The Pioneer Apple Tree

An apple tree standing in Mr. Delos Hotchkiss's door-yard, in the northwestern part of the town of Cheshire, Conn.is thought to be the largest in the United btates. lts age can be traced by a family tradition to 140 years at least, and it may be 20 or 25 rears older. It is at the present time f symmetrical shape, and the trunk is neariy round, without a scar or blemish on it. There are eight large branches ; ive of these, Mr. Hotchkiss says, have een in the habit oí bearing one year, and the remaining three the next, but when the Centennial year carne the oíd tree, which must luive attained the prime of ordinary apple-tree life bef ore the nation was bom, expanded its blossoms into a complete crown of glory, and bore fruit all over the tree. Mr. Hotchkiss bas had a erop of 85 bushels of fruit in one year from the üve branches, and nis predecessor had harvested a erop of 110 bushels from the same flve branches. The dimensions of the tree are : Girth, 14 f eet, 6 inches ; height, 60 f eet ; and the spread of the branches is 6 rods. A Yankee minister, benig threatened with deprivation, said to some of lis Hoek, that lf hè were "deprived" it would cost a hundred men their lives. On being asked what he meant by svich a tlireat, he explained that if he lost his beneflee he should set up as a quack doctor, and if so, he had no doubt he should be the death of at east a hundred patients. Disguised. - AnEnglish author once attended a masked ball without a mask or domino. The lady of the house, a ittle piqued at this slight, approached :iini and said: "And, pray, sir, what character do you assume ?" - "I appear as a gentleman," said he. "Ah ! a capital disguise !" And he withdrew f or repairs. j