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HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



epoch-making Early Rose potato for the introducers 

 and was awarded a medal at the Ceatennial Exposi- 

 tion at Philadelphia in 1876 for a collection of 550 

 named varieties of potatoes. ]VJ_ Q_ Kains. 



Hiester, Gabriel, horticulturist, was bom at "Esther- 

 ton," near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1850, 

 and died in his lifelong home, January 18, 1912. His 

 father, Augustus Otto Hiester, was a prominent citizen 

 and an influential trustee of the Pennsylvania State 

 College. Gabriel Hiester graduated from this institu- 

 tion in 1868 and served as a trustee from 1878 until 

 his death. No member of the board did more for the 

 promotion of agriculture, and especially horticulture, 

 in the college and in the agricultural experiment sta- 

 tion. He was elected President of the State Horticul- 

 tural Association in 1905 and was serving his eighth 

 term on the evening before his death. Mr. Hiester 

 was widely known as an unusually successful horti- 

 culturist. He produced fruits and vegetables on a large 

 scale for the markets of central Pennsylvania and fre- 

 quently attended Farmers' Institutes and horticultural 

 meetings in this and other states where he gave his 

 hearers the benefit of his many years of experience as a 

 grower of choice products. Gabriel Hiester was a man 

 of sterling qualities, being broad-minded, unselfish, 

 and thoroughly devoted to all interests which concern 

 the welfare of mankind. j^ L ^^'ATTS 



Hogg, Thomas, Senior and Junior, plantsmen. The 

 second Thomas Hogg, born in London, February 6, 

 1820, died in New York, December 30, 1892, was 

 knoiiNTi for his introductions of Japanese plants. His 

 father removed to this country in 1820, when the child 

 was nine months old, and early in 1822 took up a 

 piece of land outside the city of New York, at what is 

 now Broadway and Twenty-third Street, and here 

 established himself as nurseryman and florist. In 

 1840, the nurseries were removed to Seventy-ninth 

 Street and East River, where young Thomas and his 

 brother James assisted in the business. The father 

 died in 1855, and the sons took charge of the business. 

 Thomas Hogg was appointed by President Lincoln, in 

 1862, LTnited States Marshal, and in this capacitj' he 

 resided eight years in Japan. He retiu-ned to Japan in 

 1873, and remained two years in the Japanese customs 

 service. "His close relations with the authorities gave 

 him opportunities for exploring the islands which other 

 foreigners did not possess, and he collected many plants 

 and seeds of horticultural value and sent them home. 

 The garden of his brother at the foot of Eighty-fourth 

 Street, where most of these treasures were cultivated 

 for the first time in America, was, for many years, the 

 most interesting spot in the United States to the lovers 

 of Japanese plants. Many of the very best trees, 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants which have come to us 

 from Japanese gardens were thus brought to America 

 before they were sent to Europe, and not a few of them 

 are now among the most familiar inhabitants of our 

 gardens." Hogg left Japan in 1875, and subsequently 

 traveled in China, Ceylon, South and Central America, 

 as weO as in Europe and California. In later life he 

 devoted himself to his favorite studies. He never 

 married. — Extract from "Garden and Forest," Vol. 

 VI, p. 24. 



Hoopes, Josiah, nurseryman, was born in We.st Ches- 

 ter, Pennsylvania, November 0, 1832, and died January 

 16, 1904. He was reared principally in Philadelphia and 

 received a superior English and classical education in 

 the high schools of that city. His chief delight was in 

 botany, and from early childhood he pursued that line 

 of study with interest. It was in pursuance of his 

 inclinations along this line that he built in 18.53 a 

 small greenhouse on his father's jjroperty and proceeded, 

 at great labor anrl considerable expense, to fill it with 

 specimens of the flora of this continent and of the world. 



To this collection he added as opportunity permitted 

 and naturally began prop.agating them and found his 

 products in demand. From that small beginning, the 

 great and prosperous nursery business of today waa 

 developed. Josiah Hoopes WTote much on horticul- 

 ture, botany and kindred subjects, for many years being 

 a regular contributor to the horticultural department 

 of the "New York Tribune" and other publications. He 

 was the author of the "Book on Evergreens." 



Hoskins, Thomas H., physician, horticulturist and 

 writer, was born at Gardiner, Maine, in 1828 and died 

 at Newport, Vermont, in 1895. He was well known in 

 horticulture as the introducer of Russian fruits. He 

 was also a contributor to all the the leading horticul- 

 tural papers. For a fuller account, see "Cyclopedia of 

 American Agriculture," Vol. IV, p. 585. 



Hovey, Charles Mason (Fig. 1883), horticuUural 

 journalist and nurserjTnan, was born in Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, October 26, 1810, and died there Sep- 

 tember 1 or 2, 1887. He is best known as editor of the 

 "Magazine of Horticulture," which had an uninter- 

 rupted e.xistence from 1835 to 1808. It was founded 

 as the "American Gardener's Magazine," by C. M. 

 Hovey and his brother, Phineas Brown Hovey. In its 

 third volume (1837) it changed its name, and continu- 

 ously thereafter was known as the "Magazine of Horti- 

 culture," and was edited by Charles M. Hovey alone. 

 It enjoyed the longest period of prosperity of any 

 American horticultural journal. It is a record of the 

 budding stage of New World horticulture. It was 

 modeled after Loudon's "Gardener's Magazine," 

 although its spirit was essentially American. Essays, 

 records of current events, reviews of books, descrip- 

 tions of varieties, were prominent features. It had very 

 few illustrations. Mr. Hovey was author of the "Fruits 

 of America," issued in parts from 1852 to 1856, com- 

 pleting two volumes and making more than a beginning 

 on a third. Its purpose was to give "richly colored 

 figiu'cs and full descriptions of all the choicest varie- 

 ties cultivated in the LTnited States." The volumes con- 

 tain more than 100 colored plates. Handsomely printed 

 and bound, these volumes are a fine type of the ama- 

 teur's art-book of varieties. 



Mr. Hovey was also nurseryman and seed merchant. 

 Until 1840, his grounds at Cambridge are said to have 

 comprised only an acre, but at that time his premises 

 were greatly enlarged. His epoch was a time of knowl- 

 edge of varieties. Straightw.ay he began assiduously 

 to collect varieties, until he exhibited pears, apples and 

 camellias by the hundreds, and plums, grapes, chrysan- 

 themums and many 

 other things by the 

 score. These things 

 were shown before the 

 Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society which 

 was the center of horti- 

 cultm-al influence of 

 the country. He raised 

 many seedlings. Thuya 

 Hoveyi is still prized as 

 a garden conifer. His 

 greatest cont ribution to 

 horticultural varieties 

 was the Hovey straw- 

 berry, which first 

 fruited in 1836, and 

 which is generally re- 

 garded as the starting- 

 point of American commercial strawberry-growing. For 

 many years this berry was the standard of market excel- 

 lence (Fig. 1861). He continued to grow it and cherish it 

 until the end. Mr. Hovey was long an active member, 

 and for a time president, of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society. He was one of the active projectors 



1883. Charles M. Hovey. 



