HISTORICAL SKETCH. 87 



contains most of the varieties of fruit trees and plants which are to he 

 found in those which have been named. For several years it was chiefly 

 appropriated to the raising of vegetable and flower seeds ; but much atten- 

 tion has lately been given to collecting hardy shrubs and herbaceous and 

 bulbous rooted plants ; and the varieties of Roses, Phloxes, Pseonies and 

 Tulips, are very immerous. Mr. Breck was, for many years, the propri- 

 etor and editor of the New England Farmer, which was established by 

 Thomas Shepard, in 1823, and edited by the late venerated Thomas G. 

 Fessenden, until his decease in 1837. That paper was not only one of the 

 earliest, but long continued to be the most useful. Agricultural and Horti- 

 cultural journal published in this country, as it was almost exclusively 

 devoted to subjects relating to Rural Economy. For several years the 

 Rev. Henry Colman and Allen Putnam were successively employed as 

 assistant editors ; and their eminent qualifications for that difficult station 

 were conspicuously evinced by the very able manner in which they per- 

 formed their duties. Mr. Breck is also well known as the proprietor of 

 the first extensive Agricultural and Horticultural Warehouse and Seed 

 Store that was founded in New England, and which has been justly 

 celebrated for the number, variety and excellence of the implements and 

 seeds, which have there been obtained and sent to all parts of the Union, as 

 well as to many foreign countries. He was one of the original subscribers 

 to the Society, and as a member and officer, in various responsible stations, 

 his services have been of inestimable value, during the whole period of its 

 existence ; and when his labors as an editor and the cultivator of a nursery 

 are duly considered, it may be truly said, that but few men in the land have 

 done as much to promote its utility and prosperity. 



The Nurseries under the management of Samuel Hyde, and John A. 

 Kenrick, of Newton, and several others, are all worthy of the patronage 

 of the public ; and so great has become the demand for trees and plants of 

 all kinds, they may be assured, that it wiU be found difficult to meet the 

 requisitions which will be made upon them, however numerous may be the 

 products of each. This may be confidently inferred from the fact, that 

 the annual sales of only two of the nurseries in the vicinity of Boston, 

 amount to thirty thousand dollars. They may, therefore, unhesitatingly be 

 guided by the emphatic injunction of the venerated " Wood-Born" Eve- 

 lyn,^ and " Arise and Plant ;" and it is equally incumbent upon all 

 proprietors of land, who desire orchards and groves of forest trees, for he 

 adds, " what more august, more cheering and useful, than the culture and 

 preservation of such goodly plantations." 



It would be difficult to do full justice to all the members of the Society, 

 and many other gentlemen, who have been conspicuous for the early and 



* In his Silva and Terra, — the Pentateuch of Arborieiihure, he says, " Woeil-bcm as I ani." 



