1570 



HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



Coxe said, 1817, that he had been "for many years 

 actively engaged in the rearing, planting and cultiva- 

 ting fruit trees on a scale more extensive than has been 

 attempted by any other individual of this country." 

 He also had a national reputation for his cider at an 

 age when it was a famous and characteristic beverage. 



William Coxe belonged to one of the most refined fam- 

 ilies of Philadelphia. His early education was some- 

 what meager by reason of the Revolutionary War, but 

 he became a cultured gentleman. John Jay Smith gives 

 this pleasant picture of him: "Well do we remember his 

 extensive library in his fine mansion on the 'Bank' at 

 BurUngton, when as a httle boy we were assigned the 

 duty of bringing away, or taking home, some book or 

 pamphlet from his ever open stores of information. . . 

 His person was handsome, and his bearing that of the 

 'old-fashioned' gentleman, improved by mixing in the 

 best society, but retaining the forms of the greatest 

 politeness and suavity, that modern usages are too 

 rapidly casting off. An errand to Mr. Coxe's was a 

 cherished privilege; never was the opportunity neglected 

 by him to place in the hand of his visitor some fruit 

 that he so well knew would be appreciated by a youth- 

 ful appetite. The finest Seckel pears we have ever seen 

 were not unfrequent deposits. He had an especial fond- 

 ness for the Seckel pear, which is certainly among the 

 half-dozen most famous pears of American origin, and 

 which was pronounced by Downing to be the finest 

 flavored of all pears." Coxe was made an honorary 

 member of the Horticultural Society of London for 

 making known the merits of this pear through Dr. 

 Hosack. Either the first willow or the first poplar 

 ■ planted in Burlington is said to have been brought from 

 Halifax in the hand of William Coxe. He planted 

 many trees to beautify the town and, in particular, 

 extended the front of the "Green Bank." Biographical 

 details are unfortunately only too meager. A few 

 other details may be gleaned from the "Horticulturist," 

 11:304-307 (1856). Wilhelm Miller. 



Craig, John (Fig. 1875), horticulturist and educator, 

 was born at Lakefield, Argenteiiil County, Quebec, in 

 1864. and died at Siasoonsett, August 10, 1912. He ob- 

 tained his early educa- 

 tion at Montreal High 

 School and McGill Col- 

 lege. Early in hfe he 

 exhibited a taste for 

 horticulture and later 

 studied under one of 

 the greatest pioneer 

 horticultural teachers, 

 J. L. Budd, of the Iowa 

 Agricultural College. 

 Shortly after gradua- 

 tion from this institu- 

 tion in 1887, Professor 

 Craig was appointed 

 horticulturist at the 

 Central Experimental 

 Farm at Ottawa. He 

 was called to Iowa as 

 professor of horticul- 

 ture in 1899,and in 1900 

 became professor of 

 extension teaching at 

 Cornell University. In 1903, he was appointed professor 

 of horticulture at this institution, which position he 

 held until his death. During the latter years of his life, 

 Professor Craig took great interest in the development 

 of nut-culture, both for the North and South, and was 

 the recognized authority on many kinds of nuts. He 

 contributed largely to horticultural and agricultural 

 magazines and was the editor of "The National Nur- 

 seryman" for several years. Professor Craig was a 

 member of the advisory board of the American Civic 



1875. John Craig. 



League, and chairman of the nomenclature committees 

 of the American Sweet Pea and the American Peony 

 Societies. He was also elected a fellow of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society of Great Britain. He was well 

 known for his interest and work as a pomologist, hav- 

 ing been early associated with Charles Gibb (p. 1576), 

 and having followed the subject closely throughout 

 life. In 1903, he was elected secretary of the American 

 Pomological Society, which important position he held 

 until his death. A. C. Beal. 



Curtis, Joseph, pioneer fruit-grower of Illinois, was 

 born in New Jersey, May 29, 1786, and removed with 

 his parents when a boy, to Manchester, Ohio. He 

 had never seen a nursery and had no horticultural 

 experience, but he invented the arts of root-grafting 

 and collar-grafting fruit trees through stern necessity 

 for grafting stock. At the age of sixteen he had secured 

 a piece of land on which to plant an orchard. He had 

 grown some seedUng trees but had an insufficient num- 

 ber for the ground he had. As the pieces of roots were 

 plowed up, it occurred to him that he might make more 

 trees by grafting these roots. He succeeded and immedi- 

 ately thereafter invented collar-grafting. He was from 

 1798 to 1817 collecting and testing twenty-seven varie- 

 ties of apples in his Ohio orchard. In March, 1818, he 

 built a log-cabin, selected a fine tract of land in what 

 is known as the north arm of Grand Prairie, Edgar 

 County, Illinois, and in 1818 established the first 

 nursery in the state of Illinois .and the first orchard of 

 grafted fruit trees planted in Edgar Coimty. He grew 

 such varieties as Yellow Newtown, Smith (Cider), 

 Newtrown Spitzenberg, Milam, Priestley, Gilliflower, 

 Rhode Island Greening, Rambo and Winesap. He 

 originated a number of choice varieties of fruits, espe- 

 cially some of our leading varieties of apples. He did 

 more than any other one man of his day to introduce 

 choice fruits into southern Illinois and the adjacent 

 territories. Among his most zealous contemporaries were 

 Edson Harkness of Tivoh, Peoria County, Cj'rus Over- 

 man, Canton, and Arthur Bryant, Princeton. To such 

 men are due the credit of the organization of the North- 

 western Fruit Growers Association in 1851, the first so- 

 ciety of its kind west of the Alleghanies, embracing great 

 extent of territory and demanding any great degree of 

 public opinion. And through the united efforts of these 

 men, with others, the Illinois Horticultural Society was 

 organized at Decatur in 1856. Q g Brackett. 



Darlington, E. Dillw3m, was born on November 20, 

 1858, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and died March 26, 

 1908. As a boy he entered a small private school, later 

 the Doylestown Seminary, and finally Swarthmore 

 College at the age of sixteen. Intensive study up to 

 this time had undermined his health to such an extent 

 that after a few months he was obliged to leave school. 

 An inborn desire for activity prompted him to seek and 

 find a position in the office of the Doylestown "Intel- 

 ligencer." But even this proved too confining so that, 

 after a few weeks, he had to give up and seek occupa- 

 tion outdoors. A natural tendency started him grow- 

 ing plants for local markets. Soon he found out how 

 much had to be learned in this line and he secured a posi- 

 tion with the prominent firm of Hoopes, Bro. & Tho- 

 mas, Nurserymen, of West Chester, Pennsylvania. After 

 serving an apprenticeship of one year, he returned to 

 Doylestown to start seriously in the business of grow- 

 ing plants for sale. This was in 1875. Steadily he grew 

 and developed until in 1883 he became connected with 

 what turned out to be his life's work — the trial-grounds 

 of W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Seedsmen, Philadelphia. 

 Mr. Darlington first conducted these trials on a vacant 

 lot adjoining his property. As the Burpee business grew, 

 the trial-grounds grew, and when, in 1888, a farm was 

 acquired for the purpose of doing this important 

 work, Mr. Darlington logically became superintendent 

 of the new venture. 



