Mr. Garland had felled ten acres of trees on the site of the present residence of David Dearborn. Among his earliest acts in the line of farming, with an eye to the future wants of the township, he carefully cleared a half acre of land and planted it with apple seeds which he brought from his New Hampshire home. The seeds sprang up and the young trees grew vigorously. Mr. Garland soon found himself the proprietor of a valuable nursery. Some of the older citizens have distinct and pleasant remembrances of this old nursery. Some of the stumps of the trees that grew in it are still to be seen. When the young trees had reached a suitable size, John S. Haskell transplanted a small orchard from this nursery, and eight years later Mrs. Haskell made pies from the fruit of it. This was the first time that their children had indulged in the luxury of an apple pie.

Many of the old orchards in this and neighboring towns were planted from this nursery. In the absence of roads men carried trees from it upon their shoulders many miles, guided on their way through the dense forest by spotted trees. Enos Flanders of Sangerville carried twelve trees on his shoulders through the woods to his home, a distance of twelve miles. Seth Nelson of Guilford obtained trees from it to plant orchard. LoringŐs History of Piscataquis County is authority for saying that William Farnham of Sagerville brought young trees from Garland upon his shoulders and planted the first orchard in town. In his history of Guilford Mr. Loring says that, "As nursery trees could not be obtained near than Garland, and as there was no summer road thither, Deacon Herring, Captain Bennett and Nathaniel Herring brought young apple trees from that place upon their shoulders fully sixteen miles and set out the first three orchards in town. In about eight years they ate fruit from them."

Thus the thoughtful consideration of Mr. Garland in planting this early nursery brought to many of the settlers of this, and neighboring townships at an early date, a luxury more generally esteemed and highly valued than any other that grows from New England soil.

There is another incident of interest connected with this nursery. In the year 1807 or 1808, Moses Gordon, who had become a resident of the township in 1805, visited his native town, Hopkinton,N.H., making the journey on horseback. On his return he brought scions from apple tree in the orchard of a Mr. Flanders, an old neighbor, which were ingrafted upon trees in Mr. GarlandŐs nursery. The fruit from these scions proved to be an early and excellent fall apple and was the only ingrafted fruit in this town for many years. It has always been known here as the Flanders apple, and to Moses Gordon belongs the credit of its introduction to this town.