12 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



was cultivated in, and spread from that garden all over our 

 farms.' " 



I have thus presented, much more fully than was my original 

 intention, the history of some of the remarkable orchards and 

 individual trees found to have existed in the State during the 

 seventeenth century. I do not claim to have presented anything 

 new, (it is not the province of history to create facts) but to have 

 collected from various and independent sources conclusive proof 

 of the proposition laid down at the outset, that orcharding in 

 Maine has a history quite as remote and instructive as in any 

 other of the States. The citations made are chiefly from standard 

 works of general or local history, and are all the more valuable 

 because originally written as mere incidents of general history, 

 and without the temptation to magnify their importance in the 

 interest of Pomology, If they are thought tedious, I can only 

 say that I have endeavored to make them sufBcieutly i'ull to show 

 their relation to times, places and persons ; and my principal difiS- 

 culty has been in determining, among the mass of materials found, 

 what to omit in order to bring the work within reasonable limits. 



In itself it is a matter of no consequence whether the old 

 orchards of Maine are a few years older or more modern than 

 those of other States ; but every well authenticated record of suc- 

 cess in the past is an encouragement for the future, and when 

 people assert that " fruit cannot be grown profitably in Maine," 

 it is well to show them that it has been done, and to call to mind 

 the homely adage, " what man has done man may do." 



The instances already cited of successful fruit culture, will serve 

 to illustrate the period from the beginning of our history down to 

 the commencement of the present century. Toward the end of 

 that period orchards were multiplied in the State, not only on the 

 seaboard but in the interior, to such an extent that it would be 

 impossible within the proper limits of this report to record their 

 history. I shall therefore, in the few remaining pages to be 

 devoted to this part of the work, speak of persons and societies 

 and of eras in fruit culture rather than of trees and orchards. 



The beginning of the present century marks an important era in 

 the history of improved fruit culture in the State, and the materials 

 are not wanting for a full history of the subject from that time to 

 the present. 



