THE NEW EARTH 



high as Palmeta. The fruit is hke a medler ; 

 it is first green, then yellow, and red when it 

 is ripe ; if it be not ripe it will draw a man's 

 mouth awrie with much torment ; but when 

 it is ripe it is as delicious as an apricot." 



A pear tree in New York city, planted as 

 early as 1614 was still standing at the corner 

 of Third avenue and Thirteenth street in 1866, 

 and perhaps would have been to this day, 

 nearly three centuries later, if it had not been 

 broken down by a passing dray. Apples came 

 before 1639, for in that year the records show 

 that five hundred barrels of cider were made in 

 New York. It was not until many years later, 

 at least two centuries, that the apple devel- 

 oped to any great extent into a fruit to be 

 eaten out of hand ; it was for all the earlier 

 years a cider-producer chiefly. 



When the early Roman Catholic priests 

 made their memorable journey up from Mex- 

 ico through the region of Spanish territory 

 now California, along in the earlier and middle 

 part of the eighteenth century, they brought 

 with them the olive, the pear and the grape, 

 and found a most hospitable home for them. 



But it was not until the New Earth's period 



]32 



