American Agriculture History Minute: Development of the Wealthy Apple

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

In 1860, Horace Greeley wrote in his New York Tribune newspaper, “I would not live in Minnesota because you can’t grow apples there”. Indeed, no one at that time had solved the short growing season, but that finally changed in 1868 when horticulturalist Peter Gideon cultivated and grew an apple that seemed to welcome the cool spring and warm dry Minnesota weather. Gideon named his apple variety after his wife, Wealthy.

Thus, we have Wealthy apples today.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.