Echo's apple tree appeal bears fruit

Retired farmer George Tozer, who brought his home-grown Profit apples to an apple day event at Kingston Maurward College, near Dorchester, had had an idea that the two trees in his garden might be special.

But after giving fruit expert Harry Baker an apple to examine he forgot to leave his name and number and it was only when Mr Baker did some research at home that he realised how important the discovery was.

The college issued a national appeal for the owner of the trees to come forward and Mr Tozer's daughter Debbie Lovell - a mature student at Kingston Maurward - recognised the description of her father from the media reports.

Now samples of the Profit apple, which had been thought to be lost since 1946, will go to the national fruit collection at Brogdale Horticultural Trust in Kent.

And the college will be taking samples to produce the next generation of Profit trees, which could have been lost forever if Mr Tozer had let a landscape designer have his way and cut them down.

Mr Tozer, from Cranborne Chase, said: "About 10 years ago we had the garden landscaped and the designer wanted to cut them down, but I refused.

"I thought they might be something special.

"The old man who used to live in the next door cottage always insisted they were Profit apples and I think they were first planted when the cottage was built in 1858."

Mr Tozer's wife Marion said: "They've got a unique flavour - you never need to add sugar or cinnamon.

"In the old days that must have been a real advantage for cottagers because sugar was so expensive.

"The only problem with them is that they don't keep for long. I usually cook them and freeze them."

The college has been inundated with calls from people in the Cranborne Chase area about the trees and now 10 of the variety have been identified - mostly at cottages built around the middle of the 19th Century.

Chris Hunter, the college pomologist, said: "We don't know for sure whether the apple originated there but it seems very likely."