HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



1599, 



His interest in horticulture, however, caused him to 

 give up law as a profession, and buy an estate at 

 Waban, Massachusetts. He did much for American 

 fruit-culture, especially the grape and ])ear industries, 

 and he was regarded as a leader among old-Une 

 pomologists. He was also a benefactor in the introduc- 

 tions of new plants and trees from foreign countries. 

 He was among the first to discover the immense floral 

 value of rhododendrons and azaleas for the vicinity 

 of Boston. He also did much to aid in the establish- 

 ment of the Arnold Arboretum in 1S72. Mr. Strong was 

 the author of several valuable books on horticultm-e, 

 some of which are "Fruit-Culture," "Grape-Culture," 

 and the "Gardener's Manual." He was a member of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and in 1872 

 was sent to Paris as a delegate to the Pomological 

 Congress. He was also a member of the American 

 Pomological Society. G. B. Brackett. 



Sturtevant, Edward Lewis, agricultural experimenter 

 and writer, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, Jan- 

 uary 23, 1842, and died at South Framingham, Massa- 

 chusetts, July 30, 1898. Though holding the degree of 

 M. D. from the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Sturte- 

 vant never practised the profession of medicine, but 

 devoted his life to agricultural work, first speciahzing on 

 Ayrshire cattle, then on pedigree com (Waushakum) 

 and muskmelons (New Christiana), and afterward 

 devoting particular attention to the modifications which 

 cultivated plants have undergone as sho\vn by such 

 records as occur in the older books. In connection with 

 those studies, Dr. Sturtevant brought together a rare 

 collection of books deahng with plants published before 

 the time of Linna;us (say 1753), which, with his index 

 cards and herbarium, is now preserved at the Mi.ssouri 

 Botanical Garden in St. Louis. 



As first director of the New York Experiment Station 

 at Geneva, Dr. Sturtevant drew the broad plans on 

 which the successful work of that estabhshment has 

 been conducted and which have served largely as 

 models for subsequently organized agricultural stations 

 over the country. He was a man of active mind, and 

 his career is suggestive of worthy work to an unusual 

 degree. A biographic sketch and a hst of his principal 

 writings are printed in the "Tenth Report of the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden." See also "Cyclopedia 

 of American Agriculture," Vol. IV, p. 616. 



Teas, John C, nurseryman, was bom in Indiana, 

 of Quaker parentage, in 1827 and died m Carthage, 

 Missouri, July 29, 1907. At the early age of ten, he 

 evinced his love of horticulture by planting and tend- 

 ing a garden of his own. He Uved in Indiana until 

 1869, when he moved to Missouri, where he engaged 

 in the nm-sery business. He originated and intro- 

 duced many new and valuable novelties in all branches 

 of liorticulture, including pomology, forestry, flori- 

 culture and the hke. He was one of the first to recog- 

 nize the good qualities of Catalpa speciosa and at all 

 times advocated the careful conservation of our natural 

 forests, and the planting and care of new forests. Mr. 

 Teas was an active member of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society and one of the organizers of the Indi- 

 ana Horticultural Society. He was also a frequent 

 contributor to the current Uterature of horticulture 

 and pomology. 



Terry, H. A., one of the pioneer horticulturists of 

 the prairie region west of the Mississippi, was bom in 

 Cortland, New York, in 1826. At the age of ten he 

 moved with his parents to Michigan, where he lived 

 on a farm until he was nineteen. He then went west 

 stopping a year in Illinois, reaching western Iowa in 

 1846. After that the most of his life wiis spent in the 

 vicinity of Council Bluffs, not far from which city he 

 established a nursery in 18.57, where he carried on the 

 work in breeding fruits and flowers which has given 



him special claim to recognition as one of the notable 

 horticulturists of his region. In addition to carrying on 

 his regular business as a nurseryman, he endeavored to 

 add to the hst desirable varieties which should be particu- 

 larly adapted to his region at a time when such work 

 was greatly needed. He n.amed and distributed more 

 than 100 of his seedhng peonies, but doubtless his most 

 important work was the origination of improved varie- 

 ties of the native plum. Among the more important 

 of his plum soedUngs, classed under the americana 

 species, are Admiral Schley, Bomberger, Bryan, Cham- 

 pion, Golden Queen, Hawkeye, Nellie Blanch, Terry 

 and White Prune. Among his notable seedlings of the 

 Munsoniana species are Downing, Hammer, Milton, aO 

 three from seed of the \^'ild Goose. Mr. Terry was long 

 an active member of the State Horticultural Society 

 and for several years was in charge of one of its trial 

 stations. He died February 14, 1909. g. A. Beach. 



Thomas, John Jacobs (Fig. 1902), one of the three 

 pomologists who may be said to have created the 

 science in this country (the others being Patrick Barry 

 and the elder Do\\Tiing), was born January 8, 1810, 

 near the lake in central New York — Cayuga — on the 

 shores of which he passed his hfe; and died at Union 

 Springs, Febmary 22, 1895. He was much more than a 

 pomologist, his studies covering nearly every branch of 

 rural industry except the breeding of hve-stock, and his 

 labors in the direction of adorning the surroundings of 

 country life entitling him to rank in that department 

 with the younger Downing. Two of his works, "Farm 

 Implements and Ma- 

 chinery," and the series 

 of nine volumes called 

 "Rural Affairs," deal 

 with the practical 

 every-day matters of 

 life on the farm in a 

 manner at once pleas- 

 ing and original, there 

 being nothing that 

 could quite fill then- 

 place in the whole range 

 of our agricultural ht- 

 erature; and his inces- 

 sant stream of inspir- 

 ing editorials in "The 

 Cultivator" and "The 

 Country Gentleman" 

 for nearly sixty years 

 covered a wide and di- 

 versified range of rural 

 topics. But pomology 

 was his chief deUght, 

 and his fame rests 

 mainly on his treatise on that subject, "The American 

 Fruit Culturist." This immensely useful book first ap- 

 peared, in 1846, as a paper-covered 16mo of 220 pages, 

 with 36 wood-cuts, which must have been well received, 

 inasmuch as a fourth edition (dignified with muslin bind- 

 ing) was pubhshed in the following year, and in 1849 

 another, enlarged to 424 duodecimo pages, and "illus- 

 trated with 300 accurate figures." This edition appears 

 to have been reissued a few years later, with slight 

 modifications and on larger paper, and was then called 

 the seventh. Up to this time, changes in the work had 

 been chiefly in the direction of natural growth. But hor- 

 ticultural "knowledge was undergoing great modifica- 

 tion; and in 1867, the public still calling for the book, it 

 reappeared in different style, newly arranged and 

 mostly rewritten, filling now considerably more than 

 500 pages, and accompanied by almost that number of 

 illustrations. Rather vmfortunately, this was called 

 the "second edition," all its predecessors being probably 

 regarded as different forms of the same book, while this 

 was substantially new. 



1902. John Jacobs Thomas. 



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