THE 



AMERICAN 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE. 



OCTOBER, 1835. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. On the Origin of the Baldwin Apple. 



Dear Sir, 



In conversation with you a few days ago, relative to the 

 Baldwin apple, I observed that I was acquainted with the 

 original tree, and gave you its history. Thinking the facts 

 which I had stated, of some importance, you requested me 

 to give them to you in writing. 



Mr. Kenrick, in the Orchardist, says it is a Massachusetts 

 apple; and Mr. Fessenden, in the American Gardener, says it 

 originated in the county of Middlesex. Both are right. 

 The original tree grew on the farm of my grandfather, Mr. 

 John Ball, formerly of Tewksbury. The farm was situated 

 one mile and a half south of the Merrimac river, and three 

 miles south-east of Lowell. Mr. Ball purchased the land, 

 then in a state of nature, about the year 1740. He cleared 

 up a small lot, on which he erected buildings. This tree 

 came up not long after, in the lane, leading from the house 

 to the barn. My father, the late Dr. Benj. Kittredge, of 

 Tewksbury, who was born in the year 1742, within a quar- 

 ter of a mile of the tree, and resided there until his death, in 

 1822, said it was a large tree when he was a lad ; that it was 

 not engrafted, as no person at that time, in Tewksbury, was 

 acquainted with grafting ; that it was, to use his expression, 

 "the mother of them all." It is now more than forty years 

 since scions were taken from this tree and set on trees 

 growing on my father's farm. This apple was confined to 

 that neighborhood for many years, when the late Col. 

 Baldwin, of Woburn, became acquainted with it. He at once 



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