The World of Apples

Growing regions

Himachal Pradesh

An American Quaker's 1916 orchard made these hills India's second apple state

How apples came

Samuel Evans Stokes was born on 16 August 1882 into a Quaker family in Philadelphia; his father founded a company that made elevators. In 1904, aged 22 and against his parents’ wishes, he went to India to work at the leper home at Subathu in the Shimla hills1,2. He learned the Pahari dialect and took to local dress2, and in 1912 he married Agnes, the daughter of a first-generation Christian, and bought farmland near her village at Kotgarh, where he built the house he called Harmony Hall1,3.

Stokes had access to horticultural literature the villagers did not. He identified a strain of apple developed by the Stark brothers of Louisiana, Missouri, where Stark Bro’s has grown trees since 1816 and claims the Red Delicious and Golden Delicious as its greatest contributions4, as suited to the Shimla hills, and began growing it at Kotgarh in 1916. The bumper crops that followed, and his access to the European settlers who ran the export business in Delhi, persuaded other farmers to follow; over the following decades he bought more land and used it to raise the trees that stocked their orchards1. A popular account adds that he travelled to America in 1914 with soil samples and came back with Red Delicious saplings, that he “started small in 1916, with a few pear, plum and apple saplings”, that his mother later shipped him Golden Delicious trees, that by 1928 Harmony Hall’s apples had spread through the valleys, and that he ran a training school on the estate2. The people of Thanedar marked the centenary of his planting on 6 November 20165.

The orchardist became a nationalist. Stokes was the only American member of the All India Congress Committee, the only non-Indian to sign the 1921 Congress manifesto calling on Indians to leave government service, and in 1921 he was jailed for sedition, spending months in Lahore jail1,2,3. In 1932, after the death of his son Tara, he converted to Hinduism and took the name Satyananda; his wife became Priyadevi1,2. He died on 14 May 1946, fourteen months before independence1,2.

How they’re grown

India’s National Horticulture Board puts apple country at 1,500 to 2,700 m, where trees get the 1,000 to 1,500 hours of winter chilling they need6. In Himachal that country keeps moving uphill. In the early 1980s the state’s apples were grown at 1,200 to 1,500 m; by the 2000s the orchards had shifted to 1,500 to 2,500 m, and a 2020 study reports that “more recently apples are now being cultivated at more than 3500 meters elevation”. The study found chilling hours falling fastest in the low-altitude districts of Sirmaur and Solan, which it judged to be nearing unsuitability, while the high districts of Chamba and Lahaul and Spiti still had chilling to spare7.

Apples are grown across Shimla, Kullu, Mandi, Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba and Sirmaur districts8, and Shimla district alone produces about 70% of the state’s crop, followed by Kullu and Kinnaur9. The crop is at the mercy of the winter: in 2026 a lack of snowfall, rain and snow at flowering in March and April, and unseasonal rain and hail cut market arrivals by about 44% on the year before, with orchards at low and medium altitude worst hit8. The state’s own survey blames rising temperatures and less snow, and recommends varieties such as Gala that fruit at lower altitudes and in warmer weather10.

What’s picked

Himachal produced 6.47 lakh tonnes (647,000 tonnes) of apples in 2025–26, 28.6% more than the 5.03 lakh tonnes of 2024–25, from 1,16,338 hectares of orchard. The area has grown steadily since 2010–11 while production swings from year to year, from a low of 2.75 lakh tonnes in 2011–12 to a high of 7.77 lakh in 2015–16. Apples are 49% of the state’s fruit area and 77.5% of its fruit production, and about 2.5 lakh families depend on them10. The trade counts in boxes of 20 kg11: 3.51 crore boxes in 2024, a record, against about 1.5 crore expected in 20268.

The season runs by altitude. Himachal’s apples start arriving in the market in mid-July9, with the early varieties from the lower and middle hills sold in late July and early August11; Kinnaur, the high belt at 8,000 feet and more, is picked last, in October9,11, and was still picking in the second week of November 2022, after the season had ended in the rest of the state12. Royal Delicious is the standard apple of the market9,11, and Gala has become a Kinnaur crop12.

On the table

Himachal’s apple is a fresh-market fruit, packed in the hills in 20 kg boxes and trucked to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and beyond11,12. The Hindi word for it, seb (सेब), is a Persian loan: Platts’s 1884 dictionary marks it Persian and defines it simply as “an apple”13. What the Pahari-speaking orchardists of Kotgarh call it was not found in a citable source.

Notes

  • Stokes was the only American jailed by the British in India’s freedom struggle, and the only American member of the All India Congress Committee1,2.
  • Stark Bro’s, which supplied his trees, has been in the same Missouri valley since 18164.
  • Shimla district grows about 70% of Himachal’s apples9.
  • The 2024 crop of 3.51 crore boxes was the largest in the state’s history8.
  • Himachal’s orchards have moved from 1,200–1,500 m in the early 1980s to 1,500–2,500 m and beyond7.

Where the sources disagree

  • The year of the Stark purchase. The Times of India says Stokes bought the Red Delicious from Stark Brothers in 19165; Live History India says he fetched the saplings from Missouri in 1914 and planted in 19162; the biography-based account says cultivation at Kotgarh began in 19161. The biography itself was not consulted.
  • “Louisiana”. The Times of India writes “Stark Brothers Nursery in Louisiana, US”, which reads as the state5; Stark Bro’s places itself in Louisiana, Missouri4.
  • Above 3,500 m. The 2020 study’s figure is surprising for apples and may describe isolated plantings; it is quoted as written7.
  • Thanedar’s elevation (about 2,200 m in secondary sources) is not verified and not given.
Himachal Pradesh
Where Himachal Pradesh is.

Sources

  1. Satyananda Stokes, Wikipedia, citing Asha Sharma, An American in Khadi (Penguin India, 1999) and An American in Gandhi's India (Indiana University Press, 2008). Supports: the birth on 16 August 1882, the Quaker family and the father's company, Subathu in 1904, the marriage and land at Kotgarh in 1912, the Stark strain planted in 1916, the Delhi export contacts, the Congress committee, the 1921 manifesto and jailing, the 1932 conversion, the death on 14 May 1946.
  2. Satyananda Stokes and the Apple State, Live History India, 15 August 2018. Supports: the Pahari dialect and local dress, the 1914 trip and the Red Delicious saplings, Harmony Hall, 'started small in 1916', the Golden Delicious trees from his mother, 1928, the training school, the sedition charge, the conversion and the death.
  3. From Samuel Stokes to Satyananda Stokes, NewsGram, 22 April 2026. Supports: the marriage to Agnes in 1912, the farmland near her village at Kotgarh, Harmony Hall, the Stark Brothers variety, the 1921 arrest and the months in Lahore jail.
  4. About Stark Bro's, Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards. Supports: the nursery founded in 1816 at Louisiana, Missouri, and its claim to the Red and Golden Delicious.
  5. Thanedar to salute 'foreigner' who changed Himachal Pradesh's fortunes, The Times of India, 5 November 2016. Supports: the 1916 planting, the Stark Brothers nursery, and the centenary marked at Thanedar on 6 November.
  6. Apple: crop profile, National Horticulture Board, India. Supports: the 1,500–2,700 m band and the chilling hours.
  7. Why apple orchards are shifting to the higher altitudes of the Himalayas?, N. Sahu et al., PLOS One, via PMC, 2020. Supports: the shift from 1,200–1,500 m in the early 1980s to 1,500–2,500 m and above 3,500 m; the chilling-hour trends by district; Sirmaur and Solan nearing unsuitability.
  8. Apple arrivals in Himachal mandis down 44% amid climate concerns, Shailee Dogra, Hindustan Times, 16 September 2026. Supports: the growing districts, 2.5 lakh orchardists, the 44% fall and its causes, the record 3.51 crore boxes of 2024, and the 1.5 crore expected in 2026.
  9. Himachal apple rates fall amid glut, low demand, Hindustan Times, 20 August 2021. Supports: arrivals from mid-July, Kinnaur last in October, Shimla district's 70%, Royal Delicious and the 20 kg box.
  10. HP apple output improves; mismatch between cultivation area and production a cause of concern, Rohit Mullick, The Times of India, citing the Himachal Pradesh Economic Survey 2025–26, 23 March 2026. Supports: 6.47 lakh tonnes in 2025–26 and 5.03 lakh in 2024–25; 1,16,338 hectares; the swings between 2.75 and 7.77 lakh tonnes; 49% of fruit area and 77.5% of fruit production; 2.5 lakh families; second after Kashmir; warming and the advice to plant Gala.
  11. Apple farmers in Himachal are currently reaping a bitter harvest, The Indian Express, 10 October 2019. Supports: the 20 kg boxes, early varieties from the lower and middle hills in late July and early August, Kinnaur at 8,000 feet and more, and Royal Delicious as the market's standard.
  12. Largest yield in 12 years, rising costs, falling profits, The Indian Express, datelined Kinnaur, 8 November 2022. Supports: Kinnaur still picking in the second week of November, the trucks to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, and Gala in Kinnaur.
  13. A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English, entry seb, John T. Platts, 1884, Digital Dictionaries of South Asia. Supports: seb, 'an apple', marked Persian.