Apples Abound

APPLES ABOUND: FARMERS, ORCHARDS, AND THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF AGRARIAN REFORM, 1820-1860 A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy John Henris May, 2009 APPLES ABOUND: FARMERS, ORCHARDS, AND THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF AGRARIAN REFORM, 1820-1860 John Henris Dissertation Approved: Accepted: ____________________________ ____________________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. Kevin Kern Dr. Michael M. Sheng ____________________________ ____________________________ Committee Member Dean of the College Dr. Lesley J. Gordon Dr. Chand Midha ____________________________ ____________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Kim M. Gruenwald Dr. George R. Newkome ____________________________ ____________________________ Committee Member Date Dr. Elizabeth Mancke ____________________________ Committee Member Dr. Randy Mitchell ____________________________ Committee Member Dr. Gregory Wilson ii ABSTRACT This dissertation argues that apple cultivation was invariably intertwined with, and shaped by, the seemingly discordant threads of scientific agricultural specialization, emigration, urbanization, sectionalism, moral reform, and regional identity in New England and Ohio prior to the American Civil War. As the temperance cause gained momentum during the 1820s many farmers abandoned their cider trees and transitioned to the cultivation of grafted winter apples in New England. In turn agricultural writers used the social and moral rhetoric of antebellum reformers to compel individuals to become better apple growers, citizens, and farmers. Transitions in apple cultivation similarly created new negotiations between farmers, labor, and the land. This study offers new insight into the social and ecological boundaries of agricultural specialization and the often tempestuous interactions between progressive agriculturists and yeomen farmers as they tentatively embraced the elusive promise of scientific agriculture and market capitalism by abandoning the cider press for the cultivation of grafted winter apples like the Rhode Island Greening, Baldwin, and Roxbury Russet between 1820 and 1860. iii DEDICATION For Martha and Matilda iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe many people my personal thanks for the completion of this work. The staff and collections of a number of universities and historical societies proved instrumental in shaping this work and I am indebted particularly to the librarians and assistants of the University of Rochester and the New Hampshire Historical Society. I would also like to thank John Ball at the Bierce Library of the University of Akron for his willing help in tracking down material from across Ohio and New England. I am grateful for the generous financial support provided by the History Department of the University of Akron over the last five years, particularly as recipient of the Robert W. Little Dissertation Year Fellowship. I would like to thank the Massachusetts Historical Society, New Hampshire Historical Society, and Connecticut Historical Society as well, for their financial support granted through a New England Regional Fellowship Consortium award that allowed me to spend an invaluable summer working with their excellent staff and extensive collections. I would like to thank the faculty, staff, and students at the University of Akron. I am indebted for the support and guidance of David Dixon at Slippery Rock University, my doctoral advisor, Kevin Kern, and committee members Elizabeth Mancke, Lesley Gordon, Gregory Wilson, Randy Mitchell, and Kim Gruenwald. A special thanks to Martha, I could not have completed this project without you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF MAPS ............................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: “APPLES ABOUND” .....................................................................1 II. APPLE CULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND, 1850-1860 ................................................28 III. CIDER TREES AND WINTER APPLES ...................................................................70 IV. PASTURE APPLES AND ROWEN ORCHARDS ..................................................125 V. EVIL SPIRITS IN THE ORCHARD.........................................................................175 VI. WHAT SPEAK THE ORCHARDS OF OUR FATHERS? ......................................213 VII. EVERY FARMER AN ORCHARDIST ..................................................................247 VIII. NEW ENGLAND APPLE CULTURE AND THE OHIO VALLEY ....................285 IX. CONCLUSION: APPLE TREES AND ANTEBELLUM NEW ENGLAND ..........314 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................323 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 2.1 Farms Jedediah Harris and Chauncey Goodrich 1850 .................................................31 2.2 Apple and Pear Trees Massachusetts 1855 ..................................................................35 2.3 Average Values of Orchard Products per Farm 1850 – 1860 ......................................37 2.4 Orchard Products: Northern New England 1850 – 1860 .............................................41 2.5 Orchard Products: Southern New England 1850 – 1860 .............................................42 2.6 Agriculture Essex, Massachusetts and Orange, Vermont 1850 – 1860 .......................52 2.7 Agriculture Chittenden, Vermont and Grand Isle, Vermont 1850 – 1860...................55 2.8 Apple Growers South Hero and Isle La Motte Townships 1850 – 1860 .....................58 8.1 Average Yield per Farm Ohio 1850...........................................................................296 8.2 Average Agricultural Yields Quaker Bottom, Lawrence County 1849 .....................302 8.3 Average Yield per Farm Ohio and Quaker Bottom 1849 ..........................................303 vii LIST OF MAPS Map Page 2.1 Percent Increase Orchard Value per Farm, 1850 – 1860 .............................................39 2.2 Percent Decrease Orchard Value per Farm, 1850 – 1860 ............................................40 2.3 Value Orchard Products per Farm 1850 ......................................................................43 2.4 Value Orchard Products Per Farm 1860 ......................................................................44 viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: “APPLES ABOUND” Peter Chardon Brooks gathered winter apples from the orchard, mowing, and pasture lots of his Medford, Massachusetts estate as delegates for the second state pomology convention in the Union convened in Columbus, Ohio in the fall of 1847. A Boston merchant, cider maker, orchardist, and progressive agriculturists since 1808, Brooks experienced the significant changes in antebellum apple culture among New England farmers culminating with the state pomology conventions in Maine and Ohio in 1847. In 1847, however, Brooks’ grafted apple orchards differed markedly from those of many of his yeomeni neighbors as apple culture collapsed across large sections of New England despite the best endeavors of progressive agriculturists who championed orchard improvement and despite the long history of apple growing among the communities of the North Atlantic. Apples Abound: Farmers, Orchards, and the Cultural Landscapes of Agricultural Reform, 1820-1860 explores how apple culture was invariably intertwined with, and shaped by, the seemingly discordant threads of scientific agricultural specialization, emigration, urbanization, sectionalism, moral reform, and regional identity in New England and Ohio prior to the War for the Union. In turn this study offers new insight into the social and ecological boundaries of agricultural specialization and the 1 often tempestuous interactions between progressive agriculturists and yeomen farmers as they tentatively embraced the elusive promise of scientific agriculture and market capitalism by abandoning the cider press for the cultivation of grafted winter apples like the Rhode Island Greening, Baldwin, and Roxbury Russet between 1824 and 1847. ii Progressive agriculturists like Peter Chardon Brooks believed for good reason that apple culture might prove one of the profitable agricultural transitions of antebellum New England. Only three decades earlier Timothy Dwight wrote of the ubiquitous nature of native seedling cider trees that “Apples abound more in New England, it is believed, than in any other country.”iii By 1830, however, cider had fallen from favor and progressive agriculturists implored New England farmers to replace their native seedling cider trees with new grafted winter varieties for extra-local exchange with the burgeoning urban markets of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Wool growing and dairying provided welcome agricultural transitions relatively sheltered from the influx of Midwestern agricultural produce and agricultural journalists and horticulturists confidently predicted that marketing grafted winter apples would provide similar advantages for local New England growers. Regardless of the promise of agricultural revitalization a new generation of grafted orchards represented it appeared to progressive agriculturists that many New England farmers resisted specialization in apple culture. Progressive agriculturists thought small farmers

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