FRUITS IN FRANKLIN COUNTY. 59 



FRUITS IN FRANKLIN COUNTY. 



By D. H. Knowlton^ Secretary Maine State Pomological 



Society. 



The culture of the apple in Franklin County began soon after 

 the first settlers came. One of these settlers with whose life I 

 am familiar, tramped through the forests all the way from Bris- 

 tol. After he had niade his first clearing and erected a log- 

 cabin, he returned to Bristol, from whence he sailed in a schooner 

 to Boston in the fall of 1795. On the streets the boys were sell- 

 ing pears, and of these he bought several, from which he saved 

 the seeds, and on his return these seeds were planted, and some 

 of them grew into large trees that for many years bore pears in 

 abundance. The last of these trees were only recently cut down 

 by the present proprietor of the farm. \evy soon after this he 

 yoked up his oxen and hitched them to the hayrack, and by a 

 spotted line drove through the forests to Winthrop, where he 

 loaded up with apple-trees, and then drove home by the same 

 way. On his return the trees were planted on his newly cleared 

 land, and thus this early settler had an orchard under way. The 

 trees grew and for years this orchard was famous far and wide 

 for its fine fruit. In Winthrop he met Dr. \'aughan, a man who 

 did so much to make that town famous for its fine fruits in later 

 years. From Dr. A'aughan he obtained trees or scions, I do not 

 know which, of the Winthrop Greening. At any rate, there 

 were two or three trees of this variety in that old orchard. The 

 owner, either because the variety at that time had no name of its 

 own, or because he chose to make some recognition of Dr. 

 Vaughan's courtesy to him, named it ''\^aughan" apple, a name 

 that clings to it still. 



This was the beginning in one locality in the county, but it is 

 typical of that which was made by others in other localities. 

 These original orchards were mainly seedlings grown by the 

 early settlers. Some of the trees, shorn of their beauty and util- 

 ity, are still standing — memorials of the industry and foresight 

 of those who planted them, and at the same time testimonials of 

 the shiftlessness and neglect of those who permit an unprofitable, 

 insect-bearing tree to still live on. This suggests a practical 



