NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



449 



he would not be obliged to pay two dollars fifty 

 cents per barrel ; neither would he be able to 

 get them for one dollar twenty-five cents ; good 

 apples should be — and I hope I shall live to see 

 the time when all kinds of good fruit, will be with- 

 in the reach of every family, however humble their 

 circumstances ; but when they are worth from two 

 and a half to three dollars a barrel, it places them 

 beyond their reach ; when they are very low, it is 

 true they may buy, but they must, as we see, be 

 deprived of apples every second year, which need 

 not, and should not be the case. I intended 

 last spring to have picked all the fruit off of some 

 of my Baldwin trees, but in the hurry of busi- 

 ness, neglected to do so. Should I live until the 

 spring of 1854, I shall try the experiment on 

 my Baldwins to considerable extent, and I would 

 advise others to do the same and make known the 

 result. I have Baldwin trees that bear odd years, 

 from which I cut all my buds to work into nursery 

 trees. j. f. c. n. 



Newton Centre, Aug. 30, 1852. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE WEATHER. 



Mr. Editor: — Enclosed you have a memoran- 

 dum of the heat during the mouth of July. The 

 heat has been unusual. Twenty-six days of thirty- 

 one the thermometer has been over eighty. Five 

 days ovar ninety. 



At sunrise. At 12 o'clock. At 2 or 3. At sundown. 



We have had, during this month, 2 3-16 inches 

 rain, — a little more than we had in June ; but 

 vegetation suffered much more than it did in June. 

 The weather has been exceedingly hot. Previous 

 to the 26th, the top of the ground was very dry. 

 The two last rains have relieved the top of the 

 ground a little, but it will, without rain, soon be 

 as dry as on the twenty-sixth. Probably the top 

 of the ground has not been so dry for a number of 

 years. 



Corn and potatoes, in fact every kind of vege- 

 tation, has suffered more or less. Old pastures 

 look dry, and cows complain, and are short of feed. 

 We must stir the ground as often as we can in 

 our gardens, to keep it moist. Stirring the ground 

 deep does have a wonderful effect ; no one that 

 has not tried it can duly appreciate the benefit. 



In 1805 we had no rain from June 25 until Au- 

 gust, — thirty-five to forty days. Nor did we have 

 a cloudy day from June 25 to July 25. In that 

 year we had good crops of hay; but other crops 

 were short. 



In looking over my memorandum for 1847, I 

 find the thermometer went over 80 twenty days in 

 succession, and over 90 eleven times during that 

 time, which was warmer than this month ; that 

 is, the degree was higher for the twenty days. 



Daniel Leland. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GOV. ENDICOTT AN HORTICULTURIST. 



BY S. P. FOWLER. 

 [Continued from page 430] 



The Orchard Farm, a grant of land of three 

 hundred acres, by the Court of Assistants, was 

 the place where Gov. Endicott first cultivated his 

 trees, and planted his vines. It is very generally 

 known, that this fafm was situated in what was 

 then within the bounds of Salem, or Nahumkeag, 

 now known as Danversport. A more particular 

 description of this place may be found on the 74th 

 page of the New England Farmer, of the present 

 year. We have said in our first communication 

 that the land was first broken up by the plow, in the 

 spring of 1633. On this occasion we may suppose 

 that Gov. Endicott left his residence in Salem, to 

 visit the Orchard Farm, and wdtness the operation 

 of his new plow, probably brought over in the ship 

 William, which arrived at Plymouth, on the 22d of 

 February, of the same year. His usual manner of 

 visiting his farm in those days, was by embarking 

 in his shallop, and passing up Bass and Water's 

 rivers, and landing at a small cove near his man- 

 sion. Upon leaving his house in Salem, which 

 stood at the corner of AVashington and Church 

 Streets, he met his beloved ministerial friend and 

 pastor, Mr. Skelton, and after passing the usual 

 salutations, invited him to take a seat in his boat, 

 and visit the " Necke of land," the worthy minis- 

 ter's lately acquired grant of two hundred acres, 

 and adjoining the Orchard Farm. Mr. Skelton ex- 

 cused himself from complying with the invitation 

 of his worshipful friend, by informing him he had 

 been called to visit Roger Conant, jun., "the first 

 born child in Salem," who laid sick of a fever. 

 After a pleasant sail up the river, he landed at the 

 cove, near the spring, where he found all things 

 in readiness to commence plowing. 



There were upon the grounds, waiting orders, 

 William Poole and Edward Grovee. Goodman 

 Grovee held the plow. What an interesting event 

 are we about to record, which took place upon a 

 fine day in May, in 1633 ! Probably nothing less 

 than the turning up of the first soil to the sun in 

 the county of Essex, with the plow share by one 

 of the early Governors of Massachusetts. Here 

 was substituted the venerated plow, for the rude 

 implement of the Indian. The aborigines were ac- 

 customed, in the preparing of their grounds for the 

 cultivation of corn, when covered with wood, to 

 destroy the trees by beating off with stones the 

 bark around their trunks, near the roots, thus 

 girdling them. They would then open the ground 

 among the dead trees, with sharp sticks, and plant 

 their corn in hills. In 1637, there were but thirty- 

 seven plows in all Massachusetts. The town of 

 Salem in the same year passed a vote, granting 



