Archived issues:     January 2013                                                    September 2012                                February 2013                June 2012                  October 2012                                March 2013                    July 2012                   November 2012                                April 2013                      August 2012               December 2012                                                                                                 May 2013 NHC NEWS A Monthly Bulletin of the Northwest Horticultural Council SHOT OFF THE TREE We are in the midst of the nation’s sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War. The Battle of Antietam was fought in the summer of 1862.  Gettysburg and Vicksburg were waged in July of 1863. Antietam was a narrow victory for the North, but enough of one to allow President Lincoln the political space to issue his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.  This became a final legal document on January 1, 1863, establishing freedom for those slaves then held in Southern hands  Many battles of the Civil War were fought on farm land in Virginia and Maryland.  Gettysburg was the only major battle fought in Pennsylvania. Vicksburg was on the Mississippi River. It was not uncommon in this temperate climate for there to be fruit orchards in the line of march. Professor Richard Slotkin tells the story of this historically significant battle in his The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution (2012).  An excerpt follows: At some time after 10:00 and before 10:30 AM, Lee ordered the last of his infantry reserves, R. H. Anderson’s Division, perhaps four thousand troops, to support the Sunken Road line from positions behind and above it on the rising ground that led to the Sharpsburg plateau.  Lee also ordered up reserve batteries to support this movement.  From this line Anderson’s infantry and the gunners could shoot over the heads of the troops in the Sunken Lane line.  Unfortunately for Anderson, the position also left them exposed to shell fire from the long-range guns on the other side of the Antietam; and French’s men frustrated at their seeming inability to hurt the infantry in the Sunken Road, raised their sights to shoot Anderson’s men.  The Twenty-second Georgia of Wright’s Brigade had formed its firing line in an apple orchard, where the Yankee bullets thumped into tree trunks as well as bodies, and for Private Judkins and his starving comrades the bounty of apples “shot off the tree” nearly canceled the effects of danger, wounds, and death. The company that was there was in the thick of the fight there in the apple orchard and cornfield.  The ground was covered with apples where we fought, shot off the trees …I was slightly wounded there by a Belgium ball or shell hitting a rock in the road and bursting, a piece of it went into my arm.  I was in a great deal of danger, carrying off the wounded.  We got quite a bit of apple butter and preserves out of a house at Sharpsburg, it was nice with our hardtack and tough beef. ♦ May 23 – Annual meeting of the Northwest Horticultural Council, Yakima, Washington. Travel Chris Schlect May 7 – Speaker at 2013 Pace Postharvest Academy, Ellensburg, Washington. May 14-17 – United Fresh 2013, the United Fresh Produce Association’s annual convention and trade show, San Diego, California. May 29-30 – Pear Bureau Northwest and related pear industry meetings, Portland, Oregon. Mike Willett May 6-9 – Center for Produce Safety’s Research Review, Davis, California. Mark Power s  May 7-11 – Washington Council on International Trade’s D.C. Fly-in, Washington, D.C. May 29-30 – Pear Bureau Northwest and related pear industry meetings, Portland, Oregon. Last Sunday the apple orchards were in perfection.  It is the bridal moment of the year. Charles Eliott Norton May 22, 1908 Northwest Horticultural Council 105 South 18th Street, Suite 105 Yakima, Washington 98901, USA Voice: (509) 453-3193, Fax: (509) 457-7615 E-mail general@nwhort.org