Draft:E. W. Merritt

Edmund Winchester Merritt (November 23, 1840–1931) was an author and the pioneer researcher of fruit culture in Aroostook County, Maine. E.W. Merritt (Edmund Winchester Merritt) resided in Houlton in the 1870-1899. He performed trials and eventually had a nursery named Aroostook Nursery that was affiliated with Francis Peabody Sharp of Woodstock, New Brunswick. He was chosen to trial Russian varieties of fruit that were collected by Budd and Gibbs for the USDA Russian fruit trials that were performed in an effort to find hardier varieties for the north.

He was a trustee of the Maine Pomological Society. E.W. Merritt published in Houlton, Maine, an annual "Guide to Fruit Culture," from 1876 to 1892. The later years include the catalog of his nursery. These guides are cited by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society as being of such significance that they kept a set of all editions in their library. It is referenced in the book "Agricultural bibliography of Maine. Biographical sketches of Maine writers on agriculture, with a catalogue of their works; and an index to the volumes on the agriculture of Maine, from 1850 to 1892" By Samuel Lane Boardman 1893 page 64. Augusta, Maine. Printed for the author. The book says the following: Merritt, E.W. Published at Houlton an annual "Guide to Fruit Culture," from 1876 to 1892. Later numbers contain lists of fruits adapted to Aroostook County and similar high latitudes, with much information specially useful to fruit growers in that section. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society regards this little annual guide and catalogue of so important a nature as to be preserved in a full set in its library.

The Aroostook nursery featured hardy and new Russian apples, pears, cherries, and plums. He dubbed it the headquarters of Mooer's Arctic Plum, a variety bred in the Aroostook town Ashland. Merritt's mission was to trial a variety of fruit trees and small fruits to the end of discovering which would be successful in the harsh conditions of the area which is of a lower growing zone than any state on the East Coast. Up until that point most in the area procured their trees from lower Maine in warmer growing zones and New York, and most failed. Francis Peabody Sharp of Western New Brunswick, Canada, adjacent to Aroostook County so facing similar challenges bought seeds from Russian in the attempt to find hardier varieties. He introduced New Brunswick variety, which proved to be Duchess of Oldenburg through DNA testing, although by all accounts it has qualities. The DNA profile is so similar as to be considered Duchess. Merritt submitted Apple Cards to the USDA of Sharp's New Brunswick apple , Sharp's Early Scarlet, also know as Crimson Beauty, and Bloom, an intriguing new variety that is presently a lost apple. Merritt was actively contributing to the USDA's effort to record apple varieties through their USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection. Merritt prized Bloom so much that he submitted it to be painted. In his catalog and the Sharp's Woodstock Nursery, Bloom is said to be an great apple that took twelve years and $400 in expense to develop. He was born in Mansfield, Bristol County, Massachusetts on November 23, 1840 to Ezekiel Merritt and Eunice Shephard Dean. Edmund Winchester Merritt and Sarah Haskell (Ingersoll) Merritt had 7 children. He moved to Portland, Maine with his family when he was 19 years of age and worked as a butcher. The family moved to Lincoln, Maine, where he married and was drafted to fight in the Civil War in the 16th Regiment, Maine Infantry. Once he returned from the Civil War, his family had moved to Houlton, Maine, where his father, Ezekiel Merritt, developed a very successful business, E. Merritt and Sons. E.W. Merritt sought his own path, began his career as a forester in the area, surveying the county and assessing its suitability for future agricultural success. As he observed the failure of nurseries and of fruit growing in general in the area, he found his calling to find or develop apple trees in particular that would succeed in the harsh climate of this particular area of Maine, which was secluded and extremely cold.