Why did Anita and Lee choose to talk about John Chapman?

T: Well, Anita and Lee. That was an interesting presentation you made about John Chapman. There are a few points I’d like to run through before you write it up. One thing which you didn’t explain was why you decided to do a presentation on this man who spread apple varieties across the US?
A: Well, ages ago, we were chatting about stuff we’d read as children, and I told Lee the Johnny Appleseed story — I had these American story books when I was small. Then when we were looking into the area of domesticated species of plants for our presentation, we realised that the introduction of the apple with the settlers in the US would be a good case study…
L: And I remembered Chapman, so we looked up the real guy behind the legend.
T: Right. I think that would have made a good intro.
A: I thought it was too personal.
T: Just a couple of minutes would have drawn your listeners in. Anyway, now a more serious point. You didn’t mention the sources of some of your information.
L: We used some books and journal articles and did an internet search and found some good sites.
A: We’ve put them on the back of the handout we gave everyone at the end.
T: Ah, let me see. Oh, here it is. Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth, 1967. Well, the thing is you really have to make this explicit when you talk. And anything you show, data you project from your laptop, etc., you must have the source on it.
A: Right, OK.
T: At least you have got it all documented. I was a bit concerned about that.
A: Sorry.
T: Anyway, now, the content of your talk. What your listeners wanted to understand was whether there were apples in the US before the Europeans started to live there. You told us the early settlers had brought young apple trees but that few of them had thrived because the climate was harsh, but what about native species? I don’t think you were very clear about species already there.
L: Um, according to what I’ve read, there were some crab apples, but that was all. Everything that people now think of as traditional American apples, were species that the Europeans either introduced or bred by chance.
A: Because they tended to sow seeds rather than use grafting…
T: Yes, quite. But what to me was fascinating — and I saw most members of your audience start to take notes — was when you discussed how the apple genes spread via the Silk Route into Europe from the wild apple woods of Kazakhstan.
L: Yes, well. I’d like to have said more about the development of grafting in ancient China, as a way of producing predictable varieties. It was so early in history!
T: But it’s the natural development of the original wild apple into new species that people wanted more about, which says a lot for your presentation. You enthused your audience! So, now we need to discuss the form your follow-up work will take. Are you going to produce a paper? Or are you thinking of putting it all up on the department website?
A: Um, I felt we could do both. And we could do a poster of some of the data. But Lee wasn’t sure.
L: No. I think it would be enough to use the website. We can offer a link to our email for queries. That would save time!
T: I think Lee’s right. A poster would be nice, but it’d take too much time.
A: OK.