NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



429 



Union awaking to her interests in agricultural 

 matters, and should be most happy to discuss 

 them for a few days with brother Gaines, on his 

 own hearth-stone (we hope he is not a bachelor) 

 on some of those balmy days in Florida next win- 

 ter, when the winds are howling and the snow fly- 

 ing wildly here. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GOV. ENDICOTT AN HORTICULTURIST. 



BY S. P. FOWLER. 



Perhaps it is not generally known, that Gov. 

 John Endicott was probably one of the first per- 

 sons who cultivated fruit, and planted nurseries 

 in Massachusetts. And we intend, by this com- 

 munication, to exhibit a new phase in the character 

 of him, whom the gifted Hawthorne styles " The 

 severest Puritan of all, who laid the rock founda- 

 tions of New England," viz. : that of an amateur 

 in Horticulture. In proof of our assertion, of the 

 love he bore for the cultivation of fruits, and for 

 agriculture in general — we find in the first letters 

 he sent home, he requested his friends in England, 

 to send over to him fruit stones, and kernels, grain 

 for seeds, wheat, barley and rye, and domesticated 

 animals. In answer to these requests, a letter 

 was received the 19th of April, 1G29, wherein the 

 Company in England inform him, they are disap- 

 pointed ' in sending the things ordered, but [God 

 willing] they propose to send them by the next 

 vessel. Rev. Mr. Higginson, the first minister of 

 Nahumkeag, now Salem, who arrived there June 

 BOth, 1G29, says, we found abundance of corn 

 planted, and our Governor hath a store of green 

 peas, grown in his garden, as good as I ever eat in 

 England. He adds, he hath already planted a 

 vineyard, also there were planted in his garden, 

 mulberries, plums, raspberries, currants, chesnuts, 

 filberts, walnuts, small nuts, hurtleberries, and 

 haws of white thorn. By this we learn, that Mr. 

 Endicott had thus early, made considerable pro- 

 gress in gardening. And it would seem from the 

 observation of Mr. Higginson, that green peas 

 were about as early in 1029 as with us at the pre- 

 sent day. It was here in this garden in Salem, 

 he probably planted his famous pear tree, together 

 with other fruit trees ; and upon receiving the 

 gran! of the Orchard Farm, they were removed 

 there probably sometime after the land was broken 

 up by the plow, which was in the year 1G33. — 

 This' venerable tree, now probably more than 220 

 years of age, we visited to-day [Aug. 9th] and 

 found on some of its branches, it had made a 

 growth of some three or four inches this season, 

 although it bears the marks of extreme decrepid 

 old age. I should think it would produce this 

 autumn, a peck of pears, very fair in their appear- 

 ance. The tree has thorny wood, and was un- 

 doubtedly never grafted. 



Robert Manning, Esq. , in describing the Endicott 

 Pear in Mr. Hovey's Magazine for 1837, says in 

 some seasons the fruit is good in quality ; but it 

 can only be placed in the second class of table 

 pears. It is ripe in October. We think there is 

 good reason for believing that the Endicott Pear 

 'free was raised from seed, received with the seeds 

 of other fruit trees from England in 1G29, and 

 planted in the Governor's garden at his residence 

 in Salem. And all those young trees vines, shrubs 



and perhaps flowers first planted here, and men- 

 tioned by Mr. Higginson, upon his first arrival at 

 Nahumkeag, were after they became of sufficient 

 size, and the soil of the Orchard Farm made mel- 

 low by the plow, removed thither. That Gov. En- 

 dicott had extensive orchards, gardens, and nur- 

 series of fruit trees, may safely be inferred, from 

 reading bis will written in 1650, where he says, 

 " I give to my dear and loving wife, Elizabeth En- 

 dicott, all my farm called Orchard, lying within 

 the bounds of Salem, and ye orchards, nurseries of 

 fruit trees, gardens, fences, &c, thereunto apper- 

 taining." 



In 1G48, Governor Endicott appears to have de- 

 voted much attention to the cultivation of fruit 

 trees. We find at this period, that he exchanged 

 five hundred apple trees, of three years growth, 

 with a William Trask, for two hundred acres of 

 land ! Only think of those sales of the olden 

 times, ye nurserymen of the present day. Two 

 apple trees for one acre of land. Gov. Endicott, in 

 a letter written to Gov. Winthrop in 1043, amongst 

 other things, says " The maid is now going along 

 with us to the Orchard, where your Sonne shall 

 be heartilie welcome." That he was in the habit 

 of inviting his friends to visit his grounds, and par- 

 take of his fruits, we may also infer, from this 

 letter. And that he possessed the feelings of an 

 Amateur, and liked to exhibit his garden to visitors. 

 He doubtless invited this fair Puritan maiden to 

 the Orchard, to be regaled by its fruits, and the 

 sonne, it is fair to presume, received his invitation 

 in consideration of the pleasure he might derive 

 from the company of the maid. And it was here 

 in this garden, enclosed by pallisadoes, that the 

 worthy Puritan, with his mustache and imperial, for 

 he wore both, could be seen with the gentle 

 maiden, pacing those shady walks, that extended 

 from his mansion to the banks of the river. Who 

 this maid and sonne were, who were invited thus to 

 receive the hospitalities of the Governor, we are 

 not informed. History, as well as tradition, is as 

 silent as the grave. The young man however 

 might have been Adam Winthrop, the eldest son 

 of Gov. Winthrop, by his third wife, then in his 

 twenty-fourth year. 



From a letter sent to Governor Winthrop, dated 

 April 12th, 1G31, we find that Mr. Endicott at- 

 tached more importance to agriculture, than to 

 legislation. He says, "I thought good, further to 

 write what my judgment is, for the dismissing of 

 the Court 'till the corne be sett. It will hinder 

 us that are farre off, exceedingly, and not further 

 you there. Men's labour is precious here, in 

 corne setting time, the plantation being as yet so 

 weak." The value of the crop of Indian Corn 

 has never appeared before to us so great, as it did 

 upon reading this extract. What would the far- 

 mers in our Legislature think, when sitting in the 

 State House late in the Spring, to have the Gene- 

 ral Court dismissed by the Governor, and they sent 

 home to plant their corn, or perform other neces- 

 sary business on their farms? We are not certain, 

 however, but what this method of closing our long 

 sessions would be an improvement, in our legisla- 

 tion. And we are amongst those, who would like 

 sometimes to see this old custom, like the hat and 

 cane presentation, in our Senate of last winter, re- 

 vived. The Indians likewise attached great value 

 to the corn crop, and it was considered, in our 

 earlv wars with them, a great stroTra nf r,. ,; --v to 



