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History of Chazy Orchards In 1763 Jean Laframboise settled in Baie des François in what is now the Town of Chazy, New York. He was the first permanent white settler in this region. In 1777 he was driven off by Burgoyne's army and his house burned. He returned and rebuilt his home in 1783 and apparently was the first apple grower in the north country.   Historic map of Chazy Orchards (492 K) History states that the Laframboise place was a favorite pleasure resort of the citizens--such young chaps as Putnam Lawrence, the Saxe boys and others, riding down there with their girls to enjoy the quaint scenery. For many years it was the only place where apples were grown, and apples were then a luxury, almost a curiosity. A part of the old Laframboise place is now included in the 1300 acres owned by Chazy Orchards. Up and down both sides of the beautiful Lake Champlain, along the west shore of which this orchard was planted, much of the early history of this country was made.

in the champlain valley . . .
fruit growing has had a long and interesting history. French Catholic missionaries introduced the Fameuse, or Snow, apple into the Province of Quebec some two centuries ago.

John McIntosh, of Schenectady, New York, moved to Dundas County, Ontario, Canada, around 1800. He found a clump of twenty trees that had sprung up in a clearing from a core of an apple that had been dropped. About 1811 he dug up the trees and planted them near his home. Only one tree survived, which his son Allan propagated as the McIntosh Red. This was the parent of the apple that over the intervening years has developed into the world's finest eating apple.

in the 1890's . . .
there were at least two blocks of from thirty to fifty trees of McIntosh in Clinton County, N.Y., and McIntosh apples from them made quite an impression in the New York City market in the 1900's.

There must have been a long series of mild winters up to 1917, because there were numerous trees of Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening and Ben Davis in the area. However, the severe winter of 1917-18 reduced the plantings to principally McIntosh.

chazy orchards . . .
This orchard was planted in 1924-25-26 by a subsidiary of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corporation. Originally there were planted 29,000 McIntosh, 6,673 Snows (Fameuse), 3,226 Northern Spy, 685 Cortland, 82 Lowry, and 500 miscellaneous varieties.

In the spring of 1931 a block of 3,014 McIntosh were added, half of them being worked over to Honora and Kendall varieties. There was a total of 43,180 trees in the planting after the spring of 1931. Once again, however, the winter of 1934 took a heavy toll in the orchards of the Northeast, and Chazy Orchards did not escape. Most of the Snows, Spies and miscellaneous varieties were permanently damaged, while the McIntosh and Cortlands were set back a number of years--many never recovered.

As of the spring of 2001 there are 15,000 bearing trees of the original 1924-25-26 and 1931 plantings. In addition there were 7955 bearing trees interplanted in 1946-50 and 5481 bearing trees planted in 1966-72 on land developed thru an aggressive orchard removal program. Another 200 acres of old orchard have been renovated between 1973-2000. Also in 2000, a new apple, Honeycrisp, was added to the planting mix of McIntosh and Cortland. Roughly 80,000 trees are now maintained annually.

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Last updated: Jan 2002