Middlesex Horticultural Society. 169 



uable varieties of fruits among the farms and gardens of the 

 vicinity, presents a curious fact in horticultural science. Sev- 

 eral of these, with which the books are hardly familiar, may 

 be met with on our county farms, and the product of old 

 trees. The venerable relic of the far famed Chelmsford pear 

 is yet existent on one of the oldest farms of that town. It is 

 a natural fruit, of excellent market qualities, and known as the 

 Chelmsford, Tyngsboro' and ]Mogul Summer. A mere thin 

 shell of the once extraordinary trunk yet bears a few scraggy 

 branches, and from its roots are four strong suckers, all of 

 which are identical in fruit with the trunk. Before the great 

 gale of Se{)tember, 1816, it was a very large tree, but being 

 much injured by that tornado, it rapidly declined to its present 

 condition. The stem, however, bears an occasional crop, but 

 was entirely barren the past season. Mr. Manning, the great 

 pomologist, of Salem, remarks, that it is a pear of the largest 

 size, and extremely productive. For many years he searched 

 in vain for its origin; sparing no expense in importing large 

 pears from the French nurseries to identify it. Inquiry on my 

 part enabled me to confer a trifling favor on my friend, and to 

 establish the claim of old Chelmsford to a fine native fruit. 



The history of the valuable Baldwin apple is familiar to you, 

 bearing in its cognomen a family name yet existent in our midst. 

 A fine early apple has often been exhibited on your tables, 

 originating also in Chelmsford, and known as the Spalding. 

 The addition of these three natural fruits in our vicinity to pomol- 

 ogy, is sufficient to encourage a research into natural varieties, 

 which are, as yet, but little known. It should be our endeavor 

 to find these out, and no pains should be spared in the attempt. 

 Useless, or next to futile, is it to import rare and costly fruits from 

 Europe, which will survive our culture for a few years only, 

 while our own country is the region and natural location of the 

 finest sorts. We must artificially cultivate or raise from seed 

 our own, that they may take the places of those which are be- 

 coming defective. Horticulture should, in a great degree, be 

 a dumeslic^ instead of a foreign subject of study and regard; 

 and in your city where could it find greater examples of the 

 benefit of such? 



The culture of the grape n^.ight be most successful in the 

 vicinity of this city. Every south and western wall might 

 cluster with valuable and delicious fruit. It is to be suspected 

 that a prejudice against grapes has been raised from the former 

 undue attention to those either of foreign growth, or of a more 

 VOL. VII. — NO. v. 22 



