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HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



grape-breeders base their work. He also observed that 

 the native Ozark grapes were free from the phylloxera 

 which threatened the grapes of his native Europe. He 

 was one of the first to make use of this observation by 

 propagating millions of cuttings and sending them to 

 Europe where they were used as resistant stocks upon 

 which to graft European varieties. 



He wrote but httle and shrank from giving the results 

 of his work before horticultural gatherings. He taught 

 by personal contact and by results attained. His 

 acquaintances, during his life regaj-ded him as the 

 leading grape-breeder and viticulturist of the Ozarks. 



J. C. Whitten. 



Kennlcott, John A., doctor and pioneer horticultu- 

 rist, was born in 1800 and died in 1S63. When the 

 greater part of Illinois was a wilderness of grass prairie 

 and when Chicago was a stragghng village, Dr. Kenni- 

 cott was planting shade and ornamental trees at his 

 home. He was a leading spirit in the organization of 

 the Cook County Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Society in 1856, and held the first successful fair in 1857 

 on forty acres that later iield soUd blocks of sky- 

 scrapers. This horticultural society was short -hved, 

 but Dr. Kennicott did much to stir up the farmer and 

 the fruit-grower to the possibihties wrappd up in horti- 

 culture in IlUnois. He was a ready WTiter and a good 

 talker; he was first president of the Northwestern 

 Fruit-Growers' Association and president of the Illi- 

 nois State Horticultural Society in 1S61. Dr. Kennicott 

 was well educated, painstaking and self-denying. He 

 did much for lUinois horticulture and the present gen- 

 eration owes him a lasting debt of gratitude for his 

 noble, far-reaching pioneer work in horticulture. 



G. B. Brackett. 



Kenrick, William, nurserjinan and author, was 

 born in 1795, and was the oldest son of John Kenrick, 

 one of the pioneer American nurserj-men. His father 

 commenced his nursery in the year 1790 on Nonantimi 

 Hill, near the hne of the towns of Xewton and Brighton, 

 Massachusetts, and on the very ground where the 

 apostle Eliot began his labors for the Indians, under 

 Waban, their chief. The raising of peach seedhngs 

 was the commencement of Mr. Kenrick's work. He 

 soon acquired the art of budding, and thus offered 

 named varieties for sale. In the year 1S2.3 his son Wil- 

 liam became a partner in the nursery, and we find the 

 first advertisement of the stock in the October number 

 of the "New England Farmer" of that j-ear. It named 

 thirty varieties of finest budded peache.'= 5 to 8 feet 

 high at 33 J^ cents each; ten varieties of European 

 grapes; four American: Isabella, Catawba, Bland and 

 Scuppemong; currants, horse-chestnut, catalpa, moun- 

 tain-ash, hlacs, roses and a few other ornamental trees. 

 It was stated that the trees would be packed with clay 

 and mats. The son, William, appears to have assumed 

 early control, having planted in 1823 two acres in cur- 

 rants alone. In 1824 they made 1,700 gallons of cur- 

 rant wine, increasing the amount to 3,000 gallons in 

 1825 and to 3,600 in 1826. Mr. Kenrick was an enthu- 

 siast in whatever he did, his extensive cultivation and 

 introduction of the Lombardy poplar being an illus- 

 tration of his sanguine temperament. A still more 

 marked instance was his culture of the Morns multi- 

 coulis about the year 1835, and his advocacy of silk 

 culture. For a time he found this to be a more profit- 

 able venture to himself than to his patrons. But it 

 should be said that, however sanguine and confident 

 were his opinions, they were honestly held and with no 

 intent to mislead. In the year 1835, Mr. Kenrick pub- 

 lished "The American Silk-Growers' Guide," a .small 

 treatise on mulberry-culture. In 1833 appeared the 

 "New American Orchardist." This is a larger work, and 

 is a full description of the fruits of that date. The 

 author acknowledges his large indebtedness to other 

 cultivators, especially to ^Ir. Robert Manning, of 



Salem, who published his "Book of Fruits" in 1838. 

 Mr. Kenrick died in Februarj-, 1872. 



Wm. C. Strong. 



Kerr, Jonathan Williams, fruit-grower and nurserj'- 

 man, was born in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1842. 

 In 1867, after the Civil War, in which he was a Union 

 soldier, he went to Maryland, where he made his home. 

 Prior to his soldier's life, he had taught school. .After 

 more than fifty j'cars devoted to horticulture, he died on 

 July 31, 1913, of heart disease. Not only did he devote 

 time to the growing of nursery stock for sale and of 

 fruit for market, but spent much of his energies in the 

 testing of new fruits and nuts to determine their 

 v.alue, especially in the Chesapeake Peninsula. He was 

 one of the most dihgent of watchers and students of 

 nature as affected by art, his constant effort being 

 to improve by cross-fertiUzation and selection those 

 fruits, nuts and other plants that gave promise of being 

 satisfactorj' either from the commercial or the amateur's 

 standpoint. 



This work involved an enormous amount of labor in 

 collecting and trying out thousands of plum, apple, 

 peach, and other fruit varieties, the plum recei\'ing the 

 lion's share of his study and effort. In this work, Mr. 

 Kerr was perhaps the leading speciaUst in the develop- 

 ment and improvement of our native plums, ^^^^enever 

 and wherever a variety of reputed superiority came to 

 his attention he spared no pains or money to procure 

 it and no efforts to give it a fair test. He passed care- 

 ful judgment on more than 400 named varieties, the 

 labor involved being as nothing compared to the pleas- 

 ing and fascinating task he imposed upon himself. His 

 farm at Denton, Maryland, was "a veritable httle 

 plum heaven" visited by other enthusiasts from all 

 over the world. 



Mr. Kerr also tested more than 400 varieties of 

 apples collected with the object of ascertaining their 

 adaptabihty to the peculiar conditions of the Chesa- 

 peake peninsula. The larger part of these were varie- 

 ties of reputation established elsewhere, though many 

 were comparatively new. He was also especially 

 interested in nuts which could be grown in the penin- 

 sula — Persian and Japanese walnuts, chestnuts, chin- 

 quapins, filberts, pecans, and so on. At the time of his 

 death, scores of experiments were still in process of 

 completion. 



At fruit-growers' meetings, more especialh" those of 

 the ^laryland State and the Peninsula Horticultural 

 Societies, jMr. Kerr was one of the leading spirits. His 

 intimacy with all branches of horticulture and his 

 fluent speech combined with his drj- humor and aptness 

 of tongue made his remarks particularly pleasing, 

 interesting and instructive. His ^\Titings are charac- 

 terized by extreme conservatism and care. 



M. G. K.uNS. 



Eirtland, Jared P., doctor, pomologist and natural- 

 ist, was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, November 

 10, 1793 and died near Cleveland, Ohio, December 11, 

 1877. His love for nature and all living things mani- 

 fested itself in his early boyhood, and he was famihar 

 with the flowers, the trees and the birds around his 

 home. His grandfather bequeathed him his medical 

 hbrary and the funds for a medical education. He was 

 the first student to matriculate at Yale College for a 

 course in the Medical Department. No branch of 

 scientific study came amiss to him. Prominent in 

 medicine, he was in every chosen department of 

 science a teacher and a leader. In the geologic survey 

 of Ohio he brought to bear his extensive and familiar 

 knowledge of the flora and fauna, the pomology, 

 ornithology and entomology of the state. Every 

 department of hfe receiver! his particular care. He filled 

 the chair of Theory and Practice in the Ohio JMedical 

 College for some 3-ears with great ability. As far back 

 as 1810 he was studying the seedling pear trees in the 

 nurseries in northern Ohio, and was trying to solve the 



