766 



HORTICULTURE 



was first brought to the attention of the public in 1875. 

 The following year the Lucretia, the most popular of 

 dewberries, was introduced into Ohio from West Vir- 

 ginia, where it had been found wild some years before 

 by a Union soldier. 



The history of the gooseberry in America recalls that 

 of the grape. It is a characteristic fruit of England and 

 the low countries, and it was early introduced into 

 America. But, like the European grapes, the gooseber- 

 ries were attacked by a fungous sickness which rendered 



1089. The original picture of the Houghton Gooseberry. 



From the HorticiUturi-st for September, 1868. Original size. 



their cixltivation precarious. An improved form of tlie 

 native species miist be introduced, and this was accom- 

 plished by Abel Houghton, of Massachusetts, who, from 

 the seed of the wild berry, produced the variety which 

 now bears his name. This variety began to attract some 

 attention a little previous to 18.50, although it was not 

 planted freely until several years later ( Pig. 1 089 ) . From 

 seed of the Houghton sprung the Downing, still the 

 most popular gooseberry in America, although Houghton 

 is still much grown from Philadelphia south; and our 

 goosi-in-t-ry rultiirt' is. tliiTcfori', but two removes from 

 nature. With tin- advent c.f tin* Bordeaux mixture and its 

 related speeities, Iiowever, tlie English gooseberries are 

 again coming to the fore. Hybrids of the English and 

 American types, as in the Triumph or Columbia and the 

 Chautauqua, may be expected to become more popular 

 for home use and special markets, but the Americans 

 will probably remain in favor for general market pur- 

 poses. 



The cranberry, most unique of American horticultural 

 products, was first cultivated, or rescued from mere wild 

 bogs, about 1810. Its cultivation began to attract atten- 

 tion about 1840, although the difficulties connected with 

 the growing of a new crop did not begin to clear away 



HORTICULTURE 



until about 1850. Cape Cod was the first cranberry-grow- 

 ing region, which was soon followed by New Jersey, and 

 later by Wisconsin and other regions. The varieties now 

 known are over a hundred, and the annual product from 

 tame bogs in the United States is nearly 800,000 bushels. 



The Nursery and Seed Business. — It is impossible 

 to fix a date for the beginning of the nursery business 

 in America. Trees were at first grown in small quanti- 

 ties as a mere adjunct to general farm operations. 

 Governor John Endicott, of the Massachusetts Colony, 

 was one of the best fruit growers of his time, and he 

 grew many trees. In 1644, he wrote to John Winthrop 

 as follows: "My children burnt mee at least 500 trees 

 this Spring by setting the gmund on fire neere them ;" 

 and in 1G48 he traded .^lOtt aj-ple trees, 3 years old, for 

 2.")0 acres of land. The tirst nursery in Maine is thought 

 by Manning to have been that of Ephraim Goodale, at 

 Orrington, established early in the present century. 

 Other early nurserymen of Maine were the brothers 

 Benjamin and Charles Vaxighan, Englishmen, who 

 settled at Hallowell in 1796. The first nursery in South 

 Carolina was estaVjlished by John Watson, formerly 

 gardener to Henry Laurens, before the Revolution. In 

 Jlassachusetts, there were several small nurserymen 

 towards the close of last century, amongst others, John 

 Kenrick, of Newtown, whose son William wrote the 

 "New American Orchardist," published in 1833, and 

 which passed through at least eight editions. The trees 

 were generally top-grafted or budded, sometimes in the 

 nursery and sometimes after removal to the orchard. 

 Deane writes in 1797. that "the fruit trees should be al- 

 lowed to grow to the height of 5 or 6 feet before they are 

 budded or grafted." .Stocks were sometimes grafted at 

 the crown, and even root-grafting was known, although 

 it is generally said that this operation originated with 

 Thomas Andrew Knight, in 1811. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that the root-grafting of last century was only graft- 

 ing at the surface of the ground, and that it had little 

 similarity to the method now in vogue. One of the new 

 trees a hundred years ago was the Lomhardy poplar. John 

 Kenrick had two acres devoted to it in 1797; and Deane 

 writes, in 1797, that "the Lomhardy poplar begins to be 

 ]jlanted in this country. To what size they will arrive, 

 aiul how durable they will be in this country, time will 

 discover." He does not mention it in the flr.st edition, 

 1790. The tree is said to have been introduced into 

 America by William Hamilton, of Philadelphia, in 1784, 

 although Mr. Meehan writes that he remembers trees 

 fifty years ago that seemed to he a century old. 

 Manning quotes a bill of sale of nursery stock in 1799, 

 showing that the price of fruit trees was 333^ cents 

 each. With relatively cheaper money and with much 

 better trees, we now buy for one-third this price. 

 Deane speaks of raising apple trees as follows : "The 

 way to propagate them is by sowing the pomace from 

 cydermills, digging, or hoeing it into the earth in au- 

 tumn. The young plants will be up in the following 

 spring ; and the next autumn, they should be trans- 

 planted from the seed bed into the nursery, in rows 

 from 2 to 3 feet apart and 1 foot in the rows, where the 

 ground has been fitted to receive them." Nothing is 

 said about grafting the trees in the nursery. 



But the first independent nursery in the New World, 

 in the sense in which we now understand the term, 

 seems to have been that established by William Prince 

 at Flushing, Long Island, and which was continued 

 under four generations of the same family. The foun- 

 der was William Prince. The second Prince was also 

 William, the son, and author of the first professed 

 American treatise upon Horticulture, 1828. The third 

 generation was William Robert Prince. He was the 

 author of "A Treatise on the Vine" (1830), "The Pomo- 

 logical Manual" (1831), and "Manual of Roses " (1846). 

 In the first two he was aided by his father, the sec- 

 ond William. This William R'obert Pi-ince is the 

 one who first distingiiished the types of the prairie 

 strawberry into tlie two species, Frajaria llHnnensis 

 and F. lownisix. From a large catalogue of William 

 Prince second, published in 1825 — and which contains, 

 amongst other things, lists of 116 kinds of apples, 108 

 of pears, 54 of cherries, 50 of plums, 16 of apricots, 74 

 of peaches and 2.15 of geraniums — the following account 

 is taken of the founding of this interesting establish- 



