446 



HORTICULTURE 



October 5, 1907 



D-.vyer was awarded first prize for se- 

 lection of cut flowers and second prize 

 for dahlias, W. D. Moon taking flrsi. 

 The society's silver medal was won by 

 George Barker, gardener on the A. F. 

 EstHbrook estate. 



COMING SHOWS. 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 Fruit and Vegetable Show. 

 The annual exhibition of fruits and 

 vegetables of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society will take place at 

 Horticultural Hall. 300 Massachusetts 

 Avenue, Boston, Thursday and Friday, 



October 10 and 11. 



This is the only exhibition of the bo- 

 ciety which is devoted exclusively to 

 the fruit and vegetable interests, and 

 it is intended that it shall represent 

 the products of New England in these 

 lines. „ ^, 



It is expected that every one ot the 

 New England states will contribute 

 specimens of its fruits and vegetables 

 which, with the displays ot our local 

 growers, will make a grand autumn 

 festival. . 



The sum of $500 is to be awarded in 

 prizes for fruits, and $300 for vege- 

 tables. 



Special interest centers in the class- 

 es for collections of apples, pears ,inJ 

 grapes, and in the decorative colle,-- 

 tions of vegetables, for which large 

 prizes are offered, and the competition 

 in these is expected to be keen. 



The exhibition, which will be free to 

 all, will be open Thursday, October 10, 

 from 12 m. to p. m., and Friday, Oc- 

 tober 11, from 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. 



WM. P. RICH, Secretary. 



AN ENTERPRISING TEXAS CITY. 



A vigorous campaign for the plant- 

 ing of trees in Denison, Texas, during 

 the tree-planting season, has been be- 

 gun. The splendid success attending 

 the distribution ot flower seeds 

 through the public schools in the 

 spring has encouraged the Civic Im- 

 provement League to undertake a 

 similar work in the interests of trees 

 during the winter. Plans have not 

 been fully matured, but it is known 

 that Secretary Larkin is figuring on 

 the purchase of several thousand 

 trees which he hoped to buy at a very 

 low figure and in a general way the 

 plan will be to furnish these trees to the 

 school children at actual cost and to 

 arouse them to an understanding of 

 the value of trees. While Texas towns 

 have been ever on the alert for enter- 

 prises and have made desperate efforts 

 along certain lines of development, the 

 aesthetic side of the proposition has 

 escaped attention. The important 

 feature of town buildings, that ot mak- 

 ing it a comfortable pla^e to live in, is 

 too often neglected. 



About a year ago the Board of Trade 

 and the Civic Improvement League of 

 Denison united in an effort to improve 

 civic conditions in that busy town, and 

 the results have been highly gratifyin.g 

 and the effects far-reaching. There 

 has been a wonderful awa.kening 

 among the people and young and old 

 have been stimulated to action in the 

 improvement of the streets and the 

 home grounds. 



HORTICULTURE IN THE EASTERN 

 STATES. 



Kearl at the Coiigitss ot Hmiitultare, 

 Norfolk, Va., l>y .T. K. M. L. Farqnhar, 



Representing, as I do at this con- 

 gress, the section of this country first 

 settled by the white race, it affords 

 me the greatest satisfaction to point 

 to the very early date at which inter- 

 est in horticulture found expression. 



The very name of their vessel, the 

 Mayflower, must have brought often 

 times to the recollection of the Pil- 

 grims during their long voyage the 

 fragrant and beautiful hedgerows ot 

 white and pinkish hawthorn, which in 

 England they called mayflower, a name 

 which they soon bestowed upon the 

 choicest and sweetest of spring flow- 

 ers of their adopted country. Long 

 before they saw the mayflower bloom, 

 however, the Pilgrims had raised 

 their voices in praise of the beautiful 

 garden products of the new world. 

 The explorers then sent out on the 

 16th ot November, 1620, reported that 

 they had found divers fair Indian bas- 

 kets filled with corn, some whereof 

 was in ears, fair and good of divers 

 colors, which seemed to them a very 

 goodly sight, having seen none before. 



J. K. M. I,. Far(,iliiak 

 of which rarities they took some to 

 carry to their friends on shipboard, 

 like as the Israelites' spies brought 

 from Eschol some of the good fruits 

 of the land. 



In 1621 Edward Winslow, describing 

 the new country, wrote: "Here are 

 grapes, white and red, and very sweet 

 and strong also; strawberries, goose- 

 berries, raspberries, etc.; plums of 

 three sorts, white, black and red, being 

 almost as good as Damson; abundance 

 of roses, white, red and damask, sin- 

 gle but very sweet indeed." 



In the spring of 1621 the Pilgrims at 

 Plymouth planted twenty acres of corn 

 and six acres of barley and peas. The 

 corn did well, the barley fairly well, 

 but the peas were not worth gathering, 

 having been sown too late and be- 

 came sun-scorched while in bloom. 

 Numerous records of farm and garden 

 crops planted by the Pilgrims have 

 come down to us, and many evidences 

 still exist in the locality they occu- 

 pied of their zeal in garden work. At 

 first the Colonists, of necessity, im- 

 ported fruit trees and vegetables for 

 their sustenance. Within twenty 

 years ot the landing of the Pilgrims, 

 Governor Winthrop of the Massachu- 

 setts Colony, at his farm in Charles- 



town; Governor Endicott, of the Salem 

 Colony; Governor Prince, of the Plym- 

 outh Colony, and Governor Stuyvesant, 

 of New Amsterdam, had established 

 nurseries, dealt in fruit trees or plants, 

 and were promoters ot horticulture. 

 Fruits, vegetables and a large variety 

 of herbs were imported and sold. 

 Flowers were too great a luxury for 

 the Colonists, and with the exception, 

 perhaps, of a few roses, honeysuckle 

 and pink milfoil, were not grown. 



The First Flower Gardens. 



Not until the beginning of the eigh- 

 teenth century was there opportunity 

 to give much attention to flowers. 

 About that time the wealthier citizens 

 of Philadelphia, Boston and New York 

 began to cultivate large gardens, 

 usually arranged in terraces, after the 

 English style of that period, about 

 their residences. One ot these estates 

 in the very heart of Boston was the 

 residence of Governor Bellingham, and 

 afterwards of Andrew Faneuil, who 

 built upon it the first greenhouse in 

 New England. On his decease it be- 

 came the property of his nephew, the 

 famous Peter Faneuil. who presented 

 to the city of Boston the Cradle of 

 Liberty. So beautiful was this gar- 

 den that it became known as Faneuil's 

 Seven-Acre Eden. 



The Revolution stopped further 

 progress in horticulture until the coun- 

 try became settled under the new gov- 

 ernment. Then began an era in gar- 

 den work, marked by greater enthu- 

 siasm than ever before — enthusiasm 

 which got its impetus from Washing- 

 ton, as he surveyed his grounds at 

 Mount Vernon and made plans indi- 

 cating the locations for trees and 

 shrubs, many of which he collected or 

 imported from Europe; and which 

 upon arrival were planted by the same 

 busy hands that earlier in their ex- 

 istence had cut down the immortal 

 cherry tree, and which later in life 

 made pruning their favorite exercise 

 — enthusiasm which drew with it the 

 second and third Presidents ot the 

 United States. John Adams and Thom- 

 as Jefferson, as well as many other 

 notables of the eighteenth century — 

 enthusiasm so perennial and vigorous 

 that all predictions of progress have 

 been more than fulfilled. 



Present Attainments. 



A. J. Downing in his excellent work 

 on landscape gardening, published 

 about seventy years ago, said; 



"In the United States it is highly 

 improbable that we shall ever witness 

 such splendid examples ot landscape 

 gardens as those abroad," referring to 

 Blenheim, Chatsworth, Woburn Abbey 

 and Arundel Castle. That which Mr. 

 Downing deemed improbable has 

 taken place, and gardens more elab- 

 orate and costly are being constructed 

 at the present time in the United 

 States than in any other country. 

 Take, for example, the beautiful gar- 

 dens of Mr. James B. Duke at Somer- 

 ville. New Jersey, which have been 

 under construction for six or seven 

 years, under the guidance of that 

 genius of landscape art, Mr. Horatio 

 Buckenham, employing twelve hun- 

 dred men and involving an annual ex- 

 penditure of half a million dollars or 

 more — a garden covering an area of 

 ten thousand acres. 



The Pioneers. 



The pioneers of horticulture of a 



i 



