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It may be interesting to see the progress of vegetation in this locality.
It is as follows:--
| 1646, Aug. 1. | The great pears ripe. |
| Aug. 3. | The long apples ripe. |
| Aug. 12. | Blackstone's apples gathered. |
| Aug. 15. | Tankerd apples gathered. |
| Aug. 18. | Kreton pippins and long red apples gathered. |
| 1647, July 5. | We began to cut the peas in the field. |
| July 14. | We began to shear rye. |
| Aug. 2. | We mowed barley. |
| Aug. | Same week we shear summer wheat. |
| Aug. 7. | The great pears gathered. |
| Sept. 15. | The russetins gathered, and pearmaines. |
| 1648, May 26. | Sown one peck of peas, the moon in the full.
Observe how they prove. |
| July 28. | Summer apples gathered. |
| 1649, July 20. | Apricoks ripe. |
Oct. 2, 1689.--A tax was to be paid; and the valuations were as follow: “Each ox, £ 2. 10s.; each cow, £ 1. 10s.; each horse, £ 2; each swine, 6s.; each acre of tillage land, 5s.; each acre of meadow and English pasture, 5s.”
The tax on land bounded out in propriety was “2s. on each hundred acres.”
Our fathers were farmers after the
English modes, and therefore had to learn many new ways from the sky and the climate.
The times of ploughing and planting here, in
spring and
autumn, varied somewhat from those of their native land.
Some plants, which in cold and misty
England wooed the sun, could best thrive here if they wooed the shade.
While land there, with a south-eastern exposure, was worth much more for culture than that which faced the north-west, the difference here was comparatively small.
They were happily disappointed in the slight labor and certainty in making hay under our sun and clear skies.
They had soon to learn that their stock of all kinds must be sheltered from the destroying cold and storms of an American winter.
In the preservation of vegetables and fruits, also, our fathers had to receive new instruction from the climate.
These they preserved by burying them.
It took them several years to adjust themselves to the novel activity of common laws and familiar agents.
As the soil and climate must determine what grains, fruits, and vegetables can be raised with profit, it soon became evident to our
Medford farmers that Indian corn was to be a staple.
Rye, barley, wheat, and oats were found productive
