ORIGINAL SORTS THERE—GERARD'S LIST OF SEVEN—HE URGES ORCHARD PLANTING—RECIPE FOR POMATUM—DERIVATION OF THE WORD—VIRGIL'S ADVICE AS TO GRAFTING—PLINY'S EULOGY OF THE APPLE: WILL OURS SURVIVE AS LONG?—PLINY'S LIST OF 29—ACCIDENTAL ORIGIN OF OUR FRUITS—CROSSING—LORD BACON'S GUESS—BRADLEY'S ACCOUNT—SUCCESS IN THE NETHERLANDS—MR. KNIGHT'S EXPERIMENTS—HYBRIDS INFERTILE—LIMITS, NONE NATURAL—LIMITS OF SPECIES—HERBERT'S VIEWS—DIFFICULTIES ATTEND CROSSING ALSO—NO MULES—KIRTLAND'S EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS OF—VAN MONS' THEORY—ILLINOIS RESULTS—RUNNING OUT OF VARIETIES.

In attempting to trace out the history of any plant that has long been subjected to the dominion of man, we are beset with difficulties growing out of the uncertainty of language, and arising also from the absence of precise terms of science in the descriptions or allusions which we meet respecting them. As he who would investigate the history of our great national grain crop, the noble Indian maize, which, in our language, claims the generic term corn, will at once meet with terms apt to mislead him in the English translation of the Bible, and in the writings of Europeans, who use the word corn in a generic sense, as applying to all the edible grains, and especially to wheat—so in this investigation we may easily be misled by meeting the word apple in the Bible and in the translations of Latin and Greek authors, and we may be permitted to question whether the original words translated apple may not have been applied to quite different fruits, or perhaps we may ask whether our word may not originally have had a more general sense, meaning as it does, according to its derivation, any round body.

The etymology of the word apple is referred by the lexicographers to abhall, Celtic; avall, Welsh; afall or avall, Armoric; aval or avel, Cornish; and these are all traceable to the Celtic word ball, meaning simply a round body.

Worcester traces the origin of apple directly to the German apfel, which he derives from æpl, apel, or appel.

Webster cites the Saxon appl or appel; Dutch, appel; German, apfel; Danish, æble; Swedish, aple; Welsh, aval; Irish, abhal or ubhal; Armoric, aval; Russian, yabloko.

Its meaning being fruit in general, with a round form. Thus the Persian word ubhul means Juniper berries, and in Welsh the word used means other fruits, and needs a qualifying term to specify the variety or kind.

Hogg, in his British Pomology, quoting Owen, says, the ancient Glastonbury was called by the Britons Ynys avallac or avallon, meaning an apple orchard, and from this came the Roman word avallonia, from this he infers that the apple was known to the Britons before the advent of the Romans. We are told, that in 973, King Edgar, when fatigued with the labors of the chase, laid himself down under a wild apple tree, so that it becomes a question whether this plant was not a native of England as of other parts of Europe, where in many places it is found growing wild and apparently indigenous. Thornton informs us in his history of Turkey, that apples are common in Wallachia, and he cites among the varieties one, the domniasca, "which is perhaps the finest in Europe, both for its size, color, and flavor." It were hard to say what variety this is, and whether it be known to us.

The introduction of this word apple in the Bible is attributable to the translators, and some commentators suggest that they have used it in its general sense, and that in the following passages where it occurs, it refers to the citron, orange, or some other subtropical fruit.

"Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples."—Songs of Solomon ii, 5.

"As the apple-tree (citron) among the trees of the wood, * * * I sat me down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."—Sol. ii, 2.

* * * "I raised thee up under the apple-tree."—Solomon viii, 5.

"A word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."—Prov. xxv, 11.

The botanical position of the cultivated apple may be stated as follows:—Order, Rosaceæ; sub-order, Pomeæ; or the apple family and genus, Pyrus. The species under our consideration is the Pyrus Malus, or apple. It has been introduced into this country from Europe, and is now found in a half-wild state, springing up in old fields, hedge-rows, and roadsides; but, even in such situations, by their eatable fruit and broad foliage, and by the absence of spiny or thorny twigs, the trees generally give evidence of a civilized origin. It is not that the plant has changed any of its true specific characters, but that it has been affected by the meliorating influences of culture, which it has not been able entirely to shake off in its neglected condition. Sometimes, indeed, trees are found in these neglected and out-of-the-way situations, which produce fruits of superior quality—and the sorts have been gladly introduced into our nurseries and orchards.

Very early in the history of horticulture the apple attracted attention by its improvability, showing that it belonged to the class of culture-plants. Indeed it is a very remarkable fact in the study of botany, and the pivot upon which the science and art of horticulture turns, that while there are plants which show no tendency to change from their normal type, even when brought under the highest culture, and subjected to every treatment which human ingenuity can suggest, there are others which are prone to variations or sports, even in their natural condition, but more so when they are carefully nursed by the prudent farmer or gardener. These may be called respectively the plants of nature and the plants of culture. Some of the former furnish human food, and are otherwise useful to man; but the latter class embraces by far the larger number of food-plants, and we are indebted to this pliancy, aided by human skill, for our varieties of fruits, our esculent vegetables, and the floral ornaments of our gardens.

The native country of the apple, though not definitively settled, is generally conceded to be Europe, particularly its southern portions, and perhaps Western Asia: that is, the plant known and designated by botanists as Pyrus Malus, for there are other and distinct species in America and Asia which have no claims to having been the source of our favorite orchard fruits. Our own native crab is the Pyrus coronaria, which, though showing some slight tendency to variation, has never departed from the strongly marked normal type. The P. baccata, or Siberian crab, is so distinctly marked as to be admitted as a species. It has wonderfully improved under culture, and has produced some quite distinct varieties; it has even been hybridized by Mr. Knight, with the cultivated sorts of the common Wilding or Crab of Europe, the P. Malus. Pallas, who found it wild near Lake Baikal and in Daouria, says, it grows only 3 or 4 feet high, with a trunk of as many inches diameter, and yields pear-shaped berries as large as peas.

The P. rivularis, according to Nuttall, is common in the maritime portions of Oregon, in alluvial forests. The tree attains a height of 15 to 25 feet. It resembles the Siberian Crab, to which it has a close affinity. The fruit grows in clusters, is purple, scarcely the size of a cherry, and of an agreeable flavor; sweetish and sub-acid when ripe, not at all acid and acerb as the P. coronaria.3

Among the early writers upon the subject of pomology, we find some very crude notions, particularly in regard to the wonderful powers of the grafter, for this art of improving the Wilding by inserting buds or scions of better sorts, and thus multiplying trees of good kinds, was a very ancient invention. Pliny, the naturalist, certainly deserves our praise for his wonderful and comprehensive industry in all branches of natural history. In regard to grafting, which seems to have been well understood in his day, he says, that he had seen near Thuliæ a tree bearing all manner of fruits, nuts and berries, figs and grapes, pears and pomegranates; no kind of apple or other fruit that was not to be found on this tree. It is quaintly noted, however, that "this tree did not live long,"—is it to be wondered that such should have been the case? Now some persons may object to the testimony of this remarkable man, and feel disposed to discredit the statement of what appears so incredible to those who are at all acquainted with the well-known necessity for a congenial stock into which the graft should be inserted. But a more extended knowledge of the subject, would explain what Pliny has recorded as a marvel of the art. The same thing has been done in our own times, it is a trick, and one which would very soon be detected now-a-days by the merest tyro in horticulture, though it may have escaped the scrutiny of Pliny, whose business it was to note and record the results of his observations, rather than to examine the modus of the experiment. By the French, the method is called Charlatan grafting, and is done by taking a stock of suitable size, hollowing it out, and introducing through its cavity several stocks of different kinds, upon each of which may be produced a different sort of fruit, as reported by Pliny. The needed affinity of the scion and stock, and the possible range that may be successfully taken in this mode of propagation, with the whole consideration of the influence of the stock upon the graft, will be more fully discussed in another chapter.

Though it be claimed and even admitted that the wild apple or crab was originally a native of Britain, and though it be well known that many varieties have originated from seed in that country, still it appears from their own historians that the people introduced valuable varieties from abroad. Thus we find in Fuller's account, that in the 16th year of the reign of Henry VIII, Pippins were introduced into England by Lord Maschal, who planted them at Plumstead, in Sussex.

After this, the celebrated Golden Pippin was originated at Perham Park, in Sussex, and this variety has attained a high meed of praise in that country and in Europe, though it has never been considered so fine in this country as some of our own seedlings. Evelyn says, in 1685, at Lord Clarendon's seat, at Swallowfield, Berks, there is an orchard of one thousand golden and other cider Pippins.4 The Ribston Pippin, which every Englishman will tell you is the best apple in the world, was a native of Ribston Park, Yorkshire. Hargrave says: "This place is remarkable for the produce of a delicious apple, called the Ribston Park Pippin." The original tree was raised from a Pippin brought from France.5 This apple is well-known in this country, but not a favorite.

At a later period, 1597, John Gerard issued in an extensive folio his History of Plants, in which he mentions seven kinds of Pippins. The following is given as a sample of the pomology of that day:—

"The fruit of apples do differ in greatnesse, forme, colour, and taste, some covered with red skin, others yellow or greene, varying infinitely according to soil and climate; some very greate, some very little, and many of middle sort; some are sweet of taste, or something soure, most be of middle taste between sweet and soure; the which to distinguish, I think it impossible, notwithstanding I heare of one who intendeth to write a peculiar volume of apples and the use of them." He further says: "The tame and grafted apple trees are planted and set in gardens and orchards made for that purpose; they delight to growe in good fertile grounds. Kent doth abounde with apples of most sortes; but I have seen pastures and hedge-rows about the grounds of a worshipful gentleman dwelling two miles from Hereford, so many trees of all sortes, that the seruantes drinke for the moste parte no other drinke but that which is made of apples. * * * Like as there be divers manured apples, so is there sundry wilde apples or crabs, not husbanded, that is, not grafted." He also speaks of the Paradise, which is probably the same we now use as a dwarfing stock.

Dr. Gerard fully appreciated the value of fruits, and thus vehemently urges his countrymen to plant orchards: "Gentlemen, that have land and living, put forward, * * * * * graft, set, plant, and nourish up trees in every corner of your grounds; the labor is small, the cost is nothing, the commoditie is great, yourselves shall have plentie, the poor shall have somewhat in time of want to relieve their necessitie, and God shall reward your good minde and diligence." The same author gives us a peculiar use of the apple which may be interesting to some who never before associated pomatum with the products of the orchard. He recommends apples as a cosmetic. "There is made an ointment with the pulp of apples, and swine's grease and rose water, which is used to beautify the face and to take away the roughness of the skin; it is called in shops pomatum, of the apples whereof it is made."6 When speaking of the importance of grafting to increase the number of trees of any good variety, Virgil advises to

"Graft the tender shoot,Thy children's children shall enjoy the fruit."

So high an estimate did Pliny have of this fruit, that he asserted that "there are apples that have ennobled the countries from whence they came, and many apples have immortalized their first founders and inventors. Our best apples will immortalize their first grafters forever; such as took their names from Manlius, Cestius, Matius, and Claudius."—Of the Quince apple, he says, that came of a quince being grafted upon the apple stock, which "smell like the quince, and were called Appiana, after Appius, who was the first that practiced this mode of grafting. Some are so red that they resemble blood, which is caused by their being grafted upon the mulberry stock. Of all the apples, the one which took its name from Petisius, was the most excellent for eating, both on account of its sweetness and its agreeable flavor." Pliny mentions twenty-nine kinds of apples cultivated in Italy, about the commencement of the Christian Era.7