He Had On His Pleasant Farm, Besides An Abundance Of The
Beach-Plum, Or _Prunus Littoralis_, Which Grew Wild, The Canada
Plum Under Cultivation, Fine Porter Apples, Some Peaches, And
Large Patches Of Musk And Water Melons, Which He Cultivated For
The Lowell Market.
Elisha's apple-tree, too, bore a native
fruit, which was prized by the family.
He raised the blood
peach, which, as he showed us with satisfaction, was more like
the oak in the color of its bark and in the setting of its
branches, and was less liable to break down under the weight of
the fruit, or the snow, than other varieties. It was of slower
growth, and its branches strong and tough. There, also, was his
nursery of native apple-trees, thickly set upon the bank, which
cost but little care, and which he sold to the neighboring
farmers when they were five or six years old. To see a single
peach upon its stem makes an impression of paradisaical fertility
and luxury. This reminded us even of an old Roman farm, as
described by Varro: - Caesar Vopiscus Aedilicius, when he pleaded
before the Censors, said that the grounds of Rosea were the
garden (_sumen_ the tid-bit) of Italy, in which a pole being left
would not be visible the day after, on account of the growth of
the herbage. This soil may not have been remarkably fertile,
yet at this distance we thought that this anecdote might be told
of the Tyngsborough farm.
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