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INTRODUCTION. 



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" But forward in the name of God, graffe, set, plant and nomrish 

 up trees in every corner of your grounds, the labour is small, 

 the cost is nothing, the commoditie is great, yourselves shall have 

 plenty, the poore shall have somewhat in lime of want to relieve 

 their necessitie, and God shall reward your good mindes and dili- 

 gence." 



So wrote the enthusiastic Gerarde, two hundred and fifty years 

 ago, and surely no better advice can be given to the land-owners 

 of New England at the present time*. For, when it is taken into 

 consideration, that the soil and climate of this section of the 

 country are most admirably adapted to orchard cultivation, that 

 the New England apples are among the finest flavored of any 

 grown in the world, that the home market for fruit never has 

 been, and that the foreign market probably never can be supplied, 

 one must admit that nothing is apparently more feasible, than to 

 make the lands of Worcester county and other sections of the 

 eastern states far more valuable than the most productive wheat- 

 fields of the west, or the richest cotton-grounds of the south, so 

 that the ruddy-cheeked Baldwin apple and the d'Aremberg pear 

 may take their easily attainable rank among our chief articles of 

 exportation. 



While, therefore, so many mills compel each little rivulet to 

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