From Whence Came: The Varieties of Fruit We Are Now Growing
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F.L. Overley, Horticulturist Emeritus, Tree Fruit Experiment Station
Someone has made this statement, “The apple, of all fruits, has a right to be proud of its antiquity.” The apple has taken a very prominent part in the history of the world. Beginning as far back as the time of the Garden of Eden, it attracted the attention of the first, and the only, woman in existence. It was, perhaps, at that time that it received it symbolical name which has later been translated “Malum” meaning “sin” or “evil”. “Eve yielded to the temptation and, if we believe the legend, Adam ate some also.” From this point, it is generally admitted that the apple was the primary cause of the fall from grace of our first parents, and the primary cause of all our ills, past, present and future. For this reason, the apple should be rejected as one would reject a snake or scorpion but , due to our peculiar make-up, to our different lines of reasoning, to our lack of will power (not yet explained by the scientists), to our chemists who find certain food values, to our doctors who disapprove the slogan “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, to our horticultural investigators who are continually attempting to improve varieties, and lastly, but not least, to our tastes and appetites, we have crowned the apple the king of all fruits.
In the past it has been used to signify the preference for the lady love, as Paris did when he gave Venus the apple on which he had inscribed these words: “To the most beautiful”. Again, when we wish to draw public attention to an important and accidental discovery, we speak of Newton’s apple in remembrance of the fact that it was the fall of an apple in Newton’s garden at Wollsthrope a “a trifling circumstance which led Newton to the discovery of universal attraction.”
According to our best authorities, the original home of the apple, Pyrus Malus, is not definitely known. A. Decondolle, one of our early authorities on cultivated plants, came to the conclusion that it was most indigenous to the region south of the Caucasus mountains from the Persian Province on the Caspian to the Black Sea, and that from prehistoric times, it has existed in Europe both wild and cultivated, over an area extending from the Caspian Sea to the Atlantic Ocean except in the extreme North. It is found wild in the mountains of Northwest India. There are five species of native Crab apples in the United States.
According to a recent publication by Professor Drain of Massachusetts, a study of the varieties and kinds of fruits began far back in prehistoric times. The extent to which fruits were used and studies in the past ages seems to have varied with the character of the food supply. Fruit is a perishable product, however, and we cannot expect to find many traces of it among the remains of prehistoric life. One of the earliest records of the use of plants by man is found in the remains of the Swiss Lake dwellers. The period of the Swiss Lake dwellers is generally placed somewhere in the Stone Age. As a race, they made extensive use of plants for food, or at least they left more records of their habit of living than other races. They understood the art of drying and made extensive use of dried fruits which seemed to form part of their winter supply. Apples were cut lengthwise and dried and in this drying process, some specimens were carbonized. Some remains found in the National Museum are of two sorts, one small and the other large, representing two types, perhaps wild and cultivated. Early orchards were probably started with these types and propagated both from seeds or suckers.
The early historic period was marked by the development of many varieties and the spread of many kinds of fruit. Grafting was a well known art among the ancient Greeks and Romans. Theophrastus, one of the earliest historians, mentions three kinds of pears and two kinds of apples. Pliny in his “Natural History” gives a good account of the fruits grown in his time. He lists four varieties of quince, six of peaches, nine of cherries, twelve of plums, twenty-nine of figs, and forty-nine of pears. Some variety names at that time were Claudius apple, Camerina apple, and Gemella apple.
There is no doubt that the early Europeans selected and grew the choicest of varieties and the earliest settlers on this continent brought with them from Europe their favored fruits. The first were from Holland, then Germany, France and England. After its dissemination into the country, the apple kept pace with the progress of the settlement of the country. The first record of transatlantic shipments of fruit from Europe to America was by Benjamin Franklin in 1758 when he sent to John Bartram of Philadelphia, a package of Newtown Pippins. Bartram replied, “What comes from you is a delicious fruit.” The apple had been cultivated in Europe for probably 2000 years before it was brought to America.
There are still existent survivors of the apple trees which grew from the seed planted by Johnny Appleseed. He brought to many of our forefathers the apple tree. His descendants are apple growers in southern Ohio today. So far as is known, the Ohio Historical Society Annals of 1861 offer the most authentic story of Johnny Appleseed’s life. He was born in Massachusetts in 1775. He appeared in Licking County, Ohio in the spring of 1801 on horseback, barefooted and in nondescript garments. He visited the farm of Isaac Stedden, and during his few days’ stay, talked of planting apple trees to furnish other food for the settlers in addition to their game and fish. His saddlebags contained quantities of apple seeds, which he planted about the cabin and went on his way.
Five years later he appeared in southern Ohio, remarkable for the fact that he wore a tin pan (in which he cooked his food, cornmeal mush and coffee) as a hat when not in culinary use. He traveled on the Ohio River in a canoe laden with bags of apple seeds, which he planted wherever he went. He enclosed his orchards, which he planted with brush, and returned from time to time to look after them. His favorite apple was the Rambo. He traveled through Ohio and Indiana for forty years, always planting apple seeds which he got from New York State.
During the War of 1813, he was living with a relative near the present site of Mansfield, Ohio, when news game to the settlers that Indians were approaching and that two settlers had been killed. The nearest body of troops was at Camp Douglas, thirty miles away. A messenger was needed to bring the troops to defend the settlers and Johnny Appleseed volunteered, raced, barefooted through the forests, warning settlers on the way, and brought the troops back at daybreak.
He gave his life to his favorite apple trees. He had several nurseries in northern Indiana, and, learning that cattle had broken down his fences near Fort Wayne, he started on foot to repair them. It was cold snowy weather. He refused a bed at the home of a Mr. Worth and spent the night in prayer and reading the psalms. The following morning he was seized with pneumonia and died a few days later.
His apple trees are his monuments. His real name was John Chapman.
After the early gardener learned that he could maintain and perpetuate his favorite vine, fig, apple or pear tree by grafting of budding, he began a conscientious selection of superior individuals and established many of our horticultural varieties of today. The research man or horticulturist of today classifies this method of obtaining varieties as “A selection of chance seedlings” of “the gift of God” varieties.
This method of selection from seedlings has given to the world, thousands of horticultural varieties. Perhaps it would be of interest here to give the history of some of our commercial varieties of fruit that we are now growing.
The Rome Beauty originated in Ohio by H.N. Gillett and was first brought to the attention of fruit growers in 1848. A story of interest connected with the origin of this apple is that Mr. Gillett purchased some apple trees and, in planting them, found a tree off type from the balance of the trees. He threw it out, remarking to he young son, “Here is a democrat, you can have it.” The lad took the tree and planted it along the bank of the Ohio River. The tree grew up and produced the Rome Beauty apple. Scions were cut from it which started the commercial plantings of the variety. A few years later, the original tree was washed out and lost in the river.
The original Delicious apple tree is the parent of all our Delicious apple trees now growing; and it is the grandparent to the Red strains of Delicious as Starking, Richared, and Shotwell. This variety and other were discovered over 75 years ago by the late Jessie Hiatt in his orchard at Peru, Iowa. Jessie Hiatt brought seeds of the Yellow Bellflower apple from Indiana and planted them in a new orchard on his farm and from this one tree different from the rest. The fruit it produced was so superior to all the others that it attracted the attention of Mr. Hiatt and his neighbors.
Mr. Stark, President of the American Pomological Society, made this statement before one of the Horticultural Societies of the Middle West in regard to Mr. Hiatt; “The fruit world may be truly thankful that this little seedling sprouted on the property of such a man as Jessie Hiatt; a man who loved fruit, who had the ability to recognize merit in fruit varieties and who had a steadfast determination to follow his conviction. The many discouragements that he had experienced when he tried to interest various nurseries in this new apple would have caused a less determined man to give up the battle.” In 1893 Jessie Hiatt sent four specimens of his new fruit to the fruit show at St. Louis, Mo. These apples, being a new and unknown sort, were placed with the other new kinds to be carefully tested when the fruit was judged on the last day of the show. Mr. C.M. Stark, then president of the Louisiana Nursery Company of Louisiana, Mo., was in charge of the seedling fruit department. Instantly, he recognized the value of this seedling apple and the possibilities which it contained for the fruit world; but, when he anxiously looked for the address of the man who had sent the specimens, it could not be found. During the confusion of the fruit show, it had been lost. No one present had any idea where the apples came from, since exhibits had been sent from many sections of the country. There was nothing to be done but to wait and hope that the sender of the fruit would not be discouraged, but would submit samples again the following year. Here was where one of Jessie Hiatt’s main characteristics counted. He was not discouraged when he did not receive any word from his apples the first time; he decided to send another sample to St. Louis the following year. C.M. Stark unwrapped the package bearing the apples the second year and recognized them immediately. HE lost no time in getting in touch with the grower. In answer to Stark’s inquiry about the seedling apples, Mr. Hiatt wrote the following description in 1894: “During the last eight years, drouth and cold wave have killed three-fifths of my orchard, but this seedling tree has withstood it. It bears annually. It yields large quantities of luscious fruit, both beautiful and delicious. It is a splendid keeper. All who have tried it declare it to be the best apple in the world. I am a man 70 years old and have raised apples all my life and would not willingly overestimate this seedling, but, if it is not better than any apple on your large list, (referring to Stark Bros.’ Nursery list), it will cost you nothing.”
After careful investigations, arrangements were made for he purchase, renaming, introduction and wide-spread testing of this new variety. The original name of the Delicious was Hawkeye. Mr. Hiatt had named it after the state of Iowa.
Mr. Stark reasoned that this name would be hard to advertise as and apple and as it has been said “A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet,” so the name was changed from Hawkeye to Delicious.
The introduction of a new fruit is not simple. The growers hesitate to replace old and accepted varieties with something new. Men seem to forget that there are improvements in fruit, as in electricity and other lines. It generally required many years to introduce a new variety of fruit to the public, but the Delicious was successfully introduced in a very few years. The nursery, introducing the Delicious, sent a few trees of an unnamed variety in their various orders going to different sections of the county and, after these trees began to bear, letters flooded into the nursery asking the name of the apple that didn’t taste like other apples but had a flavor all of its own. The growers wanted more trees and, thus, the Delicious apple started on its way toward national recognition.
With approximately 2000 named varieties of apples, only a few are of commercial importance in our Northwest today. Our common varieties of apples are chance seedlings or bud sports of present varieties that are growing. Jonathan, names after Jonathan Hasbrouch, originated from a seedling of the Esopus Spitzenberg in New York before 1826. The origin of the Winesap is not definitely known, but the early favored cider apples of that as from West Jersey. It was one of the early favored cider apples of that area. The Yellow Newtown was a seedling tree grown near a swamp near Newtown, Long Island and was cultivated as early as 1878.
The early plantings of the Pacific Northwest were started from nursery stock brought form Iowa to Oregon by ox team and wagon by Henderson Lewelling in 1847.
Experimental studies in plant breeding and improvement of varieties of fruit from apples to strawberries and cranberries is under way in 75 to 100 experiment stations in the United States and Canada. No apple breeding work is in progress in Washington State at the present time. However, the Tree Fruit Experiment Station at Wenatchee is conducting a project on testing new strains and varieties of apples sent in from various parts of the United States and Canada. Approximately 200 new varieties of apples have been or are still under test; but, so far, none appear to be better or even equal to our present commercial varieties as Delicious, Winesap, Romes, Golden Delicious and Jonathan, together with the red strains of these varieties.
The natural and climatic growing conditions of central Washington, plus the consumer demand for colorful, crisp, juicy apples that keep and handle well under favorable conditions, are responsible for the commercial growing of our present varieties of apples—Jonathan, Rome Beauty, Delicious, Winesap and their strains, along with Golden Delicious and Yellow Newtown. These varieties find favor because of their dessert and cooking qualities. They mature at different times thus giving the consumer a variety of apples during the entire year.
Fred Overly was the first horticulturist stationed in Wenatchee for the benefit of the tree fruit industry. He began work there in 1927 and was named the first superintendent of the Wenatchee Station (now the WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center) in 1940. He retired in 1950 and was named an emeritus faculty member. "From Whence Came" was written in 1953, just months before Overly died. In researching the feature story in the Fall, 2007 issue of Connections, we paid a visit to Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections in Holland Library, which houses many boxes of old papers from the Wenatchee Station. Among those papers we found the original typescripts of Overley's "From Whence Came" and "History and Development of Apple Production in Washington." As far as we know, this is their first publication. If you know differently, please let us know. --Brian Clark, CAHNRS and WSU Extension Marketing and News Services, July 2007. I'd like to thank Linda Evers of the TFREC in Wenatchee for help with historical research, and Samantha Clyde for typing the Overly manuscripts.
Connections Contents
CAHNRS Kernels - Videos: Cougars and rabbits and bears, oh my! Plus: fashion show photos, 4-H kids, Logger Sports, and bioplastics from bacteria.
Special feature: Tree fruit research at WSU
- The Sunburn Doctor
- Pioneers of IPM
- New Orchard is Big Lab
- Searching the Genetic Landscape
- Organic Tree Fruit
- Food Safety
- A Rotten Problem
Web exclusive: video message from TRFEC Director Jay Brunner on the new research orchard and the future of tree fruit research
Web exclusive: in the depths of the Holland Library archives we discovered two lost manuscripts written in the early 1950s by tree fruit research pioneer Fred Overly: "From Whence Came: The Varieties of Fruit We Are Now Growing" and "History and Development of Apple Production in Washington."
A Trace of History: LA Students to Design, Build Display Garden
Visit the Connections archives for all our great back issues.