THE CANADIAN IIOUTICULTUKIST. 99 



THE GllIMES' GOLDEN PIPPIX. 



The Grimes' Golden is a western apple, and originated in Brooke Co , 

 West Virginia. By whom the seed was sown it is not positively known, 

 l)iit believed to be a Mr. Crawford. This seedling was among the first 

 apple trees produced by an American in the Ohio valley. As such, without 

 taking into consideration the superior quality of fruit, it is worthy to bo- 

 come a matter of history. The many good qualities of both tree and fruit 

 constitute it doubly so. This extraordinary apple has few equals in the 

 catalogue of American fruit; it certainly has no superior. Taking into 

 consideration the hardiness and long life of the tree, its habit of constant 

 bearing, the superior quality of the fruit, together with the great length of 

 time it is in season, the Grimes' Golden stands preeminent. 



The original tree, now over ninety years old, is in the orchard of Dr. 

 Joshua Gist, formerly owned by Thomas P. Grime, situate two miles east 

 of the Ohio river. 'This orchard of seedling trees was set out by Edward 

 Crawford about the year 1790, and by him sold to Thomas Giimes, Sr., in 

 1799, at which time this noted tree bore its first crop of apples. It is said 

 it has not failed to produce fruit every year siuce that time. It is a choice 

 a])ple for the southern market, where it is well known. As early as 1804 

 Mr. Grimes sold the apples from this tree to traders on the Ohio river, ta 

 be taken to New Orleans. In 1734, the year of the severe frosts from the 

 13th to the 18th of May, which destroyed the fruit throughout the entire 

 region where this tree v/as growing, it produced a full half crop of apples. 

 This circumstance gave additional notoriety to the tree and fruit, and scions 

 were sought for grafting. 



The writer of this, who obtained his first trees of the Grimes' Golden 

 apple in 1838, visited the original tree June 24th, 1879, and found it in a 

 very good state of preservation, with a fair crop of fruit evenly set over its 

 branches. The tree is about thirty feet in height, and measures six feet 

 around the trunk two feet from the ground. Its branches cover an area of 

 30 feet in diameter. Although not a very large tree, it has frequently 

 produced between 50 and 100 bushels of fine marketable apples in a season. 

 Soon after the oiiginal tree came into bearing the fruit was called the 

 Grimes' apple, and sometime later on the Grimes' Pippin. After the late 

 Samuel Wood, a noted nurseryman of Jefferson County, Ohio, conmienced 

 ])ropagating it, he added the word golden, calling it Grimes' Golden Pijjpin. 

 Although it is a legitimate member of the pippin family of apples, at the 

 annual meeting of the Ohio Pomological Society, in 18G6, the word pippin" 

 was dropped, since which it has been known as Grimes' Golden, and this 

 name is now well established. 



The tree is a strong, upright, spreading, open, rapid grower, very hand- 

 some in form, and needs little pruning; wood very hai'd and tough ; bark 

 /dark greenish brown; foliage large, dark green and very abundant. The 

 tree is an annual bearer, and sets its fruit evenly over the brandies. The 

 fruit is very smooth ; size medium ; form oblong oblate, sometimes a little 

 angling at the crown; color light green, with numerous minute light dots 

 when taken from the tree, but becoming a rich golden yellow when ripe; 



