Extinct Apples and the Golden Age of American Pomology

hi on the history guide I have a degree in history and I love history and if you love history too this is the channel for you century ago an American might have enjoyed a bite of crisp green cheese for breakfast might have lunched on stewed mammoth black twig and drinkin beverage made from juice squeezed from a rainbow and if that seems like an odd diet it was actually quite common because those are just three of the more than 7,000 named varieties of apples that were commonly cultivated in the United States just a hundred years ago and were a staple of the American diet it might come as a surprise to a modern American many of whom have never tasted more than a handful of the varieties of apples largely chosen from the eleven varieties that account for 90% of Apple sales in the United States today but in the 19th century Americans cultivated as many as fifteen thousand different kinds of apples more than any other country on Earth and an estimated 80 percent of those are now gone possibly extinct literally forgotten to history and that is too bad because the history of Americans apples says much about the history of America from the first days when Europeans arrived on her Shores to the large modern and diverse nation that we have today the history of America's apples is as American as apple pie apples are deciduous trees from the rose family they produce what is called a pomaceous fruit a class which includes pears and quinces the study and cultivation of fruit is called homology the apple tree originated in Central Asia and the apples have been cultivated by humans for food in Asia and Europe for thousands of years apple seedlings are examples of what is called extreme heterozygotes and what that means is is that the seeds of an apple differ significantly genetically from the parent plant and so if you plant seeds from an apple the tree that grows will not produce the same sort of apple as the one from which you got the seeds because of this most apple trees are produced by grafting which takes a piece from a tree's previous growth called the Scion and grafts it onto a healthy root structure this allows the farmer to clone an existing tree to reproduce its variety of apple or also to create specific hybrids of apples with preferred characteristics the varieties that have been chosen for the characteristics and deliberately cultivated are called cultivars and today there are more than 7,500 known apple cultivars worldwide when Europeans first came to America for example the Massachusetts Plymouth Colony starting in 1620 settlers brought with them science from English apple trees representing cultivars that had been chosen after hundreds of years of careful breeding but over the course of the next 300 years Americans would develop a staggering number of varieties of apples by some estimates as many as fifteen thousand different varieties of apples so why would they do this why would they run the risk of planting random seedlings when they could use scions to create fine English apples there are a few reasons that America was fertile ground for Apple experimentation first many of the European cultivars did not succeed well in America which had different soils and climates English varieties could be vulnerable in America for example because late Frost's are far more common in New England than old England second America is a vast land with many different climates and cultures a variety that may thrive in New England may not in the deep south for example in the north varieties that are keepers apples that remain good throughout the winter may be more important than in the south where winters are milder American farmers tended to have more land at their disposal than European farmers allowing greater margin to experiment in fact some states passed laws requiring that a percentage of every farmer's land be dedicated to fruit trees and as the farms were being newly cultivated American farmers had less time to devote to the process of grafting and the risk was somewhat low since even though chance seedlings often produce a small or sour apple many of the fruits were used to press for cider which can be done from almost any Apple or to feed pigs so for many reasons Americans did not rely on European varieties but planted seedlings producing a huge variety of apples for a number of purposes some are good for cooking and some for eating fresh some for keeping in winter and many for making hard cider and when the seedling produced a desirable type of apple that variety could then be duplicated through grafting for example the Golden Delicious apple one of the most popular apples in America today came from a chance seedling on a farm in West Virginia all Golden Delicious apples produced in the world come from clones of that one tree and he showed the enormous possibility for creating varieties of apples when the genome of the Golden Delicious was sequenced in 2010 the plant had the highest number of genes of any plant studied to date more than fifty seven thousand apples were an integral part of America's expansion as Apple's produced a reliable supply of food one of the most memorable stories in US history of that is that of John Chapman otherwise known as Johnny Appleseed contrary to the common idea that he randomly planted apples Chapman actually established and tended a series of apple tree nurseries which sold science to settlers moving into the Ohio country in the early part of the 19th century thus apples became an integral part of the western expansion supplying a ready source of food at least one tree thought to have been planted by Chapman in Nauvoo Ohio is still producing apples today eventually apple varieties came to represent every region in virtually every farm or garden the period of the 19th century became known as the Golden Age of American paama graphi new apple varieties were reviewed and celebrated like a popular motion picture maybe today apples became a part of national culture as one heirloom Apple advocate notes Apple served both as cultural markers on the landscape and ways in which humans actively imbue places with identity and history it is telling that the cultivation of apples which started when Europeans first colonized the east coast of the United States is now enormous ly popular in the far west where the rich soil of Washington state produces more apples than any other US state and Palma graphy could be lucrative some American varieties were so prized that they sold in England for as much as ten times the price of English apples as late as 1905 a US Department of Agriculture Bulletin suggested that as many as fourteen thousand apple varieties had been cultivated in the United States by contrast today only about ninety varieties are commercially cultivated and just eleven varieties account for 90% of US Apple sales an estimated 80% of the varieties that used to exist in the US are forever lost to time gone after no one was left to tend the trees there are many reasons that Apple varieties have disappeared the Baldwin Apple for example an exceptionally good pie apple and popular for making cider was once one of the most popular varieties in America the Baldwin was nearly eradicated when the particularly harsh winter of 1933 34 wiped out many of the New England orchards while not extinct Baldwin's aren't rare today many apples like the ones extremely popular Harrison Apple the pride of New Jersey were not suitable for eating but cultivated for making cider many of those were lost when their economic value disappeared during the era of prohibition revenue agents actually went so far as to cut down apple trees to discourage the making of hard cider the Harrison was thought to have gone extinct until 1975 when a single tree was found alive on the side of an overgrown former cider press refrigeration decimated the demand from Friday's specialized for drying as well as for those keepers that could store for winter but two trends are most responsible for the decline in American apple varieties urbanization and mass commercial production with the advent of railroads apples could be transported long distances production shifted from regional orchards to larger commercial operations apples were then selected for things like yield the uniform size in color and the ability to ship them without bruising pack ability was emphasized over flavor a few cultivars proved the best success for commercial apple growing and other varieties were pushed out as Americans moved more towards urban and suburban life fewer people worked the land the individual apple trees that once graced yards and we're the pride of small farms became rarer and people no longer appreciated the unique flavor of a local variety none of this is intended to apply that modern varieties are necessarily worse I mean after all the best tasting apples of little value if it can't be moved to a consumer and the United States is still the second largest producer of apples in the world today behind a China tastes have changed and most newer variety of apples are actually scientifically bred to be sweeter the very popular Honey Crisp variety today for example was patented in 1988 and created by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities some scientists have become concerned that the reduction in varieties makes the apple more susceptible to blight and there have been some efforts to increase genetic diversity among the apple crop tomography is still alive in America today as is evidenced by the nation's many apple festivals and farmers markets where sometimes you can find delicious heirloom apple varieties that evoke the nation's past and today people called Apple detectives searched the wilderness for forgotten apple trees which can live up to 200 years and in backyards and forgotten orchards they are continually rediscovering varieties once thought lost for example the fletcher sweet once thought to be extinct was successfully cloned from the last living branch on an almost dead tree in 2002 that branch is an analogy for the nation's past and like the fletcher sweet it has a unique flavor that deserves to be remembered on the history god I hope you enjoyed this episode of my series 5 minutes of history short snippets of forgotten history 5 to 10 minutes long and if you did enjoy then please go ahead and put that thumbs up button that's on your left dennee questions or comments feel free to write those in the comment section and I will be happy to respond and if you'd like 5 minutes more forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 119,582

Rating: 4.9783616 out of 5

Keywords: history, the history guy, us history, pomology, apples, history guy, food history, fruit, botany

Id: Isq1-htLiEk

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2017