74 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



gallant Colonel Daniel.' Her Gardener's Chronicle, written whei> 

 over seventy, was in great demand formerly, but seems to have 

 utterly perished, the most careful search failing to produce a copy. 



The almanacs were important mediums of information in the 

 early days, and it is probable that some of the first instruction in 

 gardening was given in them. In Poor Will's Almanack for 1787, 

 printed in Philadelphia in 1786, there is a Gardener's Kalendar, 

 or useful memorandums of work necessary to be done, monihly, in 

 the gardens and orchards of the Middle States. The Southern States 

 Ephemeris for 1788, printed in Charleston in 1787, contains a 'new 

 and copious gardener's calendar' for the southern states. In 

 Isaac Brigg's Georgia and South Carolina Almanac for 1800, printed 

 in Augusta in 1799, there is a calendar by Robert Squibb. The 

 agricultural matter in the New England almanacs is well known. 



"In 1796 there was printed at Newburyport, Mass., by Blunt 

 and March, for John Dabney, Salem, A71 Address to Farmers on a 

 number of interesting subjects. It contains a part or chapter on 

 the character of a complete farmer; one on the profits of a nursery; 

 another on the advantages of an orchard. 



" Apparently the earliest separate book on a horticultural subject 

 published in North America (if the Logan is not counted), was 

 Robert Squibb's The Gardener's Kalendar for South Carolina and 

 North Carolina, published in Charleston in 1787, and again in 1809, 

 1827, and 1842. The second work appears to be the American 

 edition of Marshall's Introduction to the Knowledge and Practice of 

 Gardening, Boston, 1799, already referred to. The second indige- 

 nous book apparently appeared in 1804, The American Gardener, 

 by John Gardiner and David Hepburn. It was published at Wash- 

 ington. This book apparently had an extensive sale. It was 

 revised by 'a citizen of Virginia' and republished in Georgetown, 

 D. C, in 1818. A third edition appeared in 1826. 



"This book was followed in 1806 by Bernard M'Mahon's excel- 

 lent and voluminous American Gardener's Calendar in Philadelphia. 

 This work enjoyed much popularity, and the eleventh edition 

 appeared as late as 1857. For fifty years it remained the best 

 American work on general gardening. M'Mahon, remembered in 

 the Mahonia barberries, was an important personage. He was- 

 largely responsible for the introduction into cultivation of the 

 plants collected by Lewis and Clark. 



