HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 139 



the Pecker apple, — as many have supposed, because the wood- 

 pecker is fond of visiting it, and of puncturing its bark and wood, 

 in search of insects. Some recent facts, however, lead to the 

 supposition, that its name came from the gentleman who raised 

 the tree, and whose family still have it in possession. It 

 was named the Baldwin, by the Duke of Bridgewater, in Eng- 

 land. Loami Baldwin, a distinguished engineer, who laid out 

 and built the Middlesex Canal in this state, — the first great work 

 of the kind in this country, — sent to the Duke of Bridgewater 

 some of these apples. The Duke found them excellent, and 

 gave them the name of Baldwin, in honor of the donor. Trees 

 bearing this fruit, are found in West Springfield, sixty or seventy 

 years old. 



There were about sixty baskets of apples, containing from a 

 single plateful, to a bushel of rare specimens. Many of the 

 parcels of fruit were large. The committee would suggest, that 

 a better mode would be, in future, to present half a dozen, that 

 can be exhibited on a plate or small basket ; these should be the 

 best specimens of each kind, rather than the largest. Every 

 farmer, interested in these exhibitions, should bring specimens 

 of his best fruit, whether its name is known or not ; by such a 

 course, the number of varieties of fruit would be increased, and 

 all the good kinds be seen and propagated. 



If the farmer will line his fences, especially his stone walls, 

 with a good variety of winter fruit, in a few years they will be 

 found more profitable than his corn, potato, and oat fields. Last 

 Fall, a farmer in West Springfield gathered seventy-five bushels 

 of Baldwin apples from one tree — fifty-five bushels were sold 

 for half a dollar a bushel, and the residue for twenty-five cents, 

 the whole being worth to him thirty-two dollars and fifty cents. 

 Half a dozen such trees will yield more profit to the farmer, than 

 land which would cost a thousand dollars. 



The best summer apples are, the Early Harvest, a very excel- 

 lent fruit; the Juneating, the Early Strawberry, the Red Astra- 

 chan, a fine apple both in appearance and flavor, the Early 

 Bough, a fine sweet apple, the Sopsvine or Sops of Wine, Wil- 

 liams' Favorite, New York Spice, Golden Sweeting, and Sum- 

 mer Pearmain, or Boston apple. 



