HOETICULTURE OF THE PILGRIMS. 3 



Besides records of farm and garden crops planted by the Pil- 

 grims for their immediate sustenance, other memorials have come 

 clown to us in the very trees set out by them, such as the apple 

 tree planted at Marshfield, about 1648, by Peregrine White, the 

 first Englishman born in New England. This survived as a rep- 

 resentative of his orchard, and the land on which it stood passed 

 by inheritance to his descendants, until a few years ago, when, 

 being sold, the tree was cut down by the purchaser. A lithograph 

 of the old tree may be found in Russell's Guide to Plymouth, 

 published in 1846, when it was described as measuring seventeen 

 feet in height, and the old trunk, then mostly decayed, six feet 

 in length and four and one-half feet in circumference, and as still 

 bearing fruit. The pear tree imported from England by Gov. 

 Prence or Prince, about 1640, and planted on his homestead at 

 Eastham, on Cape Cod, was described in 1836 as a flourishing, 

 lofty tree, producing, on an average, fifteen bushels of fruit a year. 1 

 The fruit is medium sized, oval, green nearly covered with russet, 

 ripening in September, of poor quality by modern pomological 

 standards, and known by the general name of Fall pear. The suck- 

 ers springing up from the root produce the same, proving that it 

 has never been grafted. In the memorable storm when the Minot's 

 Ledge lighthouse was destroyed, in April, 1851, the larger of two 

 stems which then formed the tree was blown down. The remain- 

 ing stem is now, according to the testimony of Capt. Ezekiel Doane, 

 the present owner of the tree, about five feet around the butt, and 

 thirty-five feet high. 



Another pear tree, still standing in Yarmouth, was planted by 

 Anthony Thacher, about 1640, near where his house then stood. 

 It is a large, rotten-hearted tree, having lost all its old branches, 

 but thrown out many new ones. It is a summer pear of inferior 

 quality. The tree produced a fair crop in 1872. 2 



Besides these trees, many others planted by the first settlers, or 

 before the year 1700, are yet standing, and a still greater number 

 are remembered as having perished since the commencement of 

 the present century. They were all, however, of inferior quality 

 as to their fruit, but all strong growers. Large trees of the High- 

 top Sweeting, of very ancient date, as well as other varieties of 

 apples, are still standing in the Old Colony. A row of Hightop 



1 Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture, Vol. VI. p. 430. 



2 Letter from Amos Otis of Yarmouthport. 



