38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Fruit. 



Another characteristic of the agriculture of the present time, 

 as compared with that of a former period, is the much greater 

 attention now paid to the cultivation of fruit. The early set- 

 tlers made some attempts to introduce the best varieties of 

 apples and pears known in the mother country when they left 

 it. For this purpose, some brought with them the seeds of 

 these fruits, but, to their astonishment, they found that the 

 product of the trees which sprung from them was very differ- 

 ent from what they expected, and in many instances inferior to 

 the fruit from which the seed had been taken. They did not 

 understand how this could be, as they did not know that the 

 seedling is often inferior to the fruit whose seed is sown. * 



Their progress in this department, as might have been ex- 

 pected," was* slow; indeed we can hardly say that fruit was 

 cultivated at all as a part of the produce of the farm, and with 

 a view to profit, till a comparatively recent date. Half a cen- 

 tury ago it would have been impossible to find the number of 

 varieties of good fruit in the whole State, which may now be 

 found in a single town. There were orchards, it is true, and 

 some of them were better than none ; but this is all that can 

 be said. Cider apples occupied a very prominent place in the 

 list. The Hubbardston Nonesuch, the Minister, the Porter, and 

 other favorite varieties, had then no existence. Not a nursery 

 containing trees for sale, was to be found in the State. Here 

 and there was an instance of grafting, but it was rare, and gen- 

 erally no thought was given to the subject. It was regarded 

 as absurd, for any but a young man to set out trees. An inci- 

 dent in the life of the venerable Mr. Cobb, of Kingston, not 

 inaptly illustrates the feeling which formerly prevailed to a 

 great extent throughout the State. At the age of seventy 

 years, he began the work of setting an orchard. The idea was 

 80 ludicrous as to subject him to the ridicule of the neighbor- 

 hood. He lived to the age of one hundred and seven, and died 



* The earliest fruit raised, was on Governor's Island, in the harbor of Boston, 

 from which, on the 10th of October, 1639, ten fair pippens were brought, " there 

 being not one apple nor pear tree planted in any part of the country, but upon that 

 island." 



