The Nilgiris is synonymous with the Ooty apple. The fruit, recognized for its quite a few well being advantages, was launched by the British who settled within the Nilgiris. Although suited to the local weather of the Nilgiris, the cultivation of the fruit went by means of trials and tribulations.
W. Francis, the British officer who authored the Gazette of the Nilgiris, says that English fruit bushes had been imported to the Nilgiris virtually as quickly as the primary Europeans settled there. However no systematic report survives of the varieties that had been tried or the success every achieved. However data of the proceedings of the Nilgiris Agri-horticultural Society for March 1902 gives some insights into the topic. It was ready by British officers Basic Morgan, Sir Frederic Worth, and Basic Baker. The primary individual to achieve cultivating the fruit was John Davison, a gardener skilled at Kew in England. He was additionally stated to have launched pippin, which is now so frequent on the hills and is sort of acclimatised.
A ‘good-looking’ fruit
“The fruit of this can be a good-looking apple which often weighs over a pound and varies in color from yellow streaked with pink to a superb scarlet. Grafted on the crab inventory, it thrives vigorously and bears closely in conditions above 5,000 ft in elevation. It’s best grown in bush type,” writes Francis about apples and the import and cultivation of different fruits.
M. Narasimham, former Head of the Division of Botany, Madras Christian Faculty, stated virtually 30% of the flora within the Nilgiris had been unique species. “The British launched fruits and different vegetation for his or her necessities,” he stated.
Locations corresponding to Coonoor, Kateri, Kotagiri, the slopes spherical Kalhatti, and the upper components of Ootacamund suited the apple since frost didn’t settle there. Wonderful varieties had been raised by Basic Baker at Tudor Corridor and Basic Morgan at Snowdon. The Badagas additionally planted quite a few patches of pippin in these areas.
Menace from a pest
However the orchards confronted a serious risk from American aphid, an insect which affected not solely the branches but additionally the roots. The pest killed the entire orchard. There was no treatment, and the entire bushes affected by the bugs had been to be burned. Francis says the pest unfold simply by the garments of the coolies working among the many bushes, by Sambhar, by grafts from the contaminated bushes, and even by fruits being hawked. The scenario deterred many from rising the tree. One of many causes for the unfold of the pest was failure to disinfect the vegetation once they had been introduced from England. Subsequently, contemporary shares from Australia, with certificates testifying that the vegetation had been disinfected with hydrocyanic acid gasoline, had been obtained for a small charge.
One other illness that blighted the orchards was canker, “which typically begins on the collar and is normally attributable to extra of manure, by the roots getting down into a chilly subsoil, or by the bark being injured by the careless use of mamuti (a backyard implement) when weeding. It was checked by chopping out the diseased half and portray the wound with grafting wax or odd oil paint,” writes Francis.
Velvet apples on show at Sims Park, Coonoor, throughout the Fruit Present held in Could this 12 months.
| Picture Credit score:
M. Sathyamoorthy
Australian apples thrived effectively at Downham and the very best varieties had been Margil, Devonshire Quarrenden, Adams Pearmain, and Ecklinvile Seedling. The bushes, which winter from December to the top of February, are pruned and winter-sprayed in January. They ripen in July and August. In accordance with Francis, the bushes required root-pruning, extra typically than in England, and summer time pinching or stopping in July due to the local weather.
Francis says pears additionally matched apples, however took longer to come back into bearing. The very best inventory, based on Francis, is the China pear, which is mostly recognized within the Nilgiris because the nation pear. The Williams’ bon chrétien pear is a big pear and really extremely flavoured. However, like Jargonelle, one other selection, it doesn’t maintain effectively. A pear, often called Keiffer or Bartlett, which was grown very largely in America for canning, was launched from Saharanpur. Louise Bonne of Jersey and Beurre Diel, all imported from Australia, promised effectively at Downham.
Medlars did effectively at Downham
Medlars grew effectively at Downham and quince in virtually all components of the hills. Peaches had been raised from the stone. The vegetation had been imported from England and customarily grafted and budded on the almond or plum inventory and did not thrive.
Once more good sorts of peaches imported from Australia — Pink Shanghai, Carmen, Gros Mignon, and Emma — suited effectively to the world. Plums and apricots had been the opposite fruits cultivated on the hills. George Oakes and Charles Grey imported the well-known Japanese flowering cherries in 1906. The Himalayan Cherry was frequent in Coonoor, however its fruits had been extraordinarily acidic. Oakes additionally introduced gooseberries from England. Raspberries had been imported and the pink selection was plentiful in Ooty, writes Francis.
Tea displaces apple
A mix of things, together with illness and rising labour value, has led to the gradual disappearance of apple orchards within the final 4 many years. Native historians declare {that a} gradual shift in client choice — for fruits imported from different components of the world — broke the again of the apple-growers within the Nilgiris as cultivation turned unviable. Step by step, apple and orange orchards had been changed with tea plantations for the reason that Seventies and the Eighties.
(With inputs from Rohan Premkumar)
