58 I'HILOSOPHICAL TKAN SACTIONS. [aNNO 1724. 



The people, of late years, have run so much upon oichards, that in a village 

 near Boston, consisting of about 40 families, they made near 3000 barrels of 

 cyder in the year 1 7'2 1 : and in another town, of 200 families, in the same year, 

 they made near 10,000 barrels. Some of their apple trees will make 6, some 

 have made 7 barrels of cyder; but this is not common; and the apples will 

 yield from 7 to Q bushels for a barrel of cyder: a good apple tree will measure 

 from 6 to 10 feet in girt. A fine pearmain, which at a foot from the ground 

 measured 10 feet 4 inches round, has borne 38 bushels of as fine pearmains, as 

 ever were seen in England. A Kentish pippin at 3 feet from the ground, ^ 

 feet in girt ; a golden russetin 6 feet round. The largest apple tree, that 

 Mr. D. could find, was 10 feet 6 inches round; but this was no graft. 



An orange pear tree grows the largest, and yields the fairest fruit. He 

 observed one of them, near 40 feet high, that measured 6 feet and 6 inches 

 in girt, a yard from the ground, and has borne 30 bushels at a time; and he 

 measured an orange pear fruit, that was 1 1 inches round the bulge. He had a 

 warden pear tree, that measured 5 feet 6 inches round. One of his neighbours 

 had a bergamot pear tree, that was brought from England in a box, about the 

 year ]643, that measured 6 feet about, and has borne 22 bushels of fine 

 pears in one year. About 20 years before, the owner took a cyon, and grafted 

 it on a common hedge pear, but the fruit proved not quite so good, and the 

 rind is thicker than that of the original. 



The peach trees are large and fruitful, and commonly bear in 3 years from 

 the stone. Mr. D. had one in his garden, of 12 years growth, that measured 

 2 feet and an inch in girt, a yard from the ground, which 2 years before 

 bore near a bushel of fine peaches. The common cherries are not so good 

 as the Kentish cherries of England; and they have no dukes, or heart cherries, 

 unless in two or three gardens. 



Some years before, Mr. D. measured a platanus occidentalis, or button 

 wood tree, as they are called, that was Q yards round, and it held its thick- 

 ness a great way up. This tree, when cut down, made 22 cord of wood. 

 A gentleman informed him, that in the forest, he met with a straight ash, 

 that grew like a pillar, to a great height, and free from limbs, that measured 

 14 feet 8 inches round, near a yard from the ground; and Mr. D. met with 

 a sassafras tree, that measured 5 feet 3 inches in girt. Among the trees of 

 quick and easy growth, the button wood beforementioned, and the locust tree, 

 are the most remarkable : the locust tree may be called the American manna. 

 Mr. D. has known a seed of it blown off from the tree into his garden, that 

 took root of itself, and in less than 2 years was got above 6 feet high, and as 

 thick as a common walking cane. The platanus he frequently propagated by 



