BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 343 



ill a measure furnish, would be incomplete without a sketch 

 of a man who was in these matters long so prominent and 

 influential. 



Henry A. Dyer was born in Providence, R. I., February 

 18th, 1819. He died at his home in Newark, N. J., July 2d, 

 1871. Mr. Dyer sprung from an ancient Providence family, 

 and was the only son of Paris Dyer, a prominent and enter, 

 prising merchant of that city, whose death preceded that of 

 his son by only a few months. He enjoyed all the educa- 

 tional advantages which excellent schools and access to choice 

 literature, both ancient and modern, can offer a studious 

 youth of keen and quick perceptions, fine natural tastes, and 

 surrounded by cultivated people. His training was with a 

 view to mercantile life, but his rural tastes led him to become 

 associated with his father, whose tastes were similar, in an 

 extensive agricultural enterprise in Windham County, Conn. 

 Here, purchasing a large farm, they established the subse- 

 quently well known " Raspberry Hill Nurseries," which they 

 made famous as furnishing a supply of excellent fruit and 

 ornamental trees and shrubs, and especially of evergreens. 



Mr. Dyer's first practical knowledge of farming was gained 

 at a time when theoretical agriculture may be said almost to 

 have run wild. The agricultural press of the day, and the 

 daily newspapers, as well as many books written upon the 

 subject, were calculated to stir the enthusiasm and kindle the 

 ambition of any young man. This was just the time when so 

 much was written and said about soil analysis, when so-called 

 professors of agriculture analyzed soils and gave prescriptions 

 for producing infallible fertility ; a nme when quackery was 

 fairly rampant under the guise of science, deceiving thous- 

 ands, causing millions of money to be wasted, disgusting 

 sensible, practical men with the name of Science as applied 

 to agriculture, and doing mischief in every way. Whatever 

 was written upon improved agriculture was read with avidity 

 by Mr. Dyer, and when the late Prof. John P. Norton gave 

 his first courses of lectures at the Scientific School of Yale 

 College, upon Scientific Agriculture, Mr. Dyer was among his 

 pupils, and certainly one of the most appreciative of hearers. 



