What is Baldwin apple?
{{Infobox Cultivar | name = 'Baldwin' | image = Baldwin(apple).jpg | image_width = 250px | hybrid = [[Chance seedling]] | cultivar = 'Baldwin' | origin = {{flagicon|USA}} [[Massachusetts]], [[USA]], around 1740 }} The '''Baldwin apple''' is a bright red winter [[apple]], very good in quality, and easily shipped. It was for many years the most popular apple in [[New England]], [[New York (state)|New York]], and for export from America. ==History== According to local tradition, the apple was found near Wood Hill by William Butters (1665-1746), son of Will Butter, first white settler in what is now [[Wilmington, Massachusetts]]. William Butters raised the tree in his yard, near the present Baldwin Apple Monument ''(pictured)''. [[File:Baldwin Apple Monument, Wilmington, Massachusetts.JPG|thumb|left|250px|Monument to the Baldwin Apple at the site where it was discovered, [[Wilmington, Massachusetts]]]] According to S. A. Beach's ''Apples of New York'', the Baldwin originated soon after 1740 as a [[chance seedling]] on the farm of Mr. John Ball of Wilmington, Massachusetts, and for about 40 years thereafter its cultivation was confined to that immediate neighborhood. The farm eventually came into the possession of a Mr. Butters, who gave the name ''Woodpecker'' to the apple because the tree was frequented by woodpeckers. The apple was long known locally as the ''Woodpecker'' or ''Pecker''. It was also called the ''Butters''. Deacon Samuel Thompson, a [[surveyor]] of [[Woburn, Massachusetts]], brought it to the attention of Col. [[Loammi Baldwin]] of the same town. Baldwin grew the apple and spread it across eastern Massachusetts. From Col. Baldwin's interest in the variety it came to be called the Baldwin. A monument to the Baldwin apple now marks the location (on today's Chestnut street in Wilmington). The monument's inscription reads: ''This monument marks the site of the first Baldwin Apple Tree found growing wild near here. It fell in the gale of 1815. The apple first known as the Butters, Woodpecker or Pecker