THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 57 



CHERRIES IN NEW ENGLAND 



The cherry came to New England with the first settlers. This we 

 are told in all the records of early New England in which the conditions 

 of the country are described and of it we have confirmatory proof in many 

 enormous cherry trees, Sweet and Sovir, both about ancient habitations 

 and as escapes from cultivation in woods, fields and fence rows, all pointing 

 to the early cultivation of this fruit. The early records are very specific. 

 Thus, to quote a few out of an embarrassment of references: Francis 

 Higginson writing in 1629, after naming the several other fruits then under 

 cultivation in Massachusetts, notes that the Red Kentish is the only cherry 

 cultivated.' In the same year, the i6th of March, 1629, a memorandum 

 of the Massachusetts Company shows that " Stones of all sorts of fruites, 

 as peaches, plums, filberts, cherries, pear, aple, quince kemeUs " were 

 to be sent to New England.^ 



These seeds, provided by the home company with forethought of 

 the need of orchards in the colony, evidently produced fruit trees suffi- 

 cient to supply both hunger and thirst; for John Josselyn, who made 

 voyages to New England in 1638, 1639 and 1663, writing of " New Eng- 

 land's Rarities Discovered," says:^ "Our fruit Trees prosper abundantly. 

 Apple-trees, Pear-trees, Quince-trees, Cherry-trees, Plum-trees, Barberry- 

 trees. I have observed with admiration, that the Kernels sown or the 

 Succors planted produce as fair and good fruit, without grafting, as the 

 tree from whence they were taken: the Countrey is replenished with fair 

 and large Orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. Woolcut (a magistrate 

 in Connecticut Colony) at the Captains Messe (of which I was) aboard 

 the Ship I came home in, that he made Five himdred Hogsheads of Syder 

 out of his own Orchard in one year. Syder is very plentiful in the Countrey, 

 ordinarily sold for ten shillings a Hogshead. 



" The Quinces, Cherries, Damsons, set the Dames a work, Marmalad 

 and preserved Damsons are to be met with in every house. It was not 

 long before I left the Countrey that I made Cherry wine, and so may 

 others, for there are good store of them both red and black. Their fruit 

 trees are subject to two diseases, the Meazels, which is when they are 

 burned and scorched with the Sun, and lowsiness, when the woodpeckers 

 jab holes in their bark: the way to cure them when they are lowsie is to 

 bore a hole in the main root with an Augiir, and pour in a quantity of 

 Brandie or Rhum, and then stop it up with a pin made of the same Tree." 



' Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections ist Ser. I:ii8. 



'^ Mass. Records 1:24. 



' Mass. Hist. Collections 3d Ser. 23:337. 



