16 



THE PRESIDENT OF THE MASS. HORT. SOCIETY. 



This, and much more, has been done by 

 a liberal application of the wealth produced 

 by their own industry, by the merchants of 

 Boston. It would be a pleasing task to de- 

 signate those who have thus most success- 

 fully proved that they understand the true 

 uses and true obligations of wealth. But 

 we are obliged at this moment to confine 

 ourselves to a single illustration of the 

 benefits which a merchant, engrossed with 

 business, may confer on his countrymen, 

 when actuated by this large spirit of useful- 

 ness to his race. 



Pearl-street, in Boston, completely re- 

 built within a few years, presents to the 

 eye two continuous lines of fine warehouses 

 — beautifully and fittmgly built, in an ap- 

 propriate architectural style, of neatly-dress- 

 ed granite. Enter with us one of these 

 stores at the beginning of the street; ascend 

 into spacious apartments where on every 

 side are seen boxes and bales filled with 

 the productions of the active looms of New- 

 England; pass thro' counting-rooms where 

 various clerks poring over huge ledgers tell 

 of a widely extended business ; and finally 

 penetrate to a third office. In this inner 

 vestibule of the house of trade, sits, before 

 a desk covered with a large correspond- 

 ence, a merchant thoroughly devoted to his 

 calling. In his countenance you see only 

 the engrossing cares of commerce, and his 

 ample brow, and clear penetrating eye are 

 full of plans for the increase of cotton mills 

 and American manufactured goods, of bet- 

 ter quality, and lower price, than John Bull 

 can possibly send into our market. 



About four miles south of Boston is the 

 town of Dorchester — one of those agreeable 

 rural suburbs of Boston, which the sturdy 

 city, now full of robust health, is fast over- 

 taking and swallowing up with its vast 

 commercial appetite. In a part of this 

 town is situated a rural residence — well 

 known as Hawthorn Grove. If we enter 

 the gates of this simple and unpretending 

 place, about sunrise or sunset, Ave shall find 

 there not only grounds which are a com- 

 plete museum of horticulture, full of every 

 known variety of fruit tree; orchards well 

 planted ; and long, fruitful alleys : but, also, 

 the same merchant we saw in the inner 

 counting-room in Pearl-street. The same ? 

 yes ! the same to the common observer. 



doubtless ; that is to say, the gentlemau 

 whose portrait illustrates this number of 

 The Farmers' Library ; but not now the 

 busy, engrossed merchant- — only the zeal- 

 ous enthusiastic horticulturist- — the Presi- 

 dent of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety — the experienced pomologist — the im- 

 porter of, and anxious seeker after all new 

 fruits and plants ; in short, Marshall P. 

 Wilder — the subject of the present notice. 



We are not about to write the life of 

 Col. Wilder. We hope it may be many 

 long years, filled, like the present, with use- 

 fulness, before he needs a biographer. It 

 is our more agreeable task, at the present 

 moment, to glance hastily upon the field 

 of labors in which his name has become 

 a public one, and in which it is especially 

 interesting to the readers of this journal — 

 as a horticulturist. 



It is sufficient, then, to say that Colonel 

 Wilder is a native of New-Hampshire, the 

 Granite State, which boasts, not without 

 reason, that '■'■men are the fairest product of 

 her soil." He was born in the town of 

 Eindge, N. H., in September, 1798, where 

 his devotion to his garden and to mercan- 

 tile life awakened along with each other. 

 For more than twenty years he has been 

 one of the most industrious and successful 

 merchants of Boston, and for sixteen years 

 he has employed every moment oi forced 

 leisure — leisure borrowed, not from busi- 

 ness, but from the ordinary relaxations of 

 the business man, in carrying out his favor- 

 ite study of horticulture. 



In a city most conspicuons among all 

 American cities for its horticultural ama- 

 teurs. Col. Wilder has long been known as 

 one of the most zealous and the most active 

 devotees of this science. For eight years 

 past he has been annually elected Presi- 

 dent of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety — first of all institutions of the kind in 

 the Union for its Jarge activity, intelligence, 

 and usefulness. During his administration, 

 the number of members and the funds of 

 the society have been greatly increased, its 

 new hall erected, at a cost of $40,000, and 

 a very richly illustrated series of its Trans- 

 actions commenced. 



But this is to us, and to the country at 

 large, not the most important and valuable 

 view of his great services as a scientific 



