December 30, 189 1.] 



Garden and Forest. 



623 



by its present owner, and which has long yielded valuable 

 annual crops of timber for fuel and other purposes. It be- 

 gins to look really forest-like. The Pitch Pine {Pinus rigida) 

 is the tree which has been chiefly planted in this region. 

 There are no considerable public holdings for places of re- 

 sort in Barnstable. Old citizens say the town formerly held 

 several hundred acres of town or common land, but that 

 these tracts were seized by various persons who lived on 

 them till they gained title by occupancy. 



Yarmouth had, in earliest times, a little reserve, or common 

 field of clay for making brick for the people. It was much 

 used long ago, but not in recent years. A few years ago the 

 town voted to fill it in and fence it, and it is now a pretty 

 bit of common, with trees and grass, perhaps an acre in ex- 

 tent. There was formerly a town-landing on Bass River, but 

 it was sold a few years ago. In early days Yarmouth granted 

 portions of her common lands to various persons who were 

 to retain these holdings as long as they "improved," that is, 

 used them. These titles were not intended to be transfer- 

 able to other citizens, but to revert to the town if the first 

 holders should leave the lands. But the persons to whom 

 the grants were made sold their rights, or claims, to others, 

 who transferred them in turn, and the town's title was ig- 

 nored. The town appointed a committee of lawyers and 

 others to inquire into the matter. They reported that it did 

 >ot appear to be worth while for the town to undertake to 

 assert title to these lands. Bass River, between Yarmouth 

 1 Dennis, yielded $600 to each town, last year, from the sale 

 the right to the herring fishery. 



bennis is a beautiful town, full of quiet, satisfying scenery, 

 w a Cedar-swamp here, with unusually large timber. The 

 1 Whaling Ground " on the shore is an interesting town- 

 Jing. The editor of the Register, in Yarmouth, who has 

 .4 remarkable knowledge of the local history of the region, 

 told me that the Old Whaling Ground belongs jointly to the 

 towns of Dennis and Yarmouth, as it was a common, or town, 

 possession when the two towns were one. There is a very old 

 Indian burying-ground on the shore of Scargo Lake, in 

 Dennis, about an acre in extent. The town fenced it last 

 year. The title is in the two towns, Dennis and Yarmouth. 

 The Indians buried here were of the Nobscusset tribe. There 

 is no park or common in Dennis belonging to the town. An 

 acre or more around Liberty Hall, owned by an association, 

 is called the Park. It is not, at present, much used or cared 

 for. 



There is a pretty little circular green near the church in 

 Brewster, which belongs to the parish, and is, possibly, a frag- 

 ment of the ancient Training-field. There is a town-landing on 

 Cape Cod Bay, perhaps 200 feet of shore-line, at the end of a 

 street. The town owns a herring or alewife brook, and ap- 

 points an alewife committee at the annual town meeting to 

 catch the fish and dispose of them. Formerly the fish were 

 abundant, and the town would often have 300 barrels of ale- 

 wives a year. A family of eight persons would then have a 

 right to a barrel of fish, and could buy more at thirty or forty 

 cents a barrel. The committee now sells the fish to anybody 

 who wants them. The gross catch is small of late years, not 

 worth more than $100 usually. The population is decreasing, 

 but it is likely soon to receive considerable annual reinforce- 

 ments of summer inhabitants. 



There is a green of perhaps an acre and a half in front of 

 Pine Grove Seminary, in Harwich, the gift of Mr. Sidney 

 Brooks, principal, and former owner. The town owns Her- 

 ring River, from Long Pond to the ocean, about six miles, 

 and has recently sold the fishing right for five years for $615 a 

 year. Three citizens bought it to enable them to control the 

 water for the benefit of their Cranberry-fields. Some of the 

 people wish the town to sell the public fishing right once for 

 all, finally and entirely — that is, to relinquish and extinguish 

 this particular holding. There are many fine trees along the 

 streets in the villages of this town. 



Chatham appears to be the most easterly point in the state. 

 There is no common or park. The town probably has a right 

 in the long beach, but it has not asserted it lately. The 

 marsh-hay was formerly sold by the town every year. There 

 is a very old cemetery ; the title is in the town. It has not 

 been very well cared for. Some valuable materials for local 

 history have been lost by the deaths of several old inhabitants 

 within a few years. Champlain was here in 1606, I believe, 

 and had some rough experience. He broke his rudder, prob- 

 ably on Pollock Rip, and found it difficult to make a land- 

 ing. The Indians helped him, but afterward he had a fight with 

 them, and two of his men were killed. He called the place 

 Port Fortune, and set up a cross on the shore. Some of the 

 people here know the place, approximately at least, and it 



would be well to mark it in some way The shore region 

 here is interesting and attractive, and the.summer people are 

 crowding in. The depth of the water along this part of the 

 coast is constantly changing, and the wariest navigators meet 

 surprises. One of the great chart-makers of the world lives 

 here, and his fame is known in all littoral countries. 

 Boston, Mass. J '. B. Harrison. 



An Indian Orchard. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — When the whites settled in Oneida County, in the cen- 

 tre of New York state, they found there an Apple-orchard 

 owned by the Tuscaroras. It was long known as the "Old 

 Indian Orchard." The trees were set without the least con- 

 sideration of order, and they numbered several hundred. The 

 sorts were varied, and did not correspond to the cultivated 

 fruits, but were evidently seedlings from those in cultivation. 

 We have now at least one of these, known as the " Indian 

 Rareripe," grafted about the state. It is a large, excellent, 

 handsome, early-autumn Apple. It was the best mid-early 

 fruit we had before the advent of Porter and Gravenstein and 

 Strawberry. Whether other sorts from this source are still 

 propagated I cannot say. 



The Tuscaroras reported that the orchard was on their 

 land when they came from the south to join the Iroquois 

 League. This is possible, but not probable. It was certainly 

 planted somewhere near 1715 or 1720, when they reached their' 

 northern home. They had come into close contact with the 

 whites in Carolina and Virginia ; and it is most likely that they 

 obtained the seeds of them and brought them north and planted 

 as soon as they reached here. At any rate, the Indian orchard 

 and the arrival of the Tuscaroras are two events that closely 

 coincide. Had the orchard been planted by the Indians al- 

 ready here, it is unaccountable that they did not have more 

 such plantations. But the Kirkland orchard, of which I own 

 the remnant, planted in 1791, was the only other plantation of 

 Apple-trees in central New York in the last century. 



Were the Indians in any sense horticulturists ? We have 

 been compelled lately to give over our early classification of 

 them as strictly hunters and fishers. They were fond of agri- 

 culture. The Mohicans and Iroquois, as well as the southern 

 tribes of Cherokees and Choctaws, were accustomed to raise 

 large fields of Potatoes, Maize, Tobacco, Pumpkins and Squash. 

 Those who lived far enough southward cultivated Cotton, 

 which they wove for clothing. It was an article of traffic, as 

 well as Tobacco and Corn. Not having suitable tools, they 

 adopted the plan of burning over a tract of land and using it 

 for a garden. This was sufficient preparation for Corn, vines 

 and Tobacco, but would have been valueless for the European 

 grains. 



The fruits repeatedly spoken of by the early visitors and 

 colonists are Strawberries, Mulberries, Raspberries ; but all 

 these are mentioned invariably as growing wild. This is not 

 to be wondered at, when we remember that our own people 

 did not to any extent cultivate the Strawberry and Raspberry 

 until toward the middle of the present century. Fifty years 

 ago we relied for these and for Grapes almost wholly on wild 

 vines. In Brown's " Genesis of the United States " will be 

 found letter after letter going over the fruits with which the 

 Indians regaled their visitors, or enumerating those found on 

 the river-banks and in the villages. Invariably all fruits are 

 spoken of as wild. This admirable work carries us into direct 

 contact with original documents. Bancroft, in his "Native 

 Tribes of the Pacific Coast," makes it clear that the western 

 Indians also were entirely deficient in the arts of horticulture. 

 Fruits of the Rose family were always wild. So we come very 

 certainly to the conclusion that our Indian orchard came from 

 seed procured from the whites, and was not the result of arti- 

 ficial improvements, or of selection of a natural sort fostered 

 and taken advantage of by the aborigines. Such other or- 

 chards as were found in the west were of a date not anterior 

 to 1700, and were the result of proximity to white people. 

 The Wild Apple of America has not been the parent of any 

 of our choice fruits ; but we can invariably trace all our choice 

 stock back to a parentage from Europe. The earliest imported 

 seed was of Pippin, Pearmain, Bellefleur, Gillfieur and Swaar, 

 and the blood of this early parentage can be traced in all the 

 best fruits we now cultivate. The Spy, Wagener, Jonathan, 

 Spitzenberg, Fameuse, Rhode Island Greening, Newtown Pip- 

 pin are children or grandchildren of the well-known imported 

 roots. Most of our early orchards were from imported seeds. 



It seems clear that we have not given the Indians sufficient 

 credit as land-tillers, but yet we cannot compliment them with 

 any truth as horticulturists. Still, the fact that the Indians pre- 



