THE OLD PEAR TREES, ETC., OF MONROE. 355 



possessory rights were to constitute title. As in the olden time, he that 

 biiilded a house must needs plant a vineyard, so here, no homestead was com- 

 plete without its orchard of apples and pears. Vineyards they need not j)lant, 

 as grapes were indigenous to the soil. 



FOUR EPOCHS. 



I find that there are four distinct and well marked epochs, — we will not call 

 them generations, — of these apple and pear trees. By a careful examination 

 and measurement of them we can almost place the trees in their appropriate 

 epochs. As in the old Kuickerbocker times spoken of by Washington Irving, 

 the good nature and hospitality of the Dutch " vrows" were somewhat com- 

 mensurate Avith the amplitude of their waists, and the acumen and profundity 

 of the men were somewhat in proportion to their corporeal magnitude; so the 

 importance and value of these okl trees consist largely in what they may 

 measure. 



The average measure will nearly indicate the epoch in which they were 

 planted. These epochs were as follows: 



First, The year 1780, when the Navarre trees were planted ; 



Second, The period from about 1798 to just before the war of 1812 ; 



Third, The period from just after the war, 181G to 1820 ; 



Fourth, From 1830 to about 1840 ; 



Fifth, From about 1814 down to the present time ; but as the last are of the 

 modern, grafted kinds, tiiey do not come within the scope of the present 

 article 



THE FIRST EPOCH 



Substantially, as I have stated before, the pioneers were the Navarre trees. 

 It is true, some had been brought from Detroit prior to 1800, and planted in 

 other orchards, but they had not succeeded. Among them were the trees on 

 the Labadie claim at" La Plaisance,"' brought from tlie Labadie farm adjoining 

 the Navarre homestead at " the straits," but subsequently, as soon as it was 

 found that the Navarre fruit was preferable, sprouts from the latter were sub- 

 stituted. One singular circumstance is, that all these trees came from the 

 sprouts, not from seeds. Whether experience had demonstrated that seed 

 plants were a failure or not, I have not been able to determine. I have learned 

 from Robei't F. Navarre that these trees, when young, sent out many sprouts 

 from the roots. 



THE SECOJSD EPOCH. 



Among the trees that maybe classed in the second epoch, from 1798 to 1810, 

 are those planted in 1798 on the Jacques and Isidore Navarre farms. The pear 

 tree now standing in Mr. Swop's yard, on the Isidore Navarre farm, set out in 

 1798, measures seven feet ten inches, and is partially dead, but bore eleven 

 bushels of pears year before last. Two trees standing on what was formerly 

 the Jacques Navarre farm, just at the Lake Shore Junction, were set out two 

 years before Jacques, a younger brother of Francis Navarre, erected his cabin. 

 In the chimney of the old house was a stone marked 1800, indicating the year 

 when it was built. This correctly places these trees in the second epoch. 

 They measure seven feet six inches and six feet four inches respectively. 



On the Joseph Ilobert farm, just below the Canada Southern depot, stand 

 six pear trees and four apple trees, set out about 1802. The pear trees measure 

 from five feet six inches to seven feet in circumference. The apple trees 

 measure six feet, seven feet, six feet seven inches, and nine feet two inches, re- 

 spectively. 



