32 



orchard. Tlie tree could not have well been set before 1633 or 1634. 

 As the apple trees of Winthrop were in bearing, as early as 1638, it 

 is probable that they had priority in their planting to the pears of En- 

 dicott, 



In 1796, Doct. Bentley visited the Endicott farm, and gives the fol- 

 lowing description of the oldest living fruit tree of Massachusetts: "It 

 now bears the name of the Endicott Pear, but in the family, the Sugar 

 Pear. This is the tree which stood not far behind the dial, and has 

 its age reported from it. It is in front of the site of the house, and 

 rises in three trunks from the groimd, and is considerably high. It is 

 much decayed, within, at the bottom, which gives it the apj)earance 

 of three trunks; but the branches at top are sound." 



Most interesting descriptions of the present condition of the aged 

 tree, have been procured by the kind attention of the Rev. Dr. John 

 Brazer, of Salem. The first account has been furnished by the lineal 

 descendants of Governor Endicott : the second is communicated by 

 Professor John Lewis Russell. 



^'■Account of the present condition of the Endicott Pear TreeP 

 " This " Old Pear Tree" is situated on the southern side of a gen- 

 tle slope of land, and sheltered by it, in some measure, from the 

 piercing northerly and northwest winds, in what was once the garden 

 of Gov. Endicott. The surrounding soil is a light loam, with a sub- 

 stratum of clay. Its appearance, at this time, is rather dwarfish, being 

 only 18 feet high, and 55 feet in the circumference of its branches. 

 The trunk exhibits all the marks of extreme old age, being entirely 

 hollow, and mostly open on the south side, Avith just sufficient bark 

 to convey sap to the branches. It is 7 feet 4 inches in circumference 

 i;eai* the roots, and is divided into three parts ; two of which are 

 connected, to the height of about 18 inches; the other is entirely dis- 

 tinct, from the ground upwai'ds. There is bark only on tiie outside 

 of these divisions, until they reach the height of 7 or 8 feet, wliere 

 they are completely encircled with it, and form distinct limbs, with 

 numerous lateral branches, all of which appear m a perfectly sound 

 and healthy state. Two suckers have sprung up from the roots, one 

 on the northeast, and the other on the southwest side, each 10 or 12 

 feet in length, and I presume it is known, that this tree has never 

 been grafted, but is natural fruit." 



"No doubt, the dilapidated condition of the trunk is owing, in some 

 measure, to the want of care during the most part of the two first 

 centuries of its existence, being situated in an open field, without 

 any protection, and often browsed by cattle, and injured by storms. 

 This patriarch, within the last forty years, has often suffered severely 

 from easterly and southerly gales. In October, 1804, it was nearly 

 laid prostrate, being shorn of all its branches, and its trunk split and 



