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