STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 79 



the following : That a tract of land twelve miles square, embracing 

 Hubbardstou and three other towns, was purchased of the Indians, 

 and that the owners of the tract had encouraged about thirty 

 families to settle upon it before or near the 3'ear 1750. There is an 

 account of one Jonathan Allen setting out the first orchard, bring- 

 ing forty trees from Lexington on the back of a horse. The year 

 not given. Now putting things together, my friend in Barre could 

 have taken scions from the original (?) tree in 1845, and I found 

 many trees bearing the same apple in 1848 — trees appearing to be 

 a hundred j'ears old or more ; and if I have made a wide error in 

 an over-estimate of such age, then these trees must have been at 

 their best estate when m}- father left there In 1806 ; and if grafted 

 from Hubbardston, would undoubtedly have borne the name as now, 

 and that name familiar to him. The facts substantially as I now 

 give them, were given out through the Maine Farmer when I had 

 them fresh in hand. My belief is, that the tree in Hubbardston was 

 a graft from the older settlement on the south — but it is a matter of 

 little consequence now. 



With the nursery disposed of, and my few acres fairly stocked for 

 family use, I took no further special interest in the cause of fruit 

 culture. My fine stock of plums and cherries went out sudclenlj' 

 with the malady of black-knot, and I am not yet able to replace 

 them, as the tendency of those fruits in that direction has not 

 ceased. 



Pear trees succeed fairl}' here, and an increasing interest in that 

 fruit is apparent. Of grapes, I have, or have had, thirty varieties 

 on trial ; but the last two seasons have given little encouragement 

 for continued efforts with them. 



I can do no more for the fruit cause with my hands, and can only 

 advise the people of our county of Piscataquis to continue to work 

 for good apples and pears, believing that in and through them will 

 come many of the blessings of life. 



NOTES OX PEAE CULTUEE. 



By D. P. True, of Leeds Centre. 



Pear growing in this State is largely on the increase, man3' of the 

 trees that have been put out in the past have already borne their 

 first fruits, and those who have waited and watched feel a new in- 

 terest as they reap the reward of their labor. But to secure the 



