694 Foreign Notices : — North America. 



York side, stands a buttonwood tree (Platanus occidentalis), which, for its 

 great size and capacity, surj'asses, periiaps, any one in the United States. It 

 is 72 ft. in circumference, with a hollow 16 ft. in diameter, and has held within 

 that space seven men on horseback. Tradition reports it gave shelter and 

 afforded protection to many families during the lowering days of the American 

 revolution. {Yorkville Pioneer.') — J. M. PJiiladelfhia, Sept. 17. 1836. 



Endicot Pear Tree. — The Salem (Massachusetts) Gazette mentions that 

 the famous pear tree, planted by Governor Endicot in 1628, on his farm in 

 Danvers, has borne this season (1831) three bushels of pears. The species is 

 the Bon Chretien. — Id. 



Large Pears. — At the time I was taking in my pears, I weighed six, and 

 their weight was 9 lb. The largest weighed 25ioz. ; measuring ISJin. in 

 circumference, and 16f in. lengthwise. Two of the pears are depositecfin the 

 office of the Free Press (Philadelphia) for inspection. — Job Roberts. Whitpain 

 Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Oct. 1831. 



[Mr. Roberts is an excellent farmer, and a highly respectable member of 

 the Society of Friends. I saw the two pears in the Free Press office. — J. M. 

 Philadelphia, Sept. 17. 1836.] 



Large Virginian Apple Tree. — Romney, Virginia, Oct. 24. 1835. We are 

 indebted to a highly respectable gentleman of Hardy county for the following 

 facts relative to a mammoth apple tree on the farm of Captain Daniel 

 M'Neill of that county. Our informant says that he took the climensions of 

 this tree carefully, and accurately ; and found it to be 45 ft. in height, and 

 55 ft. in breadth ; circumference of the trunk 9 ft. 4 in. About 7 ft. from the 

 root, there are eleven branches, the average size of which are 3 ft. 10 in. in 

 circumference. But the most remarkable fact about this tree is the quantity 

 of fruit it bore the present year; 180 bushels of apples having been taken 

 from it thus autumn. Four or five bushels of such as were bruised, and 

 partially and entirely rotten, were left under the tree ,• and a good deal of its 

 fruit must have been taken away by different persons through the summer and 

 autumn : so that the real quantity it bore must have been very near, if not 

 quite, 200 bushels. The apples are very large. It stands near the south 

 branch, on very rich soil. I have been informed that it did not bear any fruit 

 until after it was twenty years old. It grew spontaneously where it now 

 stands, and, although forty years old, still continues to grow. — J. M. Phila- 

 delphia, Jan. 6. 1836. 



The Macliira thrives in Mrs. M'Mahon's garden wonderfully, and last year 

 her trees produced nearly three bushels of fruit. She gave me one apple to send 

 to you ; and she has many trees to sell at 2 dollars each. The last winter, 

 which has been the coldest since the British artillery and troops crossed from 

 New York to Jersey, in the winter of 1779-80, was a hard one for the poor 

 deer, the hunters making great destruction among them in the interior, by 

 pursuing them on the frozen snow. — J. HI. Philadelphia, April 27. 1836. 



The Tea Plant is said to have been successfully cultivated in the Ohio 

 state. A Mr. John Piatt announces that he has succeeded in growing, drying, 

 and preparing tea equal in quality to the imported " young hyson." He offers 

 to give seed and instructions to those who wish to become growers ; and he 

 states that he is led to do this solely from a wish to benefit the country in which 

 he has passed the greater part of his life. He is now fourscore years of age. 

 (jilorn. Chron., July 21.) In Legarre's Southei^n Agriculturist for the United 

 States, published in 1828, are the following observations : — " On enquiry, I 

 find that the tea tree grows perfectly well in the open air near Charleston, 

 where it has been raised for the last 15 years at M. Noisette's nursery. Tea, 

 as exported from China, would cost too much in the preparation; for each 

 leaf goes through a particular process there. But, as this is probably done 

 with a view of economising room, and preserving its freshness in the long 

 sea voyage to which it is exposed, we might, in raising it as a crop, use it and 

 export it, at least northwardly, dried in the same manner as senna or hops. 

 (South, Agri., &c., vol. i. p. 18.) 



