Said Nathaniel Hawthorne: " The trees, as living existences, form a peculiar link between the dead and us. My fancy has always found something very interesting in an orchard. Apple trees and all fruit trees have domestic character which brings them into relationship with man. They have lost, in a great measure, the wild nature of the forest tree, and have grown humanized by contributing to his wants; they have become a part of his family, and their individual character is as well understood and appreciated as those of the human members. One tree is harsh and crabbed, another mild; one is churlish and illiberal, another exhausts itself with its free-hearted bounties. Even the shapes of apple trees have great individuality, in such strange postures do they put themselves, and thrust their contorted branthes grotesquely in all directions. And when they have stood around a house for many years, and held converse with successive dynasties of occupants, and gladdened their hearts so often in the fruitful autumn, then it would seem almost sacrilege to cut them down.*'