108 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETV. 



apple. The tree has beeu bearing about fifteen years. It is a vigorous 

 grower aud a good bearer, uot bearing as early as some but when it 

 comes to bearing it seems to bear a uniform crop each year of verj- fine 

 specimens, keeping until June without au}' special care. Mr. Rufus 

 Stowe, son of Francis Stowe, owned the farm that the original tree is on 

 until May, 1895. At tliat time he sold to Mrs. Ella F. Miller, who owns 

 it at the present time. Bj' what I can find out about the tree by people 

 tliat know it, I thiulv it is anotlier boom for Aroostook in the line of iron- 

 clads, as it seems to l^eep later than any kinds we have so far. 



"Mr. Oliver Xuttiug of Perliam, says they are a good strong grower for 

 top grafting; he has some on seedling trees and thinks verj- much of 

 them as a grower for top grafting." 



Mrs. Ella F. Miller, upon whose farm the fruit originated, kindly sent 

 some fine specimens and in regard to the apple writes : 



"Have lived on the place only since April last (ISPo). The seed from 

 which tlae tree grown was taken from an apple raised in Massacliusetts. 

 Do not know the variety. Think it perfectly hardy. The top was broken 

 oJl some years ago (do not know when), a yoke of oxen, with cart 

 attached, ran over it. The limbs have made a good growth, are good 

 shaped and bark is bright. Do not know the largest amount of fruit 

 raised any one year. 



I am very glad the fruit made a favorable impression on your commit- 

 tee. It is called a very fine apple by all who eat it. A few scions have 

 been taken from the tree by Mr. Oliver Nutting aud set in seedlings, have 

 just commenced to bear. He raised about two bushels of them the past 

 season. I saw and talked with him quite lately about the apple and he 

 expressed himself as well pleased with it and quite sure, he said, it grew 

 well grafted on other stock."' 



Mr. Rufus F. Stowe, who formerly owned the farm on which this apple 

 grows, writes from Presque Isle : 



"The seed was brought from Massachusetts sometime in the sixties, 

 cannot state the exact time ; the tree was set out in 1875. My father, 

 Francis Stowe, moved from Marlboro, Mass., in 1861, and took up a State 

 lot in what is now Perham plantation. He died January 5, 1894. I wrote 

 to O. Y. Nutting of Perham, asking him about the seedling he grafted 

 from the tree several years ago. He has some of the scions in large crab 

 stock, also a few small trees whole root grafted. He writes that when 

 lie first grafted he thought it was going to be tender, but it has proved 

 very hardy, a good grower and holds the fruit well, but must have some 

 age before it will bear heavy. "Will keep longer than anything excepting 

 the Ben Davis and near even with that. The apple has had quite a local 

 reputation for a number of years past, and has always borne the name 

 Stowe's Winter." 



