THE APPLE ORCHARDS OF LAKE CHAMPLA1R. 
FRUIT WORTH FIGHTING FOR. 
Varieties, Culture and Market Methods. 
“ No wonder they fought for it ! ” 
That was the first thought that came in mind as we 
drove away from the mainland over the narrow 
isthmus that connects South Hero Island with the 
mainland of Vermont. Before us the blue waters of 
Lake Champlain sparkled and wrinkled. To the west 
were the rough Adirondack Mountains and, on every 
hand, as far as the eye could reach, wooded hills crept 
down to the water’s edge, while numberless islands 
seemed stuffed into the lake as though Nature were 
afraid the water would run away if not carefully 
watched. 
“ No wonder they fought for it! ” 
The Indian loved the lake, and fought as best he 
could against the strange white man who stole it 
from him. The French dreamed of a mighty western 
empire to be built around the lake, but the English 
drove them out. 
Then came the 
“ grafted Eng¬ 
lish”, or Yan¬ 
kees, who cap¬ 
tured the beau¬ 
tiful place for 
good. Every 
bay and island 
could tell sto¬ 
ries of battle. 
They fought 
for it, and it 
was worth 
fighting for. 
“And the 
next thing you 
know they will 
be fighting to 
secure the 
apples that 
grow on these 
islands ! ” 
The apples 
are worth fight¬ 
ing for, too. 
The soil on 
these islands is 
strong and 
easily worked. 
Grand Isle 
County con¬ 
tains about 50,- 
000 acres all 
told, and of 
this 47,250 acres are now in farms. There are but 
few swamps and fewer rocky places, so that practi¬ 
cally all the land could be used for apple orchards. 
The frost hangs back from these lake-tempered 
islands. I was surprised to see corn fields still green 
and bright, when our corn in New Jersey was frost¬ 
bitten a week before. 
And the quality of these Lake Champlain apples ! 
Wait until you taste a ripe Fameuse as they grow it 
here ! Of all the melting flesh ever packed away in¬ 
side an apple skin, the northern-grown Fameuse will 
take the prize. Some day the world will get a full bite 
of this fine fruit, and then the nations will fight for 
Lake Champlain apples as they formerly fought for the 
Lake itself. It seems to me that an acre of apples in 
this northern location can be made to pay better re¬ 
turns than an acre of grapes in California, of peaches 
in Georgia, or of oranges in Florida. 
One of the first men I met on the Island was J. T. 
Macomber—known to many of our readers as an ex¬ 
perimenter and originator of new fruits. We will 
take his side of fruit-growing first, and then consider 
it from the practical grower’s standpoint. 
“ Have you ever considered just what this Island 
most needs in a new variety of apple ? ” I asked. 
“Yes. I have such an apple in mind. The Fameuse 
reaches its perfection in but a limited area. The best 
place for it is close around Montreal—in fact the fruit 
with us is not quite so good as it is when grown far¬ 
ther north. Our soil and situation are peculiar, and 
if we can get a variety just suited to our conditions 
we can make every barrel advertise the Island.” 
“ What sort of an apple do you want ? ” 
You might call it a big red Baldwin with very 
much better flavor and habit than any Baldwin that 
ever was grown.” 
“ How would you produce it ? ” 
“ My plan would be to take the bloom of Canada 
Red and fertilize it with Fameuse and Northern Spy.” 
“ You would not use Baldwin, then ? ” 
“ Oh, no ! It is not half good enough for crossing. 
I would save the seeds produced in this way, plant 
them, and as they grew work the wood on Paradise 
stock, so as to get them into early bearing for testing.” 
“You would like, then, to obtain a combination of 
Canada Red, Fameuse and Northern Spy ? ” 
“Yes, for these varieties are all excellent in some 
direction. The Canada Red has beauty, the Fameuse 
exquisite quality, while the Northern Spy is a firm, 
strong rooter and grower. I will say, however, that 
very few of our improved varieties have been pro¬ 
duced by such direct effort. We would like to have 
sudh an apple as I have described, but the fact is that 
most of our best varieties were chance seedlings, with 
parentage mostly unknown. For example, we have 
“ originated” several good pears, such as Dr. Hoskins, 
Vermont Beauty, Little Gem, and Grand Island. Not 
one of these resulted from systematic crossing. The 
Grand Island simply came up in the garden from a 
chance seed. The others came from unbudded nursery 
stock left in the row by accident.” 
Mr. Macomber has spent much time experimenting 
with small fruits, and has a novelty in the form of a 
dwarf raspberry. This'ought to'prove useful in hot¬ 
house forcing, when this fruit is grown like straw¬ 
berries for the Christmas market. 
They have a very poor opinion of the Ben Davis ap¬ 
ple in this region of fine fruit. Ben Davis is a hand¬ 
some fellow, and keeps well into spring—but there 
you reach the limit of its virtues. As one man put it, 
“ You might eat Ben Davis in the spring if you were 
awful apple hungry and had nothing else, but-.” 
That “but” would mean a whole volume to those 
Western men who smack their lips over Ben Davis. 
Mr. Macomber believes that the whole Island might 
be planted with a few standard market varieties, and 
these advertised in the great markets so as to create 
a permanent demand for them. 
“ I believe in that,” said Mr. N. M. Eells, of New 
York State, who stood near. “ Advertising pays. My 
girls have a fine posy bed in front of the house, and 
they always keep it looking nice. Visitors at the 
summer hotels often stop to look at it. One day, 
some of them came in to get some flowers. I had a 
big basketful 
of fine McIn¬ 
tosh Red apples 
in front of the 
house, and the 
ladies said that 
they never had 
seen anything 
s o beautiful. 
They took some 
of these apples 
away with 
them, and 
passed them 
around among 
the other 
guests. The re¬ 
sult was that I 
began to get 
orders for Mc¬ 
Intosh Red ap¬ 
ples. I have 
sent barrels to 
Chicago and 
farther west, 
and wherever 
they go, they 
sell more ap¬ 
ples. -That posy 
bed started the 
trade. It pays 
to advertise ! ” 
Prof. John 
Craig, the Cana¬ 
dian horticult¬ 
urist, exhibited some Canadian apples which are full 
of promise for that northern country. Winter St. 
Lawrence is an apple of the Fameuse type, a better 
keeper than Fameuse, and not so distinctly a local 
variety, as it will grow to perfection in many locali¬ 
ties. This variety and Lawver are well commended 
by Prof. Craig. So, too, is a Canadian apple known 
as Ontario. This resulted from a cross between 
Wagener and Northern Spy. It is as handsome as 
Wagener, and as productive and fine in quality as the 
Spy. It keeps with Spy, and bears earlier—at six to 
seven years. Its tendency is to over-bear, and it must 
be well thinned. 
The R. N.-Y. has referred several times to Mr. 
Macomber’s plan of laying down peach trees. The 
peach will not fruit in this cold climate without some 
form of winter protection. Mr. Macomber has adopted 
the plan of laying down the trees about as he does 
grape vines or tender raspberries. He rubs off the 
buds from the seedling or graft, forcing it to grow 
like a whip. This is bent over flat, covering all but 
SCENE IN A SOUTH CAROLINA COTTON FIELD. Fig. 306. See Page 740. 
