Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-11-14
JOURNAL WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER
The Mcintosh Red Apple.

True A. Town, Esq, of Lower Cabot
makes inquiry as follows " Can you inform
your readers whether the Mcintosh Red
apple is an 'Iron-clad variety or not
There is great deal of dispute in this
vicinity about the historyo the tree Some
claim it to be very hardy and some that it
is not. Some say it is the Fameuse."
Three years ago we were shown speci-
mems of fruit purporting to be the Mcintosh
Red, and had the opportunity of testing
their quality. It was a large red apple,
double the size of the largest Fameuse, but
of the Fameuse type. In quality it was, we
think, not inferior to Fameuse. Wewere so
much pleased with it that we ordered
dozen trees, and gave it notice in these
columns. The trees were received late in
May the next spring QS75) the buds hav-
ing pushed out an inch long They were
budded trees with one years growth from
the bud, I. e., straight, unbranched trees,
about four feet high. In this respect they
were quite unobjectionable. We regard un.
branched trees of thrifty growth as the best
for planting, because they need no pruning
or cutting back, but can he branched to suit
the buyer. Branched trees should always
be cnt back when transplanted, and cutting,
no matter how slight, is always an injury
to tree in this climate.
But these trees were not otherwise unob
ectlonable. They had been budded on
poor, scrubby stocks, badly infested with
both bark and root lice. Three of them we
cast aside as quite worthless. The other
nine we scraped and cleaned with great care,
spending half day in the work, and then
set them out, not expecting that they would
ever make good trees, but hoping to get
some scions from them. They have grown
two seasons, and this fall we were able to
cut about fifty scions from them. These
we hope to graft into old trees next year,
and in three or four years more we may see
the fruit.
The trees which we received are decidedly
not Fameuse. They have a light gray bark,
something like that of beech, and very
peculiar for an apple tree. The Fameuse
has a rich brown bark. They have stood
two winters without injury, but as they
have made but little growth this is not quite
conclusive as to their hardness. Until these
trees, or scions from them, produce fruit, we
have of course no surety that they are the
Mcintosh Red yet we have little doubt but
what they are genuine. The original tree,
and ALL or nearly all, of the bearing trees of
this variety are growing in the town of Ma
tilda, on the north bank of the st. Lawrence
river, above Montreal. This is not hard
place for the apple, and the fact that a tree
is hardy there is very unsatisfactory proof
of its ability to endure the winters on the
hills of northern Vermont. Yet we have
hopes of the Mcintosh Red that it may
prove valuable variety here, and only re-
greet that the propagation of it has fallen
into such unskillful hands. DIR. Guild, of
Rupert, had lot the same spring that we
got ours. He also had some of another kind
| from us, and he wrote us that he should have
had much stronger hopes of succeeding with
the Mcintosh had they been such trees as
they should have been, or such as those we
| sent him.