I7th January, A. D. 1895. 



ESSAY 



BY 



O. B. HADWEN, Worcester, Mass. 

 Theme : — A Century of Pomology. 



I AM asked to give some recollections of the pomology in New Eng- 

 land for the past century. It may not be becoming for one who has 

 lived but three-score years and ten, to attempt an elaborate history, 

 or to delineate the vast progress that has taken place duriog this 

 period of time. 



The early settlers inherited and brought with them the innate fond- 

 ness of, and the necessity and value, that the garden and orchard 

 contributed to their sustenance and good living; as early as 1621 

 Edward Winslow speaks of native grapes, strawberries, gooseberries, 

 and plums ; records of tree planting come down to us, for, in the 

 year 1648, Peregrine White, the first man born of English parentage 

 in New England, planted the first apple tree, which outlived several 

 generations of men, and is described as a giant of its kind. 



The pear tree imported from England by Governor Prince, and 

 planted by him at his homestead about 1640, was described in 1836 

 as a flourishing tree, when two hundred years old, and tlien bearing 

 fifteen bushels of fruit a year. 



Another pear tree, still standing in Yarmouth, was planted in 1640. 

 Besides these trees, many others planted by the first settlers before 

 1700, are yet standing, and a still greater number since the com- 

 mencement of the present century ; and while the trees are represented 

 as strong and vigorous growers, the fruit was but of inferior quality, 

 as judged by the present standard. 



Many trees of the Hightop Sweeting, still growing in Marshfield, 

 Mass., are reputed to have been planted more than two hundred 

 years ago. 



