STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. f 



quite rotted out, but some leaf and fruit-bearing branches bore up 

 with vigor against the decaj'^ and waste of time. The fruit was of 

 small size, but fair ; and several of the apples were gathered by the 

 Hon. S. P. Benson, with a view to raise new stocks from the seeds." 



Mr. Sewall also communicates information respecting some very 

 old trees upon the farm of his father, Rufus Sewall, Esq., in 

 Edgecomb, and in that vicinity, as follows : 



" Orchard relics (of the pear, the large black cherry and apple) 

 half a century ago marked the east bank of the Sheepscot, below 

 Wiscasset bay, of which but one or two specimens now remain. 

 A " pumpkin sweet," thirty inches in diameter at its base, spread- 

 ing into a top of immense size and hight, known to have been an 

 old tree in 1805, but still fruitful, (the fruit elongated and of fair 

 size) stands on this farm. A pear tree stood on a higher elevation 

 and further back. Its fruit was small and hard, but of agreeable 

 flavor. It was much decayed, but still fruitful, half a century 

 ago ; and has now entirely disappeared. There were apple trees 

 of large size, bearing acid fruit, which have long since disappeared. 

 Of the planting of these trees no /record exists even in tradition. 

 They mark the remains of ancient civilized homes of European 

 life, and can only be accounted for on the hypothesis of an early 

 English or French * colonization at this point." 



Mr. Sewall also calls my attention to the following account 

 which is condensed from his valuable work, " The Ancient Domin- 

 ions of Maine :" 



In 1652, John Mason obtained title to a tract of land from 

 " Oven's Mouth " to Sheepscot falls, which covered the site of an 

 ancient plantation, appearing in the earliest records of English life 

 in New England as the " Sheepscot Farms," of some fifty families, 

 and known then as the " garden of the East," and is the site ot 



* It will be remembered that for a long period in the early history of Maine, the 

 French government claimed jurisdiction of all the territory eastward of the Kennebec, 

 and made many attempts at colonization along the coast. (Williamson's History of 

 Maine; Johnston's Pemaquid.) The French people, in rural communities, have always 

 been distinguished for their horticultural tastes. Hence, Longfellow, (Evangeline, part 

 first,) in describing " the beautiful village of Grand-Pre," finds occasion to say — 

 " West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields 

 Spreading afar and unfenccd o'er the plain;" 

 — and I am informed by Dr. C. C. Hamilton,' of Cornwallis, N. S., (a gentleman of high 

 culture, and an enterprising pomologist,) whose estates lie in the same "beautiful val- 

 ley," that as to the " orchards" at least, the lines quoted are literally true. He says 

 some of the old trees are still, or were recently standing, in a decayed condition. The 

 fruit was mostly sour and of inferior quality — similar to much of that found in the very 

 old orchaids of Maine. 



