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- From: John Henderson <jhenderson@ithaca.edu>
- To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: Re: [NAFEX] A historical question
- Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:02:59 -0400
It seems pretty clear that both seeds and scionwood were brought over
by different emigrants. I know some history of one apple tree that has
some documentation. There has been some speculation about whether the
Rambo (Winter Rambo, not Summer Rambo) was brought over from Sweden in
1641 by Peter Gunnarsson Rambo as a seedling, thus making it a Swedish
tree, or if he brought over only apple seeds. Helpful information is
found in an addenda of notes to a
supplementary diary published as an appendix to Peter Kalm's Travels
in North America, that was first
translated into English in 1937. In an entry on the early Swedish
settlers, Kalm
reports on a conversation with Peter Rambo, grandson of Peter
Gunnarsson Rambo, on 30 January 1749. The grandson told him that the
elder Peter Rambo brought "apple seeds and other tree and garden seeds"
with
him in a box. The first written documentation for the Rambo apple is
not until William
Coxe's 1817 treatise "In A view of the cultivation of fruit trees, and
the management of orchards" in which he writes, "This apple is much
cultivated in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New-Jersey; taking its name
from the families by whom it was introduced into notice." Therefore the
Rambo
apple could have come after several generations of plantings and
orchard development. There is
a long history of confusion between the Rambo and Rambour apples, but
they are not related. The
Summer Rambo was originally called the Rambour Franc, and was available
in colonial America about as earlly as the Rambo. Based on its genetic
similarity to the Rambour d'Ete found in France, scionwood must have
been brought over in colonial times. John Henderson Sage Hen Farm Lodi, NY nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote: Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:12:42 -0300 From: david.maxwell@dal.ca Subject: [NAFEX] A historical question To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org> Message-ID: 49EB77AA.19454.AB497C@david.maxwell.dal.ca"><49EB77AA.19454.AB497C@david.maxwell.dal.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Does anybody have any solid evidence regarding the introduction of apples to North America? Malus malus is not native to America, and was introduced from Europe by the early settlers. Now here is the question: did they simply plant seeds, and grow seedling apples, or did they bring the old world varieties with them? Beech says, "Some few brought trees or scions of choice varieties, but more followed the less expensive plan of bringing seeds of selected fruits to plant about their new homes." This, of course, ignores the fact that planting seeds of "selected fruits", (at least, selected apples) would not have yielded them trees of their "choice varieties". He goes on to mention that Governor Endicott's apple tree was "stated to be a seedling", but "possibly the earliest recorded grafted tree brought from Europe was the Summer Bonchretien of Gov. Stuyvesant brought in 1647 in New Amsterdam., (which stood at the intersection of Third Ave. and 13'th St. in New York until it was broken down by a dray in 1866). Nicolas Denys, who accompanied Simon de Razilly in 1632, establishing the first capital of New France at the mouth of the LaHave River in modern-day Nova Scotia, recorded in 1635 details of the priest's garden: "He also had some apple and pear trees which were well started and very fine, but not yet in condition to bear, since they were brought small from France." Certainly my interpretation of this is that he was importing grafted trees, almost certainly of named varieties. (Nobody is going to bother importing seedlings, unless they wanted to get a head start on growing their own in the new world, knowing that there weren't any waiting for them in America.) Certainly varietal apples were well known in Europe, and my understanding is that the appples grown there were generally grafted varietals rather than wild seedlings. It makes sense to me that the settlers would have brought with them the same methods of apple culture they used in Europe, rather than reverting to wholesale sowing of random crosses of wild apples. Any evidence? |
-
Re: [NAFEX] A historical question,
John Henderson, 04/19/2009
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [NAFEX] A historical question, R. Kelly Coffey, 04/20/2009
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