Here’s a typical example of how new apple varieties came to be in the good ol’ days. No complex breeding. No cloning. Just dumb luck. Apples, as you know, do not come true to seed. So orchardists would occasionally stumble upon some really good tree in their orchard, or elsewhere. Then, if they had the energy, they’d promote it. This promotion may start with a letter like the one that follows. Most of the time, I imagine the apple wouldn’t turn out to be as good as they thought. It’s interesting to note that there is emphasis on how the apple “keeps.” Today, we can get many of our commercial apples any time of the year. We tend to forget that how well (how long) an apple would keep in storage, was an important trait.
The Cultivator and Country Gentleman
Albany, NY
February 3, 1881; Vol. XLVI, No. 1462
A Seedling Apple.
I send you herewith a few specimens of my new seedling apple, Highland Beauty, a seedling from the Lady apple. I have no suitable place to keep apples, and these have been kept in a room where they have been subject to alternations of heat and cold. Properly cared for, they may be had in good condition until May.
- E. P. H. Cornwall, N. Y.
The apples sent varied in size from that of a large Lady apple to that of a very large Tewksbury Winter Blush. In coloring it resembles these varieties, but in shape it is flattened, and the cavity and basin are very large, and in some specimens quite irregular in shape. The apple is very tender, mild sub-acid in flavor, and similar to Rambo in quality. The core is small, and the flesh white. It is very attractive in appearance, and worthy of extended trial.
- Ed., The Cultivator and Country Gentleman
And a couple years later, we find this in The Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturalist of June 1883: "HIGHLAND BEAUTY APPLE. We have some specimens before us, on the 9th of April, in good ; preservation. They confirm the opinion we have given of it heretofore—that it is a pretty looking apple, an excellent keeper, though by no means a first class eating variety." We can expect that the Highland Beauty didn't get too far.
