December 28, 1607 



HORTICULTURE 



849 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 

 Rural Progress in Eighty Years. 



By Christopher Clark, City Forester. 

 Northampton has in the period of 

 eighty years changed from a beautiful 

 country town, with a population of less 

 than 4,000, almost entirely of Ameri- 

 can birth, to a busy, cosmopolitan and 

 educational city of 20,000, with all the 

 modern improvements, including many 

 things that were not known or invent- 

 ed for many years after I was born. 

 It is quite true that rural progress was 

 quite fully developed in Northampton 

 when I was a boy by its leading and 

 distinguished citizens. Especially af- 

 ter the Revolutionary War and for 

 nearly a century many of her citizens 

 were distinguished for general intelli- 

 gence and cultivation, and a large 

 number were college graduates. The 

 yards connected with the residence.^ of 

 the people of ample means were pro- 

 vided with fine, well-built, expensive 

 fences, and had beautiful gardens with 

 all the flowers and shrubs of that peri- 

 od, and the borders of the front yards 

 and gai'dtn walks were most beauti- 

 fully arranged and filled with rose, 

 lilac, syriiiga and other flowering bush- 

 es, and the yards, gardens and or- 

 chards had plenty of peach, pear, plum, 

 cherry and apricot trees that flourished 

 without any of the many enemies that 

 now seem to multiply so greatly that 

 their cultivation is quite discouraging. 

 All the residences were fenced in, be- 

 cause tlie cows were allowed to graze 

 in the streets, and in the autumn af- 

 ter the crops were harve.?ted the mead- 

 ows were thrown open for cattle and 

 cows to feed, the entrances to the 

 meadows being guarded by gates, the 

 principal meadow gate being at the 

 foot of Pleasant Street, just above the 

 present railroad bridge. 



The village life of Northampton in 

 those days was the perfection of rural 

 New England life, its leading citizens 

 comprising [Juited States senators, 

 governors, judges and literary men. 

 Among them was Governor Caleb 

 Strong, his son Lewis Strong, Major 

 Joseph Hawley, United States senator; 

 Isaac C. Bates, Senator Ashman, 

 George Bancroft, the historian; Joseph 

 Coggswell, for many years the libra- 

 rian of the Astor Library in New 

 York; Judge Howe, then at the head 

 of a law school in this place; Judge C. 

 A. Dewey, .fudge Chas. B. Forbes, 

 Judge Lyman and many other distin- 

 guished men of that period, who lived 

 here and gave tone and character to 

 the society of the town for a long 

 period. 



The early settlers of Northampton, 

 like those of all the Connecticut River 

 towns, had the love of trees that came 

 from their ancestors of old England, 

 and the beautiful elm trees in all the 

 Connecticut Valley towns, with the 

 broad Common, or Mall as it was then 

 called in England, were established in 

 the center of the villages, notably that 

 in West Street, Old Hadley, which is 

 probably the widest street in this coun- 

 try. The Common and the planting of 

 elm trees was a distinguishing feature 

 of all the Connecticut and Massachu- 

 setts towns where the English people 

 settled, but in no place or section did 



the American elm grow so rapidly and 

 beautiful as in the Connecticut River 

 Valley, from Wethersfield and Hart- 

 ford, Conn., to Northfleld. Mass., and 

 Keene, N. H. And many of these trees 

 are now nearly 100 feet in height. 



Northampton people have always 

 cultivated fruit trees, and soon after 

 1850 the citizens organized a Horticul- 

 tural Society which did good service. 

 It was followed by one of the first Vil- 

 lage Improvement Societies that was 

 organized in this State, and soon after 

 the Laurel Hill Village Improvement 

 Society of Stockbridge, Mass., which 

 was the first one organized in this 

 country. The Northampton Village 

 Improvement Society did good work 

 until the present city government was 

 organized, when its special work was 

 given to a City Improvement Commit- 

 tee which is practically a park com- 

 mission and still exists. 



The village of Florence in the sixth 

 ward of the city of NorthamiJton, has 

 a very active and efficient Village Im- 

 provement Society which has made its 

 influence felt throughout the western 

 portion of the city, who have made it 

 one of the most beautiful villages in 

 the state. 



The Home Culture Clubs of North- 

 ampton, originated by George W. Ga- 

 ble, have under the able management 

 of the officers established a competi- 

 tion for flower garden development 

 through liberal prizes, that has result- 

 ed in adding many hundred flower gar- 

 dens throughout the city mainly con- 

 nected with the houses of citizens of 

 very moderate means, which has al- 

 ready acccmplished a general and very 

 beautiful improvement of the city. 

 This flower garden competition is a 

 novel idea, and should become a part 

 of Village Improvement Society work 

 throughout the country. 



As City Forester, I have accom- 

 plished much during 23 years' service, 

 in tree protection, by the filling with 

 cement the decayed portions of large 

 trees, and in this way have saved some 

 of the most beautiful and historic trees 

 in this section of the state that other- 

 wise would have had to be cut down. 

 I have already filled single trees witn 

 20 barrils of cement which have since 

 thrown out new branches, and will 

 now live many years. 



My experience and observation iias 

 taught me that there should be a far 

 greater variety of trees planted on 

 our city and town streets, and I close 

 this review by asking all city forest3rs 

 and tree wardens who may read this 

 paper to aid in this way in making our 

 cities and towns far more beautiful in 

 the near future. 



A GREAT VIOLET. 



Wm. Sim has sent to our office a 

 bunch of his new single violet "Bos- 

 ton." We have measured the flowers 

 and find them to average from one and 

 a half to one and three quarters of an 

 inch across, the stems ten inches long, 

 and leaves three to three and a half 

 inches across. By this it will be seen 

 that Boston is a pretty sturdy variety. 

 The petals are very broad, giving the 

 flower the form of a good pansy. 

 Color is somewhat lighter than that 

 of Princess of Wales, but the fra- 

 grance is superior, as are also the 

 keeping qualities, and it is an excep- 

 tionally good shipper on this account. 



M. GEORGE SCHNEIDER. 



The popularity of this distinguished 

 French horticulturist resident in Eng- 

 land for nearly forty years may well 

 be gauged by the festivities recently 

 held in England and France to cele- 

 brate his recent decoration by the 

 French Government. On November 2 

 at a meeting of the French Gardeners' 

 Society of London a punch d'honneur 

 was given in his honor. Mr. Schneider 

 has been president of the Society ever 

 since its foundation 19 years ago, and 

 the members presented him with the 

 cross of the order set in diamonds. 

 On November 9th there was a brilliant 

 gathering in Paris at the Restaurant 

 Ledoyen. M. Albert Truffant occupied 

 the chair surrounded by the elite of 

 French horticulture. A magnificent 

 present was then made to Mr. Schnei- 

 der consisting of a Sevres biscuit clock, 

 a pair of vases and candelabra, sub- 

 scribed for by 184 friends whose names 

 were all inscribed in an album which 

 accompanied the present. Of those 25 

 were Belgians, 10 English, 1 Italian 

 and the remainder were French. 



A meeting of the English friends was 

 held at the Cafe Royal Loudon on the 

 16th November when Mr. Harman 

 Payne presided. A silver hot water jug 

 and a silver cake basket were then pre- 

 sented to Mr. Schneider who may well 

 feel proud of the spontaneous and 

 friendly testimony of his numerous 

 admirers on both sides of the Channel. 

 Among his other titles to recognition 

 it should.be mentioned that he is the 

 author of a very handsome work en- 

 titled "The book of Choice Ferns," in 

 several volumes. C. H. P. 



ROSE VERSUS CARNATION. 



Mr. E. G. Hill, in his remarks be- 

 fore the Chicago Florists' Club, which 

 we printed last week, in speaking of 

 the recent activity in the production of 

 new varieties of roses, said that "it is 

 well for the rose that such is the case, 

 else the carnation would have continue 

 its triumphal march to the point of 

 disputing leadership with the rose." 

 This is in line with what seems to be 

 a widespread notion that it is only 

 within the past few years that the car- 

 nation has been regarded as compet- 

 ing with the rose for pre-eminence in 

 the popular favor. It would appear, 

 however, that this conception lacks 

 foundation, for in Goode's Family 

 Flora, a book published at Elizabeth- 

 town, N. J., in 1847 the rose is referred 

 to as a "rival" of the carnation. Men- 

 tion is made that at that date over four 

 hundred sorts of carnations were enum- 

 erated by florists. 



TO THE TRADE. 



It is well known that Horticulture 

 has opened up interest on new lines 

 and created a live circulation among 

 the substantial growers and consumers 

 in the horticultural profession, people 

 who take an interest in and will an- 

 swer advartisements. If you have any- 

 thing to sell to such people these col- 

 umns will carry your ofiler to them at 

 a very small cost. Try it for the com- 

 ing year vuA you'll get there. 



