66 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1893. 



From the number of different kinds of trees in the town one would 

 judge that the first concerted or general work in street tree-planting 

 was after the almost universal practice of setting elms out exclu- 

 sively, and before the idea became so prevalent that nothing but a 

 maple is suitable for this work. This happy result, probably, had 

 its source in the work of Mr. John Fayerweather, who came to West- 

 borough about ninety years ago and settled upon the farm now, and 

 for the past twenty-five years, known as the Whitney place. This 

 estate is located on Main Street, and about a half-mile south of the 

 railroad station. Mr. Fayerweather was a man, extremely rare in 

 his day and generation, who believed in tree planting, and he planted 

 them by the score and hundreds with the result that to-day the Whit- 

 ney place is one of the finest estates in Worcester County, as regards 

 its arboreal features. It not only has a great number of trees, but 

 these are in extensive variety. Along the street are, among others, 

 several rock maples, that for girth of trunk and amplitude of top or 

 crown are of gigantic size, and as notable for their beauty and sym- 

 metry as for their size. The largest of these maples girths at four 

 feet from the ground 11 feet and 2 inches. At six feet above its 

 roots the tree expands into a capital or table, which has a circumfer- 

 ence of 14 feet and 8 inches. From this table-like growth the tree 

 divides into some half-dozen branches, either one of which constitute 

 a great tree in itself. These in turn send out numerous branches, 

 which together form the top of an ideal maple tree. The height of 

 this tree is eighty feet. The diameter of the spread of its branches, 

 from east to west, is eighty-two feet. This has been diminished by 

 the removal of certain branches on the west, or Main Street side of 

 the tree, for the benefit of travel. Three other of these maples 

 girth respectively 8 feet and 9 inches, 8 feet and 4 inches, and 7 feet 

 and 8 inches. The branches of these trees, like the first named, are 

 many, and ramify in a manner to form a magnificent top. Again, the 

 height of each is remarkable. 



The balms of Gilead and other poplar trees of this estate that were 

 planted by Mr. Fayerweather, include five that girth at three feet 

 from the ground as follows : 7 feet, 5 inches ; 8 feet, 1 inch ; 8 feet, 

 1 inch ; 8 feet, 9 inches, and 7 feet, 8 inches. A sycamore maple, a 

 catalpa, a weeping willow, numerous linden and ailanthus trees, all 

 of great size, are planted upon the grounds of this estate, and all 

 were planted by Mr. John Fayerweather seventy-five years ago. 



In the easterly part of Westborough is the splendid estate owned 

 and occupied by liev. John D. Potter, widely known as a preacher 



