754: THE FRUIT INDUSTRY IN XEW YORK 



Near Barker, Niagara County, about 1810, seeds were planted 

 by early settlers in favorable spots in the clearing, and were after- 

 ward grafted to improved varieties obtained from the former homes 

 of pioneers from Xew York and Xew England. The plantings 

 were small at first, perhaps little more than an acre, but after the 

 Erie Canal became a popular highway for transportation, com- 

 merce increased and larger orchards were planted. 



In 1880, Philemon Xettleton planted the first orchard in Gene- 

 see County, about two and one-half miles east of Le Roy village 

 on the north side of the Albany Road, with seed brought from 

 Connecticut. Two years later another settler brought with him 

 enough seed to plant a nursery, and from this most of the early 

 orchards of this vicinity were developed. 



The early settlers about Dansville, Livingston County, originally 

 came from the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, and planted seeds 

 about the year 1796. Other apple orchards were planted in the 

 region of Batavia about 1804, from seeds brought from the Xew 

 England States. They also brought with them a number of seed- 

 lings that were set out in orchards, this being the only instance 

 recorded of settlers bringing young trees with them. These trees 

 were later grafted to Baldwins, and are still standing, being in 

 many cases three feet in diameter and nearly forty feet high. 



In Chautauqua County apple growing began in 1805, when 

 Judge Zatter Gushing moved from Paris Hill to Fredonia and 

 brought with him one-half bushel of apple seed. From this he 

 raised trees enough to set a twenty-acre orchard, containing 999 

 trees. Soon afterward, in 1897, Elijah Risley, sr., came to Fre- 

 donia from Hartford, Conn., and introduced several other varieties 

 that proved superior to those brought by Judge Gushing. 



In the north-central part of the state, very little attention is 

 given to apple growing. The earliest trees were planted in Lewis 

 County in 1805 by settlers from Massachusetts and Connecticut, 

 but these produced practically all the apples in this section before 

 1850. About this time, and for many years after, large numbers 

 of trees from the nurseries of western Xew York were planted, 

 but very few survived. The St. Lawrence and the Tolman Sweet 

 are about all that are left of these plantings. 



