AN APPLE ORCHARD SURVEY OF ONTARIO COUNTY 



H. M. Martin 



Apple growing in Ontario county dates back to the time of the Indians. 

 Some of the old trees still remain, but most of the orchards were cut 

 down by General Sullivan during his raid in 1779. 



" Tradition states that four miles west of Geneva, on the farm of Nathan 

 White, a small nursery of sprouts was established in 1792 among the 

 stumps of an old Indian orchard. On this site and from these sprouts 

 an orchard grew. Mr. C. C. Whitney owned the farm 1843-1884, and 

 at the latter date the orchard was still profitable. 



!fC !)! •!« *js »f» -fi US !fi 



" Near Seneca Castle, near Geneva, the Indians had planted a small 

 orchard which General Sullivan did not destroy. * * * j^ was called 

 the Indian Castle orchard. Most of the orchards of the early settlers 

 in this section were grown from seeds taken from this old Indian orchard. 



5|C 3|» Jp 'fi •jC Jp ^ ^ 



"An orchard standing near where the New York State Experimental 

 Station is located is said to have been set out by the Indians as early as 

 1817. * * * 



" The first orchard near Halls Corners was planted on the farm of 

 Edward Burrell about 1801. The seed from which these trees grew was 

 supposed to have been taken from the natural fruit found growing wild 

 in the woods. Probably these natural fruit trees grew from seeds scat- 

 tered by the Indians. In the orchard of T. B. Wilson, Halls Corners, 

 there is standing today an apple tree said to have been planted by the 

 Indians. Parts of the tree have been grafted to different varieties, and 

 each year it bears four or five kinds of apples. One limb still bears the 

 natural fruit which was small, with red stripes, and almost tasteless. 

 In i8g6 it bore 16 barrels of apples."* 



According to the foregoing authority, Ontario county has been the birth- 

 place of several varieties of apples. The Tohnan originated on the farm of 

 Mr. Thomas Tallman, near Geneva, one of the early settlers who planted 

 seeds from an Indian orchard. Norton's Melon, a fruit of excellent 

 quality, though deHcate and difficult to propagate, originated, about 1800, 

 in the orchard of Mr. Chapman, of East Bloomfield. The Northern Spy, 



* Wilson. C. S. The History of the Apple in New York State. Thesis, Cornell University, 1905. 

 13 169 



