10 THE HORTICULTURE OF 



remarkable specimens of fruits, especially the pear, 

 which he attributed partly to the entrapping of cats 

 and fertilizing the soil with them. Of the early pears, 

 which soon decayed at the core, he said they should be 

 eaten by a chronometer. 



We have no detailed history of the progress of horti- 

 culture in New England from the early days of which 

 we have written. But we find in 1730 that apples 

 from Blaxton's orchard were for sale in Boston market. 

 In 1770 we find the following advertisement in the 

 Boston Gazette, by the gardener of John Hancock, 

 the first signer to the ever memorable Declaration of 

 American Independence, and first Governor of the 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts : 



4 ; To be sold by George Spriggs, Gardener to John Hancock, 

 Esq., a Large Assortment of English Fruit Trees, grafted and in- 

 oculated of the best and richest kinds of Cherry Trees, Pear Trees, 

 Plumb Trees, Peach Trees, Apricots, Nectarines, Quinces, Lime 

 Trees, Apple Trees, grafted and ungrafted, and sundry Mulberry 

 Trees, which will be fit to transplant the next year, and Med- 

 leys." 



John Hancock's nursery and pasture were near the 

 site of the present State House ; L and his garden and 

 orchard surrounded his princely mansion. Governor 

 Hancock's garden is said to have been one of great 

 note, having received constant accessions from Eng- 

 land. Miss Eliza Greenleaf Gardner, a distant relative 

 of Mrs. Hancock, who still lives, was for many years 

 an inmate of the Hancock house, and states that 



" The grounds were laid out in ornamental flower-beds, bordered 

 with box ; box trees, of large size, with a great variety of fruit, 

 among which were several immense mulberry trees." Drake's Old 

 Landmarks of Boston, p. 339, 340. 



1 See Boston Memorial, Vol. II., p. xlvi. 



