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nafex - [NAFEX] Introduction of apples to North America

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  • From: David.Maxwell@dal.ca
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Introduction of apples to North America
  • Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:03:43 -0400

I understand that apples are not native to the Americas. Who brought them?
Champlain wrote in 1605 that "the cold was so intense that the cider was
divided by
an axe..." (not clear whether this cider had been brewed in New France, or
brought
with them from France.) He also records taking fruit trees with him in 1606
to plant
in Quebec. Poutrincourt made a number of trips between France and Acadie
between 1605 and 1610, bringing "seeds of all kinds", and Lescarbot in 1610,
writing about the Port Royal habitation, makes reference to the good harvest
that
year "except for the trees they planted, which are not so prompt in bearing".
Simon
de Rasilly, who established Fort Ste. Marie de Grace at the mouth of the
LaHave
River in Nova Scotia, (about 5 km. from my present day house), in 1632,
recorded
in his diary planting apple trees to supply the fort with cider, and Nicolas
Denys in
1635 reported seeing several apple and pear trees, well rooted and in good
condition at Port LaTour, across the river from the Fort. He also makes
reference to
"apple and pear trees which are well started but not yet in condition to
bear, since
they were brought small from France", (suggesting that they were not just
planting
seeds, but importing grafted trees.) Were these men responsible for
introducing
apples to North America, or were they preceded by British settlers in the
Virginias?
Or even earlier? (I am embarrased by my ignorance of early European
settlement
of North America.)






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