BALDWIN
Prunus cerasus
1. Kan. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 23:81. 1898. 2. Kan. Hort. Soc. Cherry, The, 15, 16, Pl. 1900. 3. Ia. Sta. Bul. 73:63. 1903. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 27. 1909.
Baldwin is supposed to have grown from a sprout of a stock on which Early Richmond had been budded on the farm of S. J. Baldwin, Seneca, Kansas. The Early Richmond bud was in some manner broken off and the sprout, springing from the stock, was allowed to grow and first fruited in 1891. On the grounds of this Station Baldwin trees which came fairly direct from the originator turned out to be Olivet. The published descriptions that can be found are so scant and fragmentary that we cannot make out whether the variety is really distinct or, as in the case of our trees, is Olivet renamed. The variety has been rather widely disseminated in the Middle West but has not shown much merit either for home or for commercial orchards in the rather lengthy probationary period it has had in the East. The American Pomological Society added Baldwin to its fruit list in 1909. The description we give is a compilation.
Tree vigorous, upright, round-topped; leaves large, broad; flowers white, changing to pink.
Fruit ripens early; usually borne in pairs; large, round; stem of medium length, rather thick; color very dark red, yet almost transparent; flavor slightly acid, yet considered one of the sweetest and richest of the Morello class.
BAUMANN MAY
Prunus avium
- 1. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 168 fig. 60. 1845. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 74. 1862. 3. Hogg Fruit Man. 279. 1884.
- Frühe Maiherzkirsche. 4. Kraft Pom. Aust. 1:1, Tab. 1. 1792. 5. Truchsess-Heim Kirschensort. 140, 141, 142. 1819. 6. Ill. Handb. 49 fig., 50. 1860. 7. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 348, 349. 1889.
- Süsse Maiherzkirsche. 8. Christ Handb. 662. 1797.
- May Bigarreau. 9. Kenrick Am. Orch. 234. 1841. 10. Mag. Hort. 7:288. 1841. 11. Cultivator N. S. 4:280 fig. 1. 1847. 12. Hovey Fr. Am. 1:55, 56, Pl. 1851.
- Guigne Précoce de Mai. 13. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:54 fig. 2, 55, 56. 1866. 14. Mas Pom. Gen. 11:51, 52, fig. 26. 1882.
- Bigarreau Baumann. 15. Leroy Dict. Pom. 5:176 fig., 177. 1877.
- Guigne de Mai. 16. Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom. 102 fig., 103. 1904.
Baumann May is an early Sweet Cherry which at one time held high place among its kind but a century of culture proved that it had little value except for extreme earliness and it is now but sparingly or not at all grown either in America or abroad. If the variety could be obtained it might be worth growing for breeding work because of its earliness and great productiveness. At one time this variety was rather largely grown in central and western New York and specimens of it must yet remain in this region.
From the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, when we first find an account of this variety in Kraft's Pomona Austriaca, to the last of the Nineteenth, writers have described Baumann May under many different names. From all accounts it originated toward the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, in Germany. From Germany it was introduced into Alsace where F. J. Baumann, a nurseryman at Bollweiler, grew it in his nursery under the name Bigarreau Baumann and disseminated it throughout the French provinces. The cherry was received in America, with several others, by Colonel M. P. Wilder of Boston, Massachusetts, from Messrs. Baumann, about the year 1838. The American Pomological Society listed the variety, in 1862, in its fruit catalog as Bauman's May but dropped it again in 1871. The following description is a compilation: