Let’s say you’re washing dishes in front of a window, or maybe you’re outside with the dogs. Wherever you are, you happen to look up and spot a barefooted guy wearing a tin pot on his head, and it looks like he’s scattering seeds from a sack as he scampers along his way.
And you think to yourself: What the heck?
Would it make a difference if we mentioned that the seeds he’s spreading are apple seeds? Or that this scenario played out some 200 years ago?
It might to a schoolchild who has learned about John Chapman. John was born in Massachusetts a few months before the American Revolution, and that still might not mean anything to some of us until we mention his nom de plume, Johnny Appleseed.
And yes, Johnny Appleseed was a real person.
Chapman, whom we’ll now call Johnny, lived a nomadic life in Ohio, and what he did with apple seeds begs the question: Why?
Johnny had a vision. It combined his Swedenborgian faith – caring for nature as a way to share God’s abundance – with practical enterprise. By planting apple seeds across the frontier, he provided settlers with essential crops like hard cider (safer to drink than often-contaminated water) and vinegar while legally claiming and selling land for a modest living. Traveling constantly allowed him to tend multiple orchards, spread seeds far and wide, and live simply in accordance with his spiritual beliefs. His wandering life was not aimless—it was a deliberate blend of faith, generosity, and entrepreneurship that left a lasting mark on the American frontier – and for future generations.
Who can now enjoy cider in the fall.
Johnny primarily sowed seeds from cider apples – hardy, tart varieties suited for frontier conditions. The apples his seeds produced were more suitable for cider vinegar and cooking than for eating fresh, but the seeds he planted were genetically diverse, and each tree could produce very different apples. Over time, this created orchards with many unique, resilient varieties adapted to the Ohio and Indiana climate.
Johnny’s practical, albeit eccentric activity served to win over settlers and Indigenous people as he maintained respectful relationships with both. He often traded and shared knowledge, but his dedication created a lasting legacy, and that legacy allows us to segue into the second part of our post: Apple Orchards.
Apples were already part of colonial life since settlers brought seeds and grafts as they moved west, but Johnny accelerated orchard growth. And while orchard growers of that time relied on human labor to tend and protect their orchards, modern growers are turning to a surprising helper: dogs! Today’s growers are using highly trained purebred dogs to protect orchards from disease, combining canine skill with cutting-edge agricultural science. A 2025 study at Washington State University, reported by KIRO7, trained Dutch Shepherds and Belgian Malinois to detect Little Cherry Disease in fruit trees. Conducted in orchards and greenhouses, the trials showed that the dogs could identify infected apple plants with nearly perfect accuracy.
Another study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that specially trained canines, including English Springer Spaniels, achieved nearly perfect accuracy in detecting the bacteria Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, which causes citrus greening disease. These dogs were able to identify infected trees weeks before symptoms became visible, making them invaluable for early detection and management of the disease.
Sometimes, protecting an orchard is as simple as using livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) to deter deer from apple farms. Deer can destroy an orchard by munching on twigs and stems, browsing that can permanently disfigure apple trees and nursery stock and lead to reduced crop yields and, sometimes, the death of the trees. Studies have demonstrated that these dogs can significantly reduce deer damage to crops.
A study conducted by Jonathan S. Kays at the University of Maryland Extension (and published on May 14, 2021) explored the effectiveness of using LGDs within Off-Limits Crop Protection Systems (a combination of physical barriers and containment methods) to reduce deer damage in orchards. The research was conducted at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center, focusing on a 30-acre apple orchard. The findings indicated that the presence of LGDs significantly decreased deer activity and damage to the apple trees, demonstrating the potential of LGDs as a non-lethal and effective method for wildlife management. This concurred with other studies, such as Curtis & Rieckenberg’s findings in 2005, and Kurt Vercauteren’s work in 2010.
Just as Johnny Appleseed once spread and safeguarded apples through careful planting and stewardship, today’s growers are using highly trained purebred dogs to protect orchards from disease, combining canine skill with cutting-edge agricultural science.
Image: Belgian Malinois under an apple tree by Eudyptula/iStock