212 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



such as sauces, preserves, tarts and various kinds of pastry, 

 that can be made from them, arc manifold. As an article for 

 the market that always meets with a ready sale, apples have no 

 rivals. An orchard standing on a single acre of ground will 

 afford more profit than can be obtained from the acre in any 

 other way. I will show this hereafter. 



BRIEF HISTORY OF THE APPLE TREE. 



The apple tree has a very remote origin. According to an 

 ancient tradition Adam was choked with an apple tendered him 

 by the fair hand of Eve ; said accident caused a remarkable 

 protuberance on the anterior part of his throat. This pecu- 

 liarity has been transmitted and inherited by all the sons and 

 daughters of the original proprietors of Eden. The old anato- 

 mists made use of this curious tradition, and named the promi- 

 nence in question, " Pomum Adami,'" or Adam's apple, and it 

 bears that name to the present day. Skeptics will probably 

 doubt the above narration, but they will credit those ancient 

 Greek and Roman naturalists who described the apple tree and 

 its fruit with great accuracy. Theophrastus, Heroditus and 

 Columella, all make mention of the apple tree. Pliny says, 

 that the Greeks called them " Medica," from the country where 

 they first originated. Pliny described them as a fruit with a 

 delicate, tender skin, easily pared off. He says of the crab 

 apples, or " wildlings" that they are small and sharply sour, 

 for which peculiarity they receive many curses. Columella, 

 a practical husbandman who lived and wrote long before 

 Pliny's time, not only describes the apple tree but also the 

 process of grafting, and gives several different methods which 

 he says were handed down from the " olden time." 



Apple trees were brought to this country very early. In 

 1629 by the order of the " Governor and company of Massachu- 

 setts Bay, in New England," apple seeds were brought from 

 England into the colonies ; and Governor's Island was granted 

 to Governor Winthrop in 1632, on condition that he should 

 plant a vineyard, and an orchard. Tlie pilgrims also cultivated 

 orchards near Plymouth rock soon after their arrival. 



Many of our best varieties of apples originated here among 

 us. The Baldwin originated in Wilmington, near Boston, more 

 than one hundred years ago, and for a long time was called 



