North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

That isn't to take away from Johnny. He was an apple authority and went
> around the country helping folks and propagated popular varieties by
grafting.
> And, I'd bet he enjoyed some sparkling (fermenting) apple cider too.


Actually, according to Pollan's book, Johny thought grafting was the
devil's work and that God wanted trees to grow just as they were from
seed.  As stated earlier, the apples use was mostly for "hard" cider and
early Americans probably didn't have high standards on the quality of the
stuff as long as it dulled the discomforts of their existence.