58 THE APPLES OF NEW YORK. 



ing a pretty uniform grade of fruit with a low percentage of culls, 

 when kept free from injurious insects and fungous diseases. 



The Baldwin foliage and fruit are often much injured by the 

 apple scab fungus. It has often been remarked that the preven- 

 tion of fungus diseases and of the attacks of insects, by proper 

 spraying, not only increases the yield of marketable fruit but 

 improves the quality as well. The Baldwin Spot is the name 

 given to brown flecks in the flesh of Baldwin apples. This is 

 not caused by either insects or fungi. It is a physiological defect 

 which is more apt to appear in overgrown than in medium-sized 

 fruit. No remedy is known. 1 



Historical. Soon after 1740 the Baldwin came up as a chance seedling on 

 the farm of Mr. John Ball, Wilmington, near Lowell, Mass., and for about 

 40 years thereafter its cultivation was confined to that immediate neighbor- 

 hood. The farm eventually came into the possession of a Mr. Butters, who 

 gave the name Woodpecker to the apple because the tree was frequented by 

 woodpeckers. The apple was long known locally as the Woodpecker or 

 Pecker. It was also called the Butters. 2 Deacon Samuel Thompson, a sur- 

 veyor of Woburn, brought it to the attention of Col. Baldwin of the same 

 town, by whom it was propagated and more widely introduced in Eastern 

 Massachusetts as early as 1/84. From Col. Baldwin's interest in the variety 

 it came to be called the Baldwin. 3 



In 1817 the original tree was still alive but it perished between 1817 and 

 1832.4 A monument to the Baldwin apple now marks the location. 



Coxe in his work on fruits in 1817 makes no mention of the Baldwin. 

 Thacher's American Orchardisl, published in Boston in 1832, gives it very 

 brief but favorable mention. Floy in his American edition of Lindley, Guide 

 to the Orchard, New York, .1833, does not mention it, but in the appendix to 

 the 1846 edition he describes the Baldwin and states that "in the Eastern States 

 (New England) it is well known, highly esteemed, and extensively cultivated." 

 Kenrick's New American Orchardist, Boston, 1833, says, " No apple in the 

 vicinity of Boston is so popular as this, at the present day. It is raised in 

 large quantities for the market * * * and is recommended for extensive 

 cultivation." 



Hovey in 1852 published an extended description of Baldwin with colored 

 plate (12). He remarks, "The Baldwin is the most popular apple of New 

 England, and is cultivated to a much greater extent than any other variety. 

 Several large and fine orchards are to be found in the vicinity of Boston, some 

 of which produce about one thousand barrels of fruit every bearing year. For 

 exportation it is much sought after ; and the large number of fifteen hundred 

 barrels have been sent to the East Indies in one season." 



'Jones, L. R. Vt. Sta. An. Rpt., 12: 159-164. 1899. 



2 French, B. V. Downing Hort., 1:315. 1846. 



3 Mass. Ploughman, cited in Mich. Hort., 1:335. 



*Amer. Gard. Mag. 1836:360. New Eng. Homestead, 1886:228. 



