It is so well-researched and well-written that Southerners from Texas to Virginia and fruit lovers everywhere will find it interesting." - The Permaculture Activist, June 1996
"Old Southern Apples is a lovely book, filled with information that has been nearly inaccessible until now. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Old engravings and drawings illustrate apple cultivation and propagation practices in the South. Forty-eight color plates painted by United States Department of Agriculture staff artists between 18 illustrate important varieties of southern apples. The more than 1600 varieties are divided into extant and extinct groups, and all known facts concerning the history and description of each apple are given, plus a listing of synonyms.Īppendices include a bibliography, a description of nurseries, which sell old southern apple varieties, and an index of more than 3,600 apple names and synonyms. This is followed by an exhaustive compilation of apple varieties grown in the South before 1928. Old Southern Apples opens with an overview of apple history, culture, and uses in the agrarian South.
It is truly astonishing to learn that Southerners developed more than 1300 apple varieties and grew another 300 varieties of northern and European origins. Through the selection and grafting of wild seedlings, Southerners developed unique apple varieties adapted to the climate and soils of the South and suited to specific uses such as drying, cider, apple butter and winter keeping. Although apples became a major commercial crop in parts of the South in the late 1800s, for three hundred years southern farm families grew apples as an important, year-round food source. Old Southern Apples is a delightful and definitive review of the history and uses of apples in the South from Maryland to Texas and Florida to Arkansas.
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