208 



HORTICULTURE 



August 15, 1908 



OBITUARY. 



Warren W. Rawson. 



W. W. Rawson, known all over the 

 country as an enterprising and pros- 

 perous market gardener, died at his 

 home in Arlington. Mass.. on Sunday, 

 Aug. 9. He was t alien suddenly ill on 

 Friday of the previous week and un- 

 derwent an operation for appendicitis, 

 from which lie did not recover. 



Mr. Rawson was born in Arlington, 

 Mass., Jan. 23, 1847. At the age of 20 

 he entered market gardening with his 

 father, and five years later bought 

 out his father's interest, from which 

 time he rapidly forged ahead until he 

 stood in the front rank as an operator 

 and as an expert in all branches of 

 market .gardening, particularly under 

 glass, his interests in this line being 

 very extensive. He was always ready 

 to experiment on any line that sug- 

 gested improvement, and among other 

 things attained wide prominence by 



Warren W. Rawsok 



his investigations of the effect of elec- 

 tricity on the development of produce. 

 In 1884 he acquired the seed business 

 of Everett & Gleason in Boston and 

 at the time of his death was still con- 

 ducting it in partnership with his son, 

 Herbert W., under the name of W. W. 

 Rawson & Co. He was a very active 

 man and was identified with many or- 

 ganizations, business, social, political 

 and fraternal, including the G. A. R. 

 In 1887 he organized the Boston Mar- 

 ket Gardeners' Association and was 

 its president continuously from that 

 time until his death. He was a vice- 

 president of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society. He held many pub- 

 lic offices from time to time, and in 

 1905-'O6 was a member of the gover- 

 nor's council. The funeral services 

 on Aug. 12 were conducted by Cam- 

 bridge Commandery. Knights Temp- 

 lar. 



George Cooke. 



'ieorge Cooke who was killed on 

 August fith by a runaway accident in 

 California near San Diego was a nota- 

 ble character and horticulture and 

 landscape gardening suffered a greal 

 loss bv his death. 



He was born in England near Leices- 



ter and remained always a typical 

 Englishman both in physical appear- 

 ance and mental and moral character- 

 istics. 



r J i r training and experience were 

 naturally largely English and he held 

 in the course of his life several im- 

 portant positions of trust in England 

 the duties of which were more those 

 of a steward than of a gardener. 



He early acquired a wide technical 

 knowledge that enabled him to both 

 grow orchids and take chavge of a 

 large farm and breed cattle and sheep 

 as he did in fact on one of the largest 

 estates in England. 



In engineering, especially in the 

 construction of roads, drainage and 

 irrigation his ideas were original and 

 valuable, but it was as a landscape 

 gardener that he especially excelled. 

 He was a good plantsman. there are 

 few better, he knew the names of the 

 plants and more than that he knew 

 how to plant then from an orchard 

 to i shade tree. But he was not only 

 a horticulturist, he had attained a 

 broad and genuine grasp of the 

 fundamental principles of landscape 

 gardening. A true artist in his own 

 way, be was always original and re- 

 markably free from bias produced by 

 early training or conventional models. 

 All country places were parks to him 

 to be designed on the same natural 

 lines, and he was always looking out 

 for bits of scenery by the roadside 

 which would give suggestions for the 

 plans on which he was engaged. 

 In other words his habit was to look 

 at designing weak with the eye of a 

 painter and as an illustration of this 

 trait it is interesting to remember that 

 he always loved painting and never 

 missed a chance if he could help it 

 of seeing a good picture. He spoke 

 frequently with pride of a Constable 

 he was alle to pick up at a moderate 

 price. 



During his more expansive moods, 

 after a good dinner following a hard 

 day's work it was a pleasure and a 

 valuable expet ience to listen to his 

 critical remarks on the various parks 

 and country places he had studied both 

 in this country and England. The 

 one dominant characteristic of his 

 mind, however, was thoroughness — 

 attention to detail was a ruling passion 

 with him. He wore himself out en- 

 deavoring to secure the utmost per- 

 Eection in the execution of his plans. 

 Rather than have the least imperfec- 

 tion develop he would undertake a 

 vast amount of actual work with his 

 own hands. In spring he would be 

 abioad from six in the morning to 

 eight at night setting out trees and 

 shrubs himself and he certainly had a 

 genius or knack for planting them I 

 have hardly ever seen equalled. Pur- 

 suing the same thorough method he 

 probably did as much as any man of 

 his time to elevate the standard of ex- 

 cellence of trees and shrubs purchased 

 lii mi mn series, as I think many nur- 

 serymen in both England and America 

 would readily testify. He would 

 hunt for hours through a square of 

 thousands of trees and perhaps find 

 fifty to suit him. 



George Cooke was moreover a gen- 

 erous man as many a gardener in hard 

 luck has found out But he was ex- 

 tremely reticent, blunt, and laconic in 

 speech which prevented many from 



realizing this kindly side of his nature, 

 it was a pity that he did not move 

 about more among men, but he was 

 simply devoted heart and soul to his 

 work and it cannot be denied that in 

 this way, his social and domestic re- 

 lations suffered. 



He leaves a serious gap in his pro- 

 fession on account of his strong, 

 honest, original character and on 

 account of his independence in thought 

 aud diligence in endeavor. 



SAMUEL PARSONS. 



Louis H. Sander. 



We learn with sorrow of the death, 

 after fourteen months of suffering pa- 

 tiently borne, of Louis H. Sander who 

 has been associated for the past twelve 

 years with Jackson Dawson in the out- 

 door work at the Arnold Arboretum, 

 under Professor Sargent. 



Mr. Sander was born June 30, 1856, 

 and came from Germany to America 

 in 1SS2. He worked as a farmer at 



Lodis 11 Sander 



Falmouth, Mass., until 1S95 when he 

 went to the Arboretum. Early in the 

 summer of 19i>7 Mr. Sander underwent 

 an opctation for appendicitis and since 

 that time has be=n an invalid. He 

 died on August It at his home in 

 Centre street, Jamaica Plain, Mass. 

 The burial was at Walnut Hill Ceme- 

 tery, Brookline. 



Mr. Sander was a superior man. in- 

 telligent, industrious and very highly 

 esteemed. His work at the Arboretum 

 gave the greatest satisfaction. He was 

 for some years a member of the Gar- 

 deners' and Floiists' Club of Boston. 

 He is survived by a widow and three 

 daughters. His brother. Charles San- 

 der, gardener for many yeais at the 

 estate of Prof. Chas. S. Sargent. Brook- 

 line. Mass., is well known. 



Christian Rieger. 

 Christian Rieger. of Pittsburg, a 

 wire design manufacturer of long 

 standing, died on August 2. at the 

 age of 66. He was a member of the 

 S. A. F., and was a familiar figure at 

 their conventions. His son. Harry, 

 was connected in business with him 

 and will continue same. 



