John Aston Warder - American Pomology. Apples

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."

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.