He says:[9] "An _Orange_ Pear Tree grows the largest and yields the fairest Fruit. I know one of them near forty Foot high, that measures six Foot and six Inches in Girt, a Yard from the Ground, and has borne thirty Bushels at a Time: and this year I measured an _Orange_ Pear, that grew in my own Orchard, of eleven Inches round the Bulge. I have a Warden Pear Tree, that measures five Foot six Inches round. One of my Neighbors has a _Bergamot_ Pear Tree that was brought from _England_ in a Box, about the Year 1643, that now measures six Foot about, and has borne twenty-two Bushels of fine Pears in one Year. About twenty years since, the Owner took a Cyon, and grafted it upon a common Hedge Pear; but the Fruit does not prove altogether so good, and the Rind or Skin, is thicker than that of the Original." Thus, early in the history of Massachusetts, the pear was largely planted and became a prominent fruit. These early plantations grew so well that no doubt they inspired the horticulturists of the first half of the nineteenth century, of which the names of Dearborn, Hovey, Kenrick, the two Mannings, and Wilder are notable in the history of the pear in this country, to undertake the popularization of this fruit by extensive culture, by breeding new varieties, and by the introduction of the best pears from Europe. Their work, as we shall see later, gave pear-growing its first great impetus in America. Until the middle of the last century, the pear industry in America centered in Massachusetts; and most of the new varieties which originated in this country and nearly all of the introductions from abroad came from that state. The pear was not neglected in the other New England states as the horticultural records of all attest, but its history in the several states is so similar in time and events that the account of its early culture in Massachusetts suffices for the whole region. It must, however, be noted that the pear was introduced in Maine at a very early date, probably by the French. In an orchard on the east bank of the Sheepscot, below Wiscasset Bay, a venerable pear-tree stood until early in the nineteenth century of such girt and height that it was supposed to be more than 200 years old. Of the planting of this orchard there are no records nor traditions. The most reasonable supposition was that the trees had been planted there by the French in one of the several attempts of France to colonize the coast of Maine.[10]