Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-12-16
D E APPLE TREES
DESCRIBED BY HASKIN
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON, Dec .13-An APP
| pie orchard that is more than a
century old, that his dourished IN
der three governments and fed men
| of three races and still bears ap-
| pies is one of the latest discoveries
| in the southwest, made recently by
| officers of the United States Forest
Service.
That is. the orchard has been
known for a long time, but the
| age of the trees was only scientln-
| cally determined last summer. IN
| til experts had cut down enc OF the
! trees and counted the rings, no one
| who knew anything about apple
trees would believe that the or
chard had stood for a century. Now
| they know that some OF the small
| est trees have lived that long, and
it seems logically certain that some
of the larger ones u nave llVed
a great deal longer Furthermore,
! many of the trees now standing in
| this venerable orchard look as
| though they had grown from the
| stumps or roots of a former genera
ton OF apple trees which had fall-
| en- or been cut down. The natives
| living whereabouts say that tradi-
dition gives the age of the orchard
| at from ESQ to 400 years. 1t seems
possible that in a sense they are
right. There IS reason to believe
that the ancestors, at least, OF the
present trees were planted in the
seventeenth century.
This historic orchard is located
| near the little town of Manzano On
| the eastern slope of the Manzaao
mountains in central New Mexico.
Manzano is the Spanish word for
| apple. Both the mountain range
| and town have taken their name
from the ancient trees. The priest
in the church at Manzano. who IS
| a sort of custodian of the orchard.
tells inquirers hat the trees have
| been growing there for ESQ years,
| according to the tradition which has
been handed down from padre to pa
Dire through the generation. The
Oldest native inhabitants of the liz
| tie town believe that the orchard
has been there 400 years. That
| late is improbable. for the Spanish
exploration OF the southwest had
scarcely begun SO long ago, and
apple trees were certainly brought
to America by the Europeans.
Reich OF Heroic Age
But the priest, when he claims
that the orchard is more than two
centuries old, has strong historical
evidence on his side. For these
trees almost certainly are relics CT
that heroic age in the history of the
southwest when Spanish priests and
soldiers were there engaged in sub
DUNG a great wilderness of saw
ages for the king of Spain and the
church of Rome. At every n OF
the pueblo villages which dot this
region the Spaniards built great
churches of stone and left a few
priests to teach those savages the
fear of God and also the culture oil
crops and herds. The Pueblos were
already farmers, raising corn and
cotton and melons, but hey had ne
domestic animals except the turkey
and no fruit trees.
The padres armed with nothing
but the cross took their stand in .
hostile wilderness as the prophets c1
religion and civilization. In some IN
stances they were murdered by the
Indians of their OWE docks. Nor
often they succeeded in winning tnt
friendship of the Pueblos, only tt
be overwhelmed by the wild tribe!
OIL the NdVdJOs anu <ApdShcS WhASA
waged an ~incessant warfare upor
both the Pueblo Indians and the
Spaniards. In some instances these
brave. Franciscan friars triumphet
over all difficulties and dangers
Some of the ancient churches still
stand and are still in use. Many
of the greatest ones r in ruins
Now one of these ancient ruined
churches stands not far from the
ancient Manzano orchard, and
good deal il known of its history
In the seventeenth century a larss
Indian pueblo known as Quarai
stood at this spot, and 1t is recorded
that the Franciscan fathers bull
this mission church of Quarai II
the year 1929. 1t is also known
that in 1875 it was abandoned To-
the reason that the NavaJos hat
repeatedly raided it, killed priest
and friendly Indians and destroyed
crops. It was an outpost of civil
zation which could not stand agains
the savages.
Quarai, both pueblos and churcl
nothing now remains but a heap I,
stone. and a few massive walls tina
show how patiently and well thos
old Spaniards built. Nothing wa
LIZ altys y TIA xa6tpitx sxeane -