HOR TICUL TURA L REMINISCENCES 



■jN the time of the Revolution, some 

 sterling men, called U. E. Loyalists, 

 i settled in the Niagara Di?trict. King 

 George gave them land in the wilds of 

 Canada where nuts, plums and crab 

 apples grew. They had read that one 

 of the finest trees in Rhode Island 

 sprang from a seed dropped in the grave 

 of Roger Williams, so many tried the 

 experiment of sowing apple seeds, but 

 few apples of any size were produced, 

 and the small ones were often gathered 

 with the wooden scoop. About 1790 

 John Smith offered his right to 200 

 acres for a cow, but found no buyer ; but 

 about 1798 he sold it for 40 pounds of 

 York currency ; my grandfather and the 

 said Smith gave five natural apple trees to 

 bind the bargain. About the year 1830 

 therecame a man from England about 50 

 years of age and weighing about 14 stone, 

 and he called himself Peasley, the grafter. 

 He carried with him scions which he 

 declared would bear pound apples, full 

 sixteen ounces to the pound. When at 

 work, he took his stand on a wooden 

 chair, clothed in a huge jacket with 

 pockets like the pouches of the kangaroo, 

 in one of which he carried wa.\ and 

 scions and in the other grafting tools. 

 After grafting in our neighborhood, he 

 returned to the Mother Country, and 

 after six or seven years came out again. 

 I remember his joy when he found his 

 word true and saw the pound apple which 

 he said was the Gloria Mundi. I thought 

 of old Santa Claus with his gray whiskers 

 and loud laugh, and " his little round 

 belly that shook when he laughed, like 

 a bowl full of jelly." He hailed from 

 England, but his port and bearing were 

 of the German order. He came out in 

 the reign of George HI, and when be 

 swore, it was " Py George," the then 

 popular oath of the U. E. Loyalists ; for 

 the king gave them their farms, their 

 government and their church, and that 



they might not fracture the third com- 

 mandment, allowed them to swear by 

 his name. He brought the Ribston 

 Pippin, Pearmain, and English Rusbet. 

 When Peasley's Pearmin, Ribston and 

 Gloria Mundi began to bear, I took a 

 load to Hamilton and supplied that vil- 

 lage where Carey kept the hotel and 

 Stinson the principal store. 



Dr. Beadle was selling trees from St. 

 Catharines, and one Moore, a Canadian, 

 brought a few pears and peaches from 

 Rochester. Delos Beadle had graduat- 

 ed from the Grantham Academy and, I 

 think, was studying law at Harvard. He 

 afterwards took up his father's calling, 

 and at his instigation the fruit growers 

 met in the Chief Magistrate's room in 

 the Court House at St. Catharines. 



About 1857 A. M. Smith appeared 

 on the scene. He had learned the 

 nursery business with Mr. E. Moody, of 

 Lockport. Mr. Moody came over for 

 Canadian evergreen trees, he stopped at 

 Grimsby to give us some advice about 

 raising peaches. He praised our soil 

 and said he had only one objection to 

 living in Canada, and that was that he 

 could never be president of the United 

 States. 



When our Association met at St. 

 Catharines, we were twice surprised. 

 First, at the knowledge of Judge Camp- 

 bell and Delos Beadle about fruit, cli- 

 mate and soil ; and secondly, at our own 

 ignorance of the fruit we had handled 

 for a term of years. The genesis of our 

 Association budded in St. Catharines. 

 Judge Campbell was the first life-mem- 

 ber, but did not live to see it bloom. 

 Delos Beadle was the Moses of our 

 exodus, leading us out of ignorance into 

 the present fruit bearing stage. 



The formal organization of our Asso- 

 ciation elected W. H. Mills, of Hamil- 

 ton, as President, He was not of the 

 mills of which it takes ten to make one 



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