78 STATE P0M0L0GIC.\I. SOCIETY. 



is one of the most profitable commercial varieties in several 

 important apple growing districts. The variety is widely dis- 

 tributed, well established, almost everywhere known, constant in 

 its general characters, and, most of all, possessed of a proclivity 

 for producing seedling varieties of high quality. 



History. — The history of Fameuse is obscure, probably beyond 

 clearing up satisfactorily, but extremely interesting as far as we 

 know or can guess at it. The turning point of speculation for 

 years has been as to whether the variety is of American or 

 European origin. One of the most interesting contributions to 

 this discussion was made by Mr. Chauncey Goodrich,'"' of Bur- 

 lington, Vt., in 185 1. We quote the following extracts from 

 this article: 



"It is here one of the most common as well as oldest varieties ; 

 hundreds of barrels are sold in a single season in this town alone. 

 . All American writers call it a Canadian apple ; of this 

 I think there is no proof. One hundred and twenty years since, 

 the French planted this variety on the eastern shore of Lake 

 Champlain, opposite Fort Frederick on Crown Point, at a place 

 called 'Chimney Point' — more than fifty years before any other 

 permanent settlement. From these old trees cions have been 

 scattered through \'ermont, and called the Chimney apple. A 

 very intelligent and highly educated French seigneur, residing 

 on an old seignory eighty miles below Quebec, informed me that 

 this was one of the first varieties of apples planted on the place; 

 that the trees were very old and were brought from France. 

 The early French settlers planted the same variety at Ogdens- 

 burg, Detroit, and other places on Lakes Erie and Ontario, where 

 it is still known as the ''Snow apple;" also at Kaskaskia, Illinois, 

 more than one hundred and fifty years since, where the old trees 

 are still productive, and apples from them are sent to St. Louis, 

 etc. The same apple may be found in France, and in London, 

 of the growth of France." 



''It is hardly to be supposed that a seedling apple was produced 

 in Canada at so early a day as to be distributed more than a 

 thousand miles in every settlement made by the French, one hun- 

 dred and fifty years since." 



* Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture, 17, p. 122 (1851). Boston. 



