3G0 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A Monument for the Original Wealthy Apple Tree. — '* In my 

 immediate vicinity (five miles away) more than one hundred years ago, was 

 discovered the Baldwin apple. Quite recently a granite monument, ten feet 

 high, has been erected by the Woburn Historical Society near the site of the 

 original tree. This monument has a record inscribed on it, and on the top of 

 the granite pillar an apple as large as a peck measure is carved. I suggest the 

 locality where the Wealthy apple was grown be marked with a substantial 

 stone monument, to which I will contribute $5.00 when it is completed. 



" About 1790, Colonel Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn, Mass., an eminent civil 

 engineer, while surveying a route for the Middlesex Canal (the first canal in 

 America), came to a native apple tree on the Butters' farm, in Wilmington, 

 Mass., the fruit of which he believed in. After grafting it into his orchard he 

 was free to give the fruit and scions to his many acquaintances. Baldwin's 

 name for his favorite apple was " Pecker," after the marks on the bark of the 

 tree made by the woodpecker. 



" Colonel Baldwin was one of the founders of the Middlesex Agricultural 

 Society in 1795, the first of its kind in America. The apple became so gener- 

 ally appreciated in Baldwin's day, that at a business meeting of the society, 

 when he was present, a vote was taken, that with his consent the apple should 

 be renamed the " Baldwin." 



" It is well to designate in enduring granite the locality where such superb 

 fruits as the Baldwin and Wealthy apples were born, sacred spots or Meccas 

 where interested pilgrims may visit and see where good fruits began. 



" I have guided many persons to the "Butters' Row" in Wilmington, Mass., 

 on the Butters' farm, where the Baldwin apple came up, at least one hundred 

 and fifty years ago. 



"The Wealthy apple is a part of the life work of Peter M. Gideon, pro- 

 duced by him from a seed in far away Minnesota — and may it remain a blessing 

 for one hundred years or more! 



"About 1863 John Butters, who was then eighty-three years old, told me 

 that he ate apples that had fallen from the original tree, for it was on his 

 grandmother's farm. He said, ' they were fine to eat in the fall.' So it may 

 be said that I am a sort of connecting link with the Baldwin apple, by way of 

 conversation with live men, having talked with John Butters, who ate fruit from 

 the original tree of one of America's most noted apples, not less than one 

 hundred and fifteen years ago. 



"These two benefactors, Baldwin and Gideon, lived long enough to see 

 that the world was better for their living in it, by their efforts in apple culture. 

 Their example is v/orthy of imitation by a host of followers." 



Jacob W, Manning. 



Reading, Mass., August 15, 1901. 



