Valley apples featured
Prescott House hosts philatelic presentation on Valley apple industry history
It was a chance to learn more about the history of the apple industry in the Annapolis Valley – from a philatelic perspective.
Brainard Fitzgerald of Port Williams, a philatelist or what is more commonly referred to as a stamp collector, gave a presentation on the history of the apple industry at Prescott House Museum in Starr’s Point Sept. 11. He said that although the Valley is still well known for its apples, the export market to countries such as England isn’t what it used to be.
“Compared to the 1920s and 30s, there aren’t very many apples in the Valley,” Fitzgerald said.
An award-winning philatelic exhibit featuring a series of framed panels compiled by Fitzgerald will remain on display at the museum until the end of September. His presentation delved into several other items in his collection, which includes five binders of information, books, newspaper clippings and much more.
One clipping in Fitzgerald’s collection is the front page of a 1978 edition of the Advertiser with a photo of the Port Williams Apple Blossom Festival parade float, which Fitzgerald built. It was named Most Outstanding that year.
Fitzgerald said he’s been collecting stamps, envelops and covers since the mid 1970s, including items relating to the apple industry. It took him about three years to put his current exhibit together, which won Most Creative at a recent Montreal stamp show; Most Innovative and Interesting in Ottawa and Top Topical in Waterloo.
His passion for the philatelic aspects of apple industry history was piqued when he started reading about names he had heard his uncles and father talk about. For example, Fitzgerald wasn’t around to see the Port Williams apple evaporator, the largest of its kind, which burned in 1941. However, having a family member who worked there, he heard a lot about it.
“We produced tonnes of dried apples and sent them overseas, especially during the First World War,” Fitzgerald said.
Although other earlier transportation methods aren’t to be discounted, he said the establishment of the railway and the explosion in the Valley apple industry went hand-in-hand.
At one point there were 14 warehouses measuring 100 feet by 40 feet with a 60,000-barrel capacity between Kentville and Canning, some of which eventually burned or were repurposed. These would temporarily house apples to be taken by train to ports and loaded on steam ships destined for overseas markets, for example.
In the 1930s, Nova Scotia cooperages were turning out about three million apple barrels a year to export the fruit. Fitzgerald said that at one point, a “barrel war” took place between Ontario and Nova Scotia over the size of barrels being produced. This, of course, impacted the selling price.
There were several wholesalers and brokers who bought apples and sold them abroad. Fitzgerald said the British Canadian Fruit Association, which became one of the larger companies, at one point used to buy up about a third of the local apple crop.