120 



discovered these apples, perceived their good qualities and 

 disseminated them bv his own name. 



In discussing the apple question at the Institute at Law- 

 rence, the history of the Baldwin apple was spoken of, and 

 a report of the meeting was published in the Salem Gaz- 

 ette ; soon after, tlie writer received a letter dated Red 

 Wing, Minnesota, from a person formei'ly of Danvers, giv- 

 ing the following information : The Baldwin apple, he 

 says, was introduced into Danvers, aboiit the year 1812 or 

 1813; also, the Pecker apples wei'e introduced about the 

 same time, that proved to be the same variety. They were 

 introduced into other parts of the County about the same 

 time. 



He further informs us that in 1824 he assisted in setting 

 out several hundred Baldwin a])ple trees on the Derby farm 

 in Danvers (now Peabody). The land was highly manured 

 and kept cultivated ; the trees grew vigorously. 



Setting out so large an orchard with a new variety of 

 apples so little known shows the strong confidence the peo- 

 ple then had in the value of that new variety of apples. 

 The result has proved that their confidence was not mis- 

 placed. 



But, alas for this beautiful orchai'd ! It was destined for 

 destruction. In the winter of 1831-32, tlie trees having 

 had seven years' vigorous growth, were nearly all killed- 

 The autumn was unusually mild, until about the middle of 

 November, when the weather changed suddenly to unusual- 

 ly cold, the commencement of a long, cold winter, with 

 sleighing from about the 20th of Nov. to April. The 

 sudden change from warm to cold, when nature had not 

 performed its usual woik of preparing the trees for winter, 

 proved disastrous to many of the young orchards, particu- 

 larly the Baldwin apples, as they were a vigorous grower, 

 and the more thrifty the trees, the greater the loss sustained. 

 We were not personally acquainted with the orchard spoken 



