64 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1893. 



and across the country to the north are seen towns in southern New 

 Hampshire, and eighteen miles away, in full view from base to sum- 

 mit, is Mt. Monadnock. The little village has to-day about the same 

 number of dwelling-houses that it may have had 75 or 100 years ago, 

 and its present church edifice is very near the site of the first meeting- 

 house in Winchendon. But the character of the life has changed 

 materially since those earlier days. Then there were two lawyers 

 who practised their profession in the settlement of a dozen or so 

 families, and tradition says at the time there was incessant quarrel- 

 ling, turmoil and discord among the families of the neighborhood, 

 and ever since the place has gone by the name of Harmony Hill. A 

 physician also practised his profession here for years, and business 

 must have been good for him as long as the lawyers remained. 



Two miles or so south of the railroad station in Brook field, and 

 within the limits of the road leading to the prim and thrifty little 

 neighborhood, known to the people of southwestern Worcester 

 County as Rice's Corner, is a chestnut tree that is an object of 

 exceeding interest, because of the enormous proportions of its trunk. 

 It is in one of those stretches of grass land that border the roadside, 

 near the foot of a hill and close to a stone wall, that the great chest- 

 nut stands, and for generations it has excited the curiosity and 

 prompted the admiration of the people. It has no exposed roots nor 

 consequent bulge at the base, and it rises straight into the air to a 

 height of twelve feet or more before a branch appears. At six feet 

 the tree's girth is 18 feet and 5 inches, at three feet it has a girth of 

 20 feet and 5 inches, and at a foot and a half from the ground its 

 circumference is 23 feet. In connection with this last statement it 

 should be remembered that this measurement is in the clear of the 

 trunk, and does not include any bulge at the base by protruding 

 roots. 



As the tree exists to-day. Its crown consists of short, stubbed 

 branches, merely laterals put forth by remnants of huge branches in 

 a final effort to retain a hold on life. However, it is interesting to 

 note that these laterals produced a quite abundant crop of fruit the 

 past season, one only of several hundreds that the tree may possibly 

 have produced. What may be the age of this tree can only be con- 

 jectured, but stumps of chestnut trees of a less diameter than this 

 have counted 400 annular spaces, and thus upon this basis this par- 

 ticular tree must be well nigh 500 years old. The fact that it was 

 not cut down when the road was made is indicative of great size more 

 than one hundred years ago. 



