THE CANADIAN K0RTI0ULTURI8T. 



59 



BAXTER'S RED APPLE. 



To THE Editor of thk Canadian Hortichltdrist. 



Dear Sir. — This apple is said to be 

 a nati\re of Brockville : this I believe is 

 not correct. A German hj the name 

 of La Rue immigrated to this country 

 from the State of New Jersey, U. S., 

 about one hundred years ago. He settled 

 on a farm near Brockville, and brought 

 a young tree of this variety with him 

 and -planted it on his farm. I am told 

 the tree is still growing on this farm 

 bearing large crops of apples. A good 

 many years ago La Rue used to carry 

 these apples to Brockville in a basket, 

 and retailed them out at five cents a 

 piece. Baxter was the first man that 

 cut scions from this tree and commenced 

 to propagate it. It was afterwards pro- 

 pagated in the Lyn Nursery and called 

 the Baxter. Mr. Daniel Nicol, proprie- 

 tor of the Kingston Nurseries, Cata- 

 raqui P.O., Ont., has been propagating 

 this tree quite extensively for some 

 years. He calls it La Rue. Mr. Geo. 

 Leslie, Toronto Nui-series, calls the 

 same apple Baxter Red. I got my 

 information about this tree from Mr. 

 John Buck, Alexandra Bay, he is a 

 nephew of La Rue. Mr. Buck told me 

 that a gentleman from New Jersey was 

 at his place a few yeai's ago and saw 

 the trees growing in his orchai'd and 

 recognized them at once, and said that 

 they were extensively grown in that 

 state at the present day, and was one 

 of the best apples they had. He gave 

 him the name of the ap])le, but he, Mr. 

 Buck, had forgotten it, consequently he 

 could not give it to me. This tree has 

 been quite extensively planted in the 

 vicinity of Kingston and fji-ockvi]le,and 

 has giA'en the best of satisfaction. It is ' 

 extremely hardy, and the coldest winters 



that we have here never affect it in 

 the least. It is an upright grower, 

 very thrifty and the trunks of the trees 

 are all as straight as a gun barrel. It 

 commences to bear very young, fruit 

 growing on the ends of the shoots when 

 young, when the tree gets older fruit 

 grows on fruit spurs and on the ends 

 of the shoots. Tree requires little or 

 no pruning, it only sends out sufficient 

 limbs to form a good shaped tree, a 

 little hard to propagate on tliat account. 

 The fruit is very large, red, covei-ed all 

 over with white dots, generally keeps 

 good until spring. You will see by 

 what I have written that this tree is 

 known in Canada by thi'ee names and 

 not one of them the right name of the 

 apple. I have given you a description 

 of the tree and the ap^^le, it is also 

 described on page 92 in the report of 

 the F. G. A., 1->81. Mention is made 

 of the same apple in the report for 

 1882, page 83. My object in writing 

 this article is to find out if possible the 

 right name of this apple, probably you 

 or some of the readers of the Horticul- 

 turist, by the description given of it, 

 can give its right name. It seems to me 

 ridiculous that such a fine apple and 

 tree so adapted to our climate should 

 be known by so many names and un- 

 truthfulness about its oi-igin and its 

 names. I have 40 trees of this vai'iety, 

 28 were planted in 1876, raised in the 

 Lyn Nursery ; there was a lot of trees 

 sold here that year fi-om that nursery 

 as bankrupt stock, and in 1878 I 

 planted 12 more trees I got from Mr. 

 Nicol ; not one of the trees has died 

 from any cause, they are fine trees, 

 some of them over twelvs feet high ; 

 the trees were three years old when 

 planted. I have had some fruit from 

 these trees every year, commencing 

 the same year they were planted. 



Yours truly, 



A. Hkidgk, P.m. 

 West Brook P. O. 



