North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com>]

What I suggest you do is write up a little article on the subject saying 
that you are looking for old apple trees to graft from.  You might 
actually track down a tree or two with the right name still attached, 
but it's more likely you'll get some seedling trees that have come down 
from those original varieties.  It's really not all that important, 
because what you want to do is to inspire local pride in old apple trees 
that have been there for years and years, family histories of how these 
trees have been passed down, some as seedlings, some as root sprouts, 
some grafted.  The trees will hopefully come with old family names from 
some of the earliest settlers.  With luck, some will be so good that 
local nurseries will propagate them. 
   The time to do this is right now.  Now it's cold and people are 
stuck indoors a lot, with time to read and time to talk to each other.  
But the most important reason for doing it now is that the old people 
who know these stories are dying off.  You don't know how often someone 
has said to me, "too bad you didn't meet so and so, but he died last 
year."  He could have told you (about those trees, about how they did 
things back then, about what they used to grow here, etc.)
   The weird part about looking for apples that were brought in nearly 
400 years ago is not that they have been lost or have lost their names.  
The weird part is that most of the losses probably didn't happen till 
the last 50 years.  If you can find apples more than 50 years old, from 
before people started moving around so much or having money to buy trees 
in from outside the area, chances are they are descended from some of 
the earliest of surviving apples.  I'd be willing to bet money that of 
the original trees brought in, many many seedlings were planted.  After 
all, to graft trees you had to have seedling stocks, and seedlings are 
the only way to get new varieties. 
   If you can  talk to a few groups or on the radio or run ads in small 
papers, I'll bet you can call up some apple trees to be proud of.  On 
the museum sign they can say, "Simon brought in these trees, which we 
are still looking for....Api Noir, Belle Fille, etc.  We have found 
seedling trees almost certainly descended from the hardiest of these and 
passed down through the such and such families. "  And then have some 
historical info about how the apples were stored and used, and as time 
goes on, say, "note how these apples are... different colors from well 
known commercial apples, or are more sour for making vinegar, or are 
astringent which was needed for hard cider, or are extra hard for long 
storage or heavily russeted, or come in early for drying, etc."  Have 
photos of the found trees showing how big they were, and old photos 
showing people in the old days with apple trees.     Donna
>     >
>     >
>     > A 10:40 08.02.12 -0400, vous avez écrit :
>     > >>>>
>     > Simon de Rasilly established one of the earliest French
>     settlements in
>     > the New World at the mouth of the LaHave River in Nova Scotia, in
>     > 1632. He planted apple trees - varieties unknown. The museum
>     > personnel at the site want to re-establish an orchard of
>     varieties he
>     > _could_ have brought. I have been working since 2003 to get scions
>     > through the National Germplasm Repository, but things aren't
>     looking
>     > hopeful. Do any Canadian members, just by chance, have any of the
>     > following: Api Noir, Belle Fille, Calville Rose, Calville Rouge
>     > d'hiver, Chataignier, Coeur de Boeuf, Court Pendu, Double Rose,
>     > Drap d'Or, Fenouillet Gris (Pomme d'Anis) (note: this *not* Pomme
>     > d'Api), Patte de Loup, Pigeonet Blanc, Pomme Glac, Pomme-Poire,
>     > Rambour d'Ete (syn. R. Blanc, Notre Dame), Rambour d'Hiver, Rateau,
>     > Reinette Blanche, Reinette Musquee, Rose de Beranger, Royal Russe.
>     > All these date from prior to 1630.
>     > (It is not practical to try to get wood from the States or
>     elsewhere -
>     > all Malus wood has to be virus indexed to import, and nobody is
>     going
>     > to have virus indexed an apple grown since the 1600's. It probably
>     > isn't totally ridiculous - the entire fruit industry in Ontario was
>     > threatened a few years back by somebody who brought scion wood
>     across
>     > the border and introduced plum pox virus in the Niagara peninsula.)
>     >
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