VERMONT APPLE INDUSTRY TIMELINE
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| 1776 |
Alexander McIntosh emigrated from Scotland to
the Mohawk Valleyof New York State.
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| 1776 |
John McIntosh was born.
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| 1791 |
The Town of Braintree passed a law for a bounty
of sixpence to be paid on each apple tree transplanted into
an orchard of at least 25, but no more than 100 trees.
|
| 1810 |
"There were immense quantities of apples produced
(in Vermont). These were mostly manufactured into cider." (Thompson's
History of Vermont)Cider was drunk as freely as water. The price
abroad did not warrant the expense of transportation. Large
quantities of cider brandy were made. One hundred and twenty-five
Vermont distilleries produced 173,285 gal. of cider brandy.
(Report of the Vermont Board of Agriculture 1920-22, p.37).
|
| 1811 |
John McIntosh discovered seedling tree in Ontario,
Canada, one of several on his new farm. They were saved and
later moved to a garden area.
|
| 1819 |
First known orchard of size was set by a Mr.
Phelps of South Hero, consisting of 20 acres of unimproved,
ungrafted trees. They were still bearing in 1882 when the acreage
was reset. (Report of the Vermont Board of Agriculture, 1920-22,
p.32).
|
| 1820 |
John McIntosh was selling seedlings from his
trees to other settlers.
|
| 1830 |
Of the seedlings transplanted by John McIntosh,
only one remained - the original McIntosh tree.
|
| 1835 |
The techniques of budding and grafting were
learned from an unknown wanderer, allowing for production of
fruit identical to that of the original tree.
|
| 1836 |
John McIntosh's apple became known as the McIntosh
Red, after being known as Granny's Apple, when the Mrs. Took
over responsibility for the orchard and nursery.
|
| 1840 |
Because of reform in liquor traffic only two
distilleries were left, producing 3,500 gallons of cider brandy.
|
| 1842 |
A Mr. Chapman planted Baldwin apple trees in
Addison County.
|
| 1848 |
Fruit growers convened in Montpelier in October
to draw up a set of rules for the naming of apple varieties
and a constitution for a Vermont Horticultural Society. There
is no record of succeeding meetings.
|
| 1849 |
Northern Spy was first fruited in Vermont at
Burlington.
|
| 1850 |
Convention of fruit growers at St. Albans in
October passed a resolution recommending the organization of
a horticultural society; resulted in a convention in Burlington
the following February to form the Champlain Valley Horticultural
Society.
|
| 1866 |
Twelve acre orchard of Rhode Island Greenings
was set at Isle La Motte, which in one year produced a "wonderful"
crop of 100 barrels of apples.
|
| 1868 |
Dr. T.A. Hoskins brought McIntosh to Newport
directly from Dundela, Ontario.
|
| 1870 |
William McIntosh planted McIntosh trees in his
own orchard in West Berlin, Vermont.
|
| 1871 |
Apple growers participated in the first public
meeting of the State Board of Agriculture in March 1871 in St.
Johnsbury. (75th Anniversary Bulletin of Vermont Horticultural
Society).
|
| 1875 |
Period of transition from small home and farm
orchards to commercial orchards. (1875-1910).
|
| 1876 |
First printed reference to McIntosh variety
appeared in Fruits and Fruit Trees of America by Downing.
|
| 1880's |
Baldwin and Ben Davis were important varieties.
|
| 1888 |
First McIntosh tree set at the Agricultural
Experiment Station in Burlington.
|
| 1894 |
Northern Vermont was included in the commercial
apple growing regions of this continent. An apple jelly factory
was started in Marshfield with a $1,000 investment and two employees.
(Vermont Agricultural Report 1894-95, p. 173. Fire damaged the
original McIntosh tree.
|
| 1895 |
Spray calendar for apples issued. The first
probably came out of Canada.
|
| 1896 |
First annual meeting of the Vermont State Horticultural
Society was held in December of 1896 at U.V.M. T.L. Kinney of
South Hero was ite first president. Grand Isle County produced
55,000 barrels of fine grafted apples.
|
| 1890's |
Agricultural Experiment station horticultural
staff was developed.
|
| 1899 |
1,675,131 apple trees; 1,176,822 bushels of
apples. (12th Census, Bulletin No. 141, p. 64). The accuracy
of these figures was challenged by a transportation survey.
|
| 1900 |
McIntosh became widely known.
|
| 1904 |
Act No. 15 of the General Assembly appropriated
$500 annually for the Vermont State Horticultural Society to
promote and develop horticultural interests in the state.
|
| 1905 |
There were 50 members of the Vermont State Horticultural
Society.
|
| 1908 |
Last harvest of original McIntosh tree.
|
| 1910 |
The original McIntosh tree fell over at about
100 years of age, leaving thousands of its kind scattered throughout
eastern North America. Many new orchards were set. (1910-1922)
|
| 1913 |
U.V.M. Extension Service was established in
July. County extension service field work started.
|
| 1915 |
Cortland, a McIntosh-Ben Davis cross, was named
by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station.
|
| 1916 |
The New England Fruit Show was held in Montpelier
City Hall in November.
|
| 1917 |
George D. Aiken, a well-known apple grower,
served as president of the Vermont State Horticultural Society.
A test winter; severe winter minimum temperatures devastated
many trees. (1917-1918)
|
| 1920's |
The three-bushel barrel was replaced by the
one-bushel box.
|
| 1920 |
McIntosh apples sold for $9 to $11a barrel in
New York City; Wealthy apples sold for $10 a barrel.
|
| 1921 |
Apples were selling for $12-$15/barrel with
no advertising; and $10-$14/barrel in the New York City market
for Greenings, Northern Spies, Macs. Net return to the farmer
averaged $0.50 to $1.00 a bushel more than the best apples from
Oregon and Washington. (Report of the Vermont Board of Agriculture,
1920-22, pp. 5 & 12).
|
| 1922 |
The Fameuse apple considered the best to plant
in northern Vermont. Years of experience and experimentation
had resulted in larger orchards with fewer varieties - specialization.
The family orchard of many varieties was a thing of the past,
the trend toward few varieties for commercial purposes. Favored
varieties were McIntosh, Fameuse, Northern Spy, Wealthy, Rhode
Island or Northwestern Greening, Delicious, Winter Banana, Wagner
(in order of favor). Devastating frost ruined full crops for
a few growers.
|
| 1931 |
A federal-state inspection service was made
available to Vermont growers and shippers for the first time,
certifying the grade, quality, and condition of apple shipments.
(Agriculture of Vermont 1930-32, p.72).
|
| 1933 |
Another test winter that killed thousands of
trees. (1933-1934)
|
| 1947 |
C. Lyman Callahan hired as first full time extension
horticulturist.
|
| 1948
| A committee from the VT Horticultural Society
studied fruit processing as a means of disposing of low grade
apples (75th Anniversary Bulletin, p. 3.)
|
| 1950's |
Significant grower interest surfaced in size-controlled
trees.
|
| 1955 |
Vermont apple production exceeded 1,100,000
bushels.
|
| 1956 |
78,000 bearing McIntosh trees, 7,000 nonbearing;
McIntosh represented 64% of all trees.
|
| 1969 |
Spring frost conditions destroyed 25% of apple
crop.
|
| 1985 |
Vermont growers respond to an increasingly competitive
world apple market by passing a marketing order through a grower
referendum. The Vermont Apple Marketing Board is established
to administer the order.
|
| 1988 |
The U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition
and Health was released, citing the importance of water soluble
fiber in the American diet.
|
| 1989 |
The National Academy Press published Diet and
Health, written by the National Research Council. The publication
became the basis for the national "Five a Day for Better Health"
campaign, promoting the consumption of more fresh produce for
better health.
|
| 1990 |
Vermont produced about 1.25 million bushels
of apples; .875 million bushels were McIntosh. The 10-year average
apple yield was 336 bushels/acre. (1980-1990).
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Introduction
Vermont celebrated its bicentennial in 1991. In recognition of that
milestone, the state's apple growers compiled this review of a 200-year
success story - the history and traditions of Vermont's apple industry.
The Seasons of Apples follows the Vermont apple industry from its
beginnings on the early hill farms, where dozens of apple strains
served a remarkable variety of uses, through the development of
today's specialized, commercial production. Our state's bicentennial
was seen as a means of renewing Vermont's strong sense of history,
tradition and pride. We'd like to think that this heritage is nowhere
stronger than in our apple industry - just as, for many people,
the McIntosh apple symbolizes Vermont. Dedicated to the generations
of Vermont apple growers.
Vermont is the home of tidy villages, town meetings, and the tart
and crispy-sweet taste of the McIntosh - the world-famous apple
that reaches near perfection in the Green Mountain State's upcountry
growing season of cool nights and warm, sunny days.
Today, the popularity of the "Mac" has encouraged growers to make
it Vermont's dominant apple, with McIntoshes accounting for almost
70 percent of the state's apple crop. Modern techniques called Integrated
Pest Management (IPM) and controlled-atmosphere storage enable Vermont
Macs to reach top quality with minimal environmental impact, and
to stay harvest-crisp for consumers throughout the year. Macs are
shipped from Vermont across the U.S. - they're even popular in Western
Europe, especially Scotland and Ireland.
The Vermont apple industry of today is an agricultural success.
Yet the "Superstar McIntosh" marks only the most modern chapter
in a fascinating and colorful history.
The Days of Honeygold and Sops of Wine
Two hundred years ago, apples were growing on hill-farm orchards
and lakeside slopes all over Vermont. One hundred years ago, the
apple industry here was strong, yet the McIntosh was still a newcomer.
The "big three" were varieties called Baldwin, Northern Spy, and
Rhode Island Greening.
The old Vermonters grew apples in a rich and amazing variety. From
orchards here were harvested Honeygold, Summer Rambo, Tompkins County
King, Cox Orange Pippin, Pound Sweet, Nonesuch, Wolf River, Wealthy
and Winter Banana. Vermont had apples named for towns, such as Bethel,
Roxbury Russet, and St. Johnsbury Sweet; others were named for their
shape (Sheepnose), their taste (Sops of Wine), and their color (Red
Astrachan, Yellow Transparent, and Peach). Some of the apple names
were mysterious, or pure poetry - imagine, for example, the taste
of Seek-No-Further, Duchess of Oldenberg, King David, Black Gilliflower,
and Lady.
Why so many? Apples have a natural tendency to reinvent themselves.
A seed of one variety, once planted, will grow to bear something
different. "They won't come true to themselves," a Vermont grower
once said of apples. In time, Vermonters learned to experiment,
to graft for desired and new varieties, and to use the different
apples for all sorts of purposes.
In the Early 'Cider Time'
When the Vermont Rural Life Commission's Subcommittee on Apples
of 1932 divided the state's apple-growing history into three stages,
it named the first - from around 1700 to the Civil War - the cider
apple period.
Apples were brought to Vermont from neighboring states and Canada
in colonial days. Settlers planted Fameuse apples around 1700 at
historic Chimney Point on Lake Champlain. In Vermont's first century,
nearly every farm had an orchard. Apple growing was limited to seedlings
of natural varieties, uncultivated and often diseased. Even so,
large quantities of apples were produced - and cider, it is said,
flowed more freely than water.
Several decades of home-grown intemperance ensued. By 1810, Vermont
had 125 distilleries producing over 173,000 gallons of apple brandy.
But by 1840, reform in liquor traffic had eliminated all but two
distilleries, and reduced the year's production of apple brandy
to 3,500 gallons.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, Vermont apple growers
learned to cultivate with increasing skill. The first sizable Vermont
apple orchard was set in 1819 in South Hero, by one Mr. Phelps,
who had 20 acres of unimproved, ungrafted trees. After the 1840's,
railroading began to offer orchardists the chance to sell their
apples outside their communities. Fruit growers met in St. Albans
in 1850 to discuss the growing interest in fruit culture, and the
following year they formed the Champlain Valley Horticultural Society,
for Vermont and New York orchardists.
With their better methods now producing an abundance of apples,
farmers were on their way to the more sophisticated growing culture
of the farm orchard period, from the Civil
War to 1890.
The Varieties of Self-Sufficiency
This was the time of great growth in apple varieties. Itinerant
grafters traveled with scions, or twigs, of popular trees in their
backpacks. By the late 1800's, Vermont orchards had hundreds of
strains - apples that ripened red, green, or gold, apples to pick
early or late, apples that were used in many more ways than we use
them today.
The typical 19th century Vermont apple orchard was a small place,
perched on a hardscrabble hill, and producing a dozen or more different
varieties. Its various apples were good for cooking, sauce, pickling,
jelly, eating fresh, giving at Christmas, making into cider, and
storing until spring.
After the Civil War, for-profit orcharding began in earnest. Between
1870 and 1890, commercial orchards were set in Charlotte, East Highgate,
Cambridge, and East Corinth. The relatively open spaces of the Champlain
Valley began to make the area a prime orcharding spot, from the
northern Champlain Islands to the southern lakeside towns of Shoreham
and Orwell. Much of the Champlain Valley had been cultivating wheat
- but in the late 1800's, as much larger Midwestern farms started
raising grain, many Champlain farmers turned to apples, for which
they still have some of the best conditions in the world.
By 1894, northern Vermont had become one of the most important
apple-growing regions of the continent, supplying
markets in the United States, Canada, South America, and even Europe.
According to the Vermont Agricultural Report of 1894-95, apple growers
were meeting with specialists in fertilization, cultivation, and
spraying, and knew the importance of handling fruit carefully for
market. The scene was set for the commercial orchard era, which
began in 1890, became extensive around 1910, and continues today.
Enter the McIntosh
Raising apples for market meant new prosperity for growers. It also
meant fewer, larger orchards, the rise of several popular varieties,
and the dwindling of the old-time culture that had found so many
uses for so many apples. Growers discovered which apples were best
suited to Vermont's climate and soil. By 1900 the most popular variety,
shipped to Boston and then New York, was the Baldwin - yet the Baldwin,
today, has almost disappeared. The post-Civil War years had also
brought what many now consider the single most important development
in Vermont apple history: the introduction of the McIntosh.
The first Macs grew in Canada. The original tree sprouted from
one of several seedlings discovered in 1811 by John McIntosh, the
American-born son of a Scottish immigrant, on his new farm in Ontario.
McIntosh saved the seedlings, and later planted them in a garden.
By 1830, only the McIntosh tree remained. In 1835, McIntosh had
learned the techniques of budding and grafting from an unknown itinerant.
Trees grafted from the original McIntosh were thus able to produce
identical fruit. This new variety was first called "Gem," then "Granny's
Apple" when Mrs. McIntosh took over responsibility for the orchard
and nursery. The apple later became known as the McIntosh Red. In
1868, Dr. T.A. Hoskins brought the McIntosh to Newport, Vermont
directly from Dundela, Ontario. William McIntosh, a descendent of
John, planted McIntosh Reds in his West Berlin, Vermont orchard
in 1870. The first printed reference to the Vermont Mac appeared
in 1876.
In 1894, the original McIntosh tree in Ontario was damaged by fire.
Its last harvest was in 1908 and by 1910, when it finally fell over
at nearly 100 years of age, the apple strain
that the tree had begun was bearing fruit on thousands of trees
throughout Vermont and eastern North America.
Start of the Modern Era
In 1917-18, a devastating freeze along the Champlain Valley killed
many of the old apple varieties. Afterward, the commercial growers
began concentrating in earnest on a limited variety of popular,
attractive, multipurpose apples. In 1920, the "big four" Vermont
varieties were McIntosh, Fameuse, Northern Spy, and Wealthy. Also
important were, in order, Rhode Island (or Northwestern) Greening,
Delicious, Wagner, and Winter Banana. Because a great number of
large orchards were by then raising proven varieties, cultivated
by sound methods, a forecaster in the 1920's predicted that Vermont's
apple culture would develop into producing large, profitable crops
of fine-quality fruit.
The old hill-farm culture, meanwhile, had faded, thinned by population
loss. With it many old apples were lost. But in the 1970's, an influx
into Vermont of young people interested in living close to the land
contributed greatly to a revival of interest in old-time apples.
Today, a large number of antique varieties have been nurtured back
to life on revived, hill-farm orchards. Old apple varieties are
commercially available at Vermont orchards in South Hero, Monkton,
Waterbury Center, New Haven, South Burlington, Mendon, Essex Junction,
Dummerston, East Burke, Shaftsbury, Orwell, Springfield, and Middlebury.
Recent years have also brought increasing sophistication to Vermont's
orchards. In the 1980's, an average of 79 commercial
growers, on 3,500 bearing acres in total, produced an average annual
crop of 1.25 million bushels of apples. Along with the dominant
McIntosh, leading commercial varieties of today include Cortland,
Empire, Paulared, and Delicious. The introduction of semi-dwarf
varieties has permitted more trees to be cultivated per acre, and
yields have grown dramatically.
Using Knowledge to Reduce Environmental Risk
An important refinement on modern Vermont orchards is Integrated
Pest Management, or IPM - a system, employed by 90 percent of growers
here, that minimizes pesticide use. IPM combines different types
of pest-control methods - biological, cultural, chemical, and mechanical
- to greatly reduce the possibility of harmful effects on the environment.
This technique is based on knowledge of apple pests and beneficial
organisms, the crop, and the environment in which all these interact.
"Growing fruit is an unusually risky agricultural business," states
Sanford S. Witherell, Jr., of Noggin Orchard in Shoreham. "Vermont
growers have shown a willingness to experiment with and use environmentally
responsible pest-control techniques that may not always be the cheapest
or easiest approach to assuring a marketable crop."
During the autumn harvest, every Vermont apple is picked by hand.
Modern controlled-atmosphere storage facilities permit growers to
provide high-quality Macs and other varieties to distributors and
consumers months after picking. In these storage systems, levels
of carbon dioxide, oxygen and ethylene are carefully monitored to
keep the apples fresh.
There is pride in every Vermont apple grown and sold today, in
part because of the state apple industry's long and rich history.
For bright flavor, lively crunch, and full aroma - for eating fresh,
for salads and for cooking - there's nothing like a Vermont McIntosh.
Produced by:
the Vermont Apple Marketing Board in cooperation with the Vermont
Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Montpelier, Vermont.
C/o Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food
and Markets
116 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05620-2901
Written by Doug Wilhelm
Researched by Anita Rye
Original Book Designed by Tim Newcomb
Coordinated by Steven F. Justis
Thanks to Cold Hollow Cider Mill, The Vermont Historical Society,
Bailey-Howe Library Special Collections
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