Mansfield Russet

Apple

Mansfield Russet

Origin and History

Brought into notice by Dr. Joseph Mansfield, of Groton, Massachusetts. Warder's account is explicitly drawn from Downing, making both sources ultimately a single lineage of description.

Tree

Vigorous, upright, and very productive.

Fruit

Size and Form: Small, roundish oblong, inclining to conic. (Warder's quotation of Downing omits "roundish," giving simply "oblong, inclining to conic"; the 1900 Downing text reads "roundish oblong, inclining to conic.")

Skin: Cinnamon russet.

Stem/Stalk: Long, inserted in a deep, furrowed cavity.

Calyx and Basin: Calyx partially closed, set in an open basin.

Flesh and Flavor: Not very juicy; rich, aromatic, saccharine, vinous. Quality rated good to very good.

Season and Storage

Keeps until April or May.

Note: Both sources derive from the same Downing description — Warder quotes Downing directly. The two texts are thus not independent observations. The 1900 Downing edition adds "upright" to the tree habit, "roundish" to the fruit form, and the quality rating "good to very good" — details absent from or not quoted in the Warder text.

Book Sources

Described in 2 period pomological works

View original book sources (2)

Mansfield Russet.

"Brought into notice by Dr. Joseph Mansfield, of Groton, Massachusetts. Tree vigorous and very productive.

Fruit small, oblong, inclining to conic; Skin cinnamon russet; Stem long, inserted in a deep, furrowed cavity; Calyx partially closed, set in an open basin; Flesh not very juicy, rich, aromatic, saccharine, vinous; Keeps until April and May." — [Downing.]

— John A. Warder, American Pomology: Apples (1867)

Mansfield Russet.

Brought into notice by Dr. Joseph Mansfield, of Groton, Mass. Tree vigorous, upright, and very productive.

Fruit small, roundish oblong, inclining to conic, cinnamon russet. Stalk long, inserted in a deep furrowed cavity. Calyx partially closed, set in an open basin. Flesh not very juicy, rich, aromatic, saccharine, vinous. Good to very good. Keeps till April or May.

— A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)