American Pomology. Apples. John Aston Warder
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
Alas! for human vanity and apple glory! Where are now these boasted sorts, upon whose merits the immortality of their inventors and first grafters was to depend? They have disappeared from our lists to give place to new favorites, to some of which, perhaps, we are disposed to award an equally high meed of praise, that will again be ignored in a few fleeting years, when higher skill and more scientific applications of knowledge shall have produced superior fruit to any of those we now prize so highly; and this is a consummation to which we may all look forward with pleasure.
In this country the large majority of our favorite fruits, of whatever species or kind, seem to have originated by accident, that is, they have been discovered in seedling orchards, or even in hedge-rows. These have no doubt, however, been produced by accidental crosses of good kinds, and this may occur through the intervention of insects in any orchard of good fruit, where there may chance to be some varieties that have the tendency to progress. The discoveries of Linnæus, and his doctrine of the sexual characters of plants, created quite a revolution in botany, and no doubt attracted the attention of Lord Bacon, who was a close observer of nature, for he ventured to guess that there might be such a thing as crossing the breeds of plants, when he says:—"The compounding or mixture of kinds in plants is not found out, which, nevertheless, if it be possible, is more at command than that of living creatures; wherefore it were one of the most noteable experiments touching plants to find it out, for so you may have great variety of new fruits and flowers yet unknown. Grafting does it not, that mendeth the fruit or doubleth the flowers, etc., but hath not the power to make a new kind, for the scion ever overruleth the stock." In which last observation he shows more knowledge and a deeper insight into the hidden mysteries of plant-life than many a man in our day, whose special business it is to watch, nurse, and care for these humble forms of existence.
Bradley, about a century later, in 1718, is believed to have been the first author who speaks of the accomplishment of cross-breeding, which he describes as having been effected by bringing together the branches of different trees when in blossom. But the gardeners of Holland and the Netherlands were the first to put it into practice.8
The following extract is given to explain the manner in which Mr. Knight conducted his celebrated experiments on fruits, which rewarded him with some varieties that were highly esteemed:—"Many varieties of the apple were collected which had been proved to afford, in mixtures with each other, the finest cider. A tree of each was then obtained by grafting upon a Paradise stock, and these trees were trained to a south wall, or if grafted on Siberian crab, to a west wall, till they afforded blossoms, and the soil in which they were planted was made of the most rich and favorable kind. Each blossom of this species of fruit contains about twenty chives or males (stamens,) and generally five pointals or females (pistils,) which spring from the center of the cup or cavity of the blossom. The males stand in a circle just within the bases of the petals, and are formed of slender threads, each of which terminates in an anther. It is necessary in these experiments that both the fruit and seed should attain as large a size and as much perfection as possible, and therefore a few blossoms only were suffered to remain on each tree. As soon as the blossoms were nearly full-grown, every male in each was carefully extracted, proper care being taken not to injure the pointals; and the blossoms, thus prepared, were closed again, and suffered to remain till they opened spontaneously. The blossoms of the tree which it was proposed to make the male parent of the future variety, were accelerated by being brought into contact with the wall, or retarded by being detached from it, so that they were made to unfold at the required period; and a portion of their pollen, when ready to fall from the mature anthers, was during three or four successive mornings deposited upon the pointals of the blossoms, which consequently afforded seeds. It is necessary in this experiment that one variety of apple only should bear unmutilated blossoms; for, where other varieties are in flower at the same time, the pollen of these will often be conveyed by bees to the prepared blossoms, and the result of the experiment will in consequence be uncertain and unsatisfactory." * * *
In
Diary.
History of Knaresborough, p. 216.—Companion of the Orchard, p. 34.
Our lexicographers give it a similar origin, but refer it to the shape in which it was put up. Others derive it from
Phillips' Companion, p. 32.
Phillips' Companion, p. 41.