212 GENERAL HISTORY. 



THE OLD APPLE TREES. 



I have a few notes not yet disposed of in reference to the old apple trees. 

 On tlie farm of S. M. Bartlett, Esq., some five miles south of this city, are 

 standing a few old apple trees which, apparently, are of great age. One of 

 their companion trees was blown over by a gale June 9th, 1835. It was sound 

 to the core. It was sawed oif about the usual stuu)p height, where it was two 

 feet nine inches in diameter. Mr. Bartlett counted 85 concentric rings, 

 indicating an age at that time of 85 years; hence, at the present time, its 

 companions must be 125 years old. To the qui^stion, whether the trees seem 

 to have been set out in orchard fashion, he replied: "No; at least no more 

 than the millers, which were two in a row, but never three." They were 

 manifestly of Indian planting. 



On the farm now owned by George Wakefield, some seven miles up the 

 river, is a tree evidently set out some 80 years ago, as the evidence showed 

 that there was an orchard there prior to 1796. It is seven feet eight inches 

 in circumference, with an aggregate of limbs nineteen feet six inches, and 

 has an immense top, being fifty feet in diameter. In 1873 this tree bore thirty- 

 five bushels of apples. It is fifty-two feet high. 



In the orchard of B, Dansard, Esq., by the former residence of Gov. Mc- 

 Clelland, is an apple tree which is well worth seeing, and whose history is of 

 some moment. It is ten feet in circumference six inches fiom the ground, 

 and nine feet six inches four feet from the ground. There are four branches 

 which aggregate sixteen feet four inches in circumference. It was set out as 

 early as 1781 or 1782, hence is over ninety years old. Eobert F. Navarre well 

 recollects as among his earliest memories, that there were at that place four 

 or five trees, then some nine or ten inches in diameter, and apparently the 

 same size of his father's, which were as old as the Navarre pear trees. This 

 is as sound and as full of life to-day, apparently, as it ever was, and bears 

 from fifteen to twenty- five bushels of fruit every year. In 1841 Gov. McClel- 

 land had it grafted, by E. H. Reynolds, Esq., of this place, to Rhode Island 

 Greenings. Mr. Reynolds set some three hundred cions in it. All things 

 considered, it is the most remarkable tree on the Raisin, taking into account 

 its age, vigor, and the remarkable vitality which has enabled it to carry such 

 an amount of grafts in its hale old age. Two years ago Mr. Dansard trimmed 

 off some of the decayed limbs; they cut up into more than a cord of wood. 



In the yard of Thomas Clark is an old apple tree, set out by Jacques La- 

 Salle, some sixty years ago. It is supposed that this and its companions were 

 brought from Montreal, but of this I have my doubts, as it is manifest ''the 

 straits " had an abundant supply. A companion tree died a few years ago, 

 but the year before its death bore seventy bushels of apples. 



In Judge Warner Wing's lot, and also in the lot of B. Dansard, stand sev- 

 eral trees set out in in 180-1 by Dr. Joseph Dozette. They are in prime con- 

 diti )n. They range from five feet six inches to six feet eight inches in cir- 

 cumference. Their vigor is all the more wonderful if it be true, as seems to be 

 well authenticate!, that the doctor, following a whim as astonishing to the 

 old French settlers as to our modern horticulturists, cut off the roots, 

 made a hole in the grouad with a pointed stick, and drove the trees in, insist- 

 ing that that was the way to set out trees. At any rate he succee:ed in 

 making good trees, however he may have set them out. This orchard, includ- 

 ing, as it did, the lots now owned by Judge Wing and Messrs. Dansard and 



