Left, J.M. Talbot, centre, J.F. Desmarais, 
right, Deslongchamps, rear, J.E.D.

In 1875, Quebec had about 250 producers and 189 apple varieties, but each orchard generally had 50 to 100 apple trees (20,400 trees in total). The establishment of an orchard that would have more than 2,000 apple trees was a true challenge.

1921: Joseph Édouard Duchesne receives his agronomist designation with a specialization in apple production (Oka) and is hired by the province of Quebec as an instructor. He lives in Iberville, where he meets J.F.D. at the Knights of Columbus; they decide to work together to promote apple production, and this leads to a formal legal association between them and the operation of the orchard on the lots below. J.F.D. buys part of lot 159, about 2 arpents by 3 arpents, behind the “cottage” (see paragraph 5 of the deed passed on to J.E.D. in 1932).

Joseph Edouard Duchesne

1927: As the provincial official responsible for apple and berry production (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries), J.E.D. has to cover Quebec as far as Lac St-Jean and has an office in Montreal in the La Sauvegarde building. As secretary of the Pomological Society and later its president, he inspects all commercial orchards to promote their development.

Jean Duchesne

Pierre Desmarais

1928: Ulric Desmarais buys the above orchard from J.F.D. (after Euclide Desmarais, who is J.F.D.’s other brother and Denis Desmarais’s father, refuses to buy it).

1929: J.F.D. buys another part of lot 159 from Arthur Choquette in order to enlarge “Verger de la Montagne” (Yvan Duchesne); this part is known as “Bouchard’s.”

1930: Sabin Lemonde (J.F.D.’s former employee) buys the site of the current “Verger Monnoir;” the land is later sold to Romual Meunier, then to Jean Duchesne and Paul Deschenes, and finally to Marie Deschenes Fraser. J.F.D. sells orchard lots 181-182 to his brother, Ulric. J.F.D. participates in creating the “Verger modèle” [model orchard] cooperative in Frelighsburg (see notes below).

1932: First notarized memorandum of association between J.F.D. and J.E.D. for the orchard

1933: J.E.D. publishes a brochure on the techniques and art of packaging apples, the only publication in French on apple marketing.

1935: Association agreement between J.F.D. and J.E.D. for “Verger de la Montagne.”

1939: J.E.D. is a part-time lecturer at the Oka Agricultural Institute.

1941: J.F.D. obtains permission for J.E.D.’s services to be lent to the Coopérative fédérée de Québec [Quebec federated cooperative] to develop apple, fruit and vegetable marketing. J.E.D. is appointed by the Coop fédérée, which J.F.D. manages, to represent Quebec on the federal committee of the wartime price control board.

1942: Ulric Desmarais buys the “Verger Pierre Tremblay” site and in 1945 sells it to his daughter and son-in-law, Berthe and Armand Tremblay. Ulric also buys lot 180 for his son, Jean-Paul; the orchard is later sold to Jean-Marc Charbonneau and then to his son, Denis. J.E.D is elected president of the Montreal section of the Corporation des agronomes du Québec [corporation of agronomists of Quebec].

1944: J.E.D. is hired full-time by J.F.D. for the Coop fédérée and works there until 1968. Ulric Desmarais buys the current site of “Verger Faubert” for his daughter, Violette, wife of Marcel Baraby. Ulric Desmarais buys the current site of “Verger Luc Charbonneau” for his son, Rodolphe.

1946: Rodolphe moves to the current site of the Pierre Desmarais orchard (Denis Charbonneau in part), and Ulric remains on the current site of the Luc Charbonneau orchard and later (1952) sells to his daughter, Rachelle, wife of Laurent Charbonneau. All these orchards were planted under the supervision of J.E.D., agronomist and pomologist.

Rodolphe Desmarais

Yvan Duchesne

1953: Ulric sells the orchard (lots 181-182) to his son, Rodolphe.

1961: Fabiola Desmarais (wife of the late Rodolphe) sells the orchard to her son, Pierre. Lots 181-182.

1964: J.E.D. sells the land on which J.D.’s house sits, "Verger de la Montagne," to Jean.

1969- J.E.D. sells the orchard to J.D.

1975- Partial sale to Gérard Gagnière (house and undivided portion).

1979- J.E.D. sells the “cottage” to Louise Duchesne.

1984- Louise D. sells the “cottage” to Bernard D.

1987- Yvan Duchesne acquires J.D.’s interests (except for the home) and the interests of Gérard Gagnière’s estate.

1998- The Pierre Desmarais orchard is sold to Denis Charbonneau, son of Jean-Marc.

NOTES

 Until about 1920, the majority of the apple producers in Montérégie were Anglophones, and they founded the Pomological Society. Beginning in 1922, the society added a “French Secretary,” J.E.D., to its officers, and J.E.D. held this office for 25 years before becoming the president. In February 1926, J.F.D. and J.E.D. held an apple exhibition at the Queen’s Hotel in Montreal (refrigerated facilities were not yet available). The exhibition was a great success. Photos of this event and of the presentation of a box of apples to His Worship, Mayor Médéric Martin, are on display in the sales stand at “Verger de la Montagne” (Y.D.). From 1921 to 1950, a number of symposia on apple production were held at this location with the participation of Father Léopold and Father Honoré, of the Oka Agricultural Institute, which offered the agronomy program and had a research station. From 1898 to 1925, the Quebec government established experimental stations in some 13 counties, following the signing by certain apple producers of a contract, for a five-year period and annual payments of $25, to promote research and education for apple producers. Around 1925, it was declared that this goal was achieved, and the stations were abolished. The government then began promoting “demonstration orchards” in accordance with a cooperative formula, with the result that J.F.D. and some 30 members, producers and other interested individuals created the “Verger modèle” in Frelighsburg. P.O. Roy was hired by this association.

In 1930, however, experimental plots still survived on land belonging to a few producers, including “Verger de la Montagne” (Y.D.). Later, P.O. Roy worked with the Ottawa experimental station to create new varieties and cultivars. Today, Yvan Duchesne (“Verger de la Montagne”) has a signed agreement with Agriculture Canada to cultivate experimental plots for new cultivars and varieties, on the basis of earlier research conducted by Dr. Raymond L. Granger before his retirement. Yvan Duchesne is also one of the first founding members of an association of several producers called Pomme-Plus [apple plus], which conducts research on production techniques and cost-effectiveness. The association is assisted by a technician, Roland Joannin, who was hired especially for these purposes by Pomme-Plus. And thus is the spirit of the Desmarais-Duchesne saga in Mont-St-Grégoire perpetuated.

J.E.D. was also a founding member of the Corporation des agronomes du Québec, in 1937 (with William Houde, father of Laurent H.). In 1946, the average salary for agronomists was increased to $1,600–$1,800 a year.

P.O. Roy, agronomist (1926), was first hired by the province of Quebec for the Bedford area (Frelighsburg, Dunham). It would appear that, with the disappearance of the experimental stations around 1927, P.O. Roy was hired by the “Verger modèle” (J.F.D.) and subsequently worked in collaboration with the Ottawa experimental station and, from 1960 to 1967, at the Agriculture Canada station in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

Around 1940, Quebec’s apple producers were under the supervision of J.E.D., who was also the secretary of the Pomological Society and would later become its president. A resident agronomist, Roland Lorquet, was named in Frelighsburg, but because of his health he was not able to perform his duties fully for several years. Consequently, J.E.D. visited his district regularly.

In Mont-St-Grégoire, before the apple trees were planted beginning in 1921 on the site of “Verger de la Montagne,” there were no commercial orchards, only the few apple trees on lot 159 of the above orchard, known as “Bouchard’s” or the “rock orchard”. In “Verger de la Montagne,” there was a small house, about 10 x 20, known as the “honey camp” because people would go there to collect honey. Yvan Duchesne is therefore the third consecutive generation of apple producers on this land since 1921. It is on this lot, number 159, that the “Macoun” variety was planted for the first time in Quebec, as part of the experimental plots, in 1930.

«Ad Futuram Memoriam - In Everlasting Memory»

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

“Pour une année où il y a des pommes, il n’y a pas de pomme. Mais pour une année où il n’y a pas de pommes, y a des pommes.” [For a year in which there are apples, there are no apples. But for a year in which there are no apples, there are apples.] —Adolphe d’Ennery, La fille du paysan

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” And, as Winston Churchill added, “Especially if you aim carefully.”

«Finis Coronat Opus - – The End Crowns the Deed»

Appendice

For the orchards that I had the opportunity to visit with my father during the period of 1935 to 1945 or so, I remember the names of the following owners for the Frelighsburg area only: Simard, Bernier, Bussières, Deslongchamps, Dufresne, Duquette, Hudon, Roy, Godbout, Verger modèle, Tougas, Desmarais. This is not an exhaustive list.

January 2004
Jean Duchesne

RÉFÉRENCES

Histoire de la pomologie au Québec
Jean-Baptiste Roy, Agronomist, Ed.
Quebec 1978, No-A-309, Quebec Department of Agriculture

Various notarial deeds concerning the titles for the “Verger de la Montagne” land

Personal archives of Raymond Granger, an agronomist specializing in apple physiology

Personal recollections

Histoire de la Corporation des agronomes de la province de Québec 1937–1970
Jean-Baptiste Roy, Agronomist
Limited edition, 1971

Cueillette et emballages de pommes
J. Ed. Duchesne, BSA, Pomologist
Quebec Department of Agriculture, 1933, Bulletin No. 123

Pierre Desmarais, apple producer

Annual reports of the Pomological Society, 1916–1930

Additional notes

            Until his retirement in 1968, J.E.D. never took any holidays. He saved his two weeks of vacation for apple picking season, looking after the grading himself while J.F.D. took care of the actual picking in the orchard. The first automatic grader in a private orchard was probably the one installed here in the 1930s; a generator provided the power, since electricity did not come to the orchard until 1949. The telephone did not arrive until 1952.

J.F.D. surrounded himself with a team of agronomists in the various positions at the Coop fédérée, e.g.: Roméo Martin, Raynald Ferron, H.C. Bois, Léo Filion and W. Tawse.

Upon J.F.D.’s death in 1949, they went one weekend up to Lac Saguay, where a friend of our family, Father Jean Frédéric, PSS, of the Collège de Montréal, had lent them his cottage. This group of friends agreed to suggest to the board of the Coop fédérée that Raynald Ferron be appointed executive director, and this suggestion was ratified without difficulty.

R. Martin, L. Filion and sometimes others as well used part of their vacation to work here during picking season, and they stayed in the “cottage.”

There were also real sugaring off parties at the cabin, and they included the “reduction” made from J.F.D.’s recipe: one ounce of brown demerara rum in a reduction that had not been boiled down too much, i.e. that was not too sweet.

On the site of “Verger de la Montagne,” there had previously been a distillery and brewery. Arthur Rondeau, who worked here for several years from 1930 to 1940, told me that it had been located near the railway on the west side, close to the tennis court.

He also gave me a photocopy of a notarized protest, signed by the notary Lemay and witnessed by Joseph Déry and somebody with the last name of Benoit, from the Honourable Justice Jean-Rock Rolland, Seigneur of Monnoir, to his tenant, James White, for repossession of the distillery and brewery for failure to pay the rent, July 19, 1836.

See the letter of November 30, 1983, from François to his uncle, Arthur Rondeau, filed with the titles to the orchard.