.g^^tCoK? 



Vol. Ill 



oines; Leavenworth, Jan. 15, 1872. No. i 



HA£K MILLEK, Managing Editor and Fnbliaher, Bes Moines, Iowa. 

 J. Stayman, Dr, Wm. M. Howsley, Dr. S. H. Kridelbaugh, 



CorrMpoDding Editor, Leivenwortli, Kansas. 



.associate Editor, Leav«DWQrth, Kansas. 



Entomological Editor, Clarinda, Iowa. 



jr. S. DOWNER. 



The subject of our engraving was born on tlie 19th of June, 1809, in Woodville, Cul- 

 pepper county, Virginia, of parents reaching far back in their lineage on both sides, into 

 the Colonial history of the State. His ance.strj', some of them, bore an earnest and a con- 

 spicuous part amid all the trying experiences of the Revolution. While he was yet an 

 infant his parents removed from Virginia to Christian county, Kentucky, tlwn considered 

 on the verge of civilization. Plere — with no instructor or guide in Horticulture or Pomol- 

 ogy — love for this noble pursuit dawned in his nature. While yet a boy, as he traversed 

 the forest in search of some truant animal, or followed the winding and often dim path 

 leading away to some distant mill, he sought out and learned to know the starry flowers 

 gemming the greensward, and made familiar acquaintance with shrub and tree hedging 

 the vales and streams. These peculiarities develope in his boyhood great energy, earnest 

 industry, an ardent love for Floriculture and Horticulture in all its various branches, and 

 intense admiration for the dignity of this, his chosen life work. 



Within a few miles of where his parents settled he began in earliest manhood his pres- 

 ent nursery establishment, now so widely known as Forest Nursery, and has persevered 

 against every opposition, until he has made it one of the leading establishments of the 

 nation. From the obscure youth, without fame or fortune, he has developed into a Nur- 

 seryman, Pomologist and Horticulturist of a national reputation. He has secured and 

 tested in his own nurseries and orchards, specimens of most of the varieties known or 

 cultivated. North, Soutli, East, or West — often securing them at immense cost and toil ; 

 never sparing effort or expense to test and develope each in its genuine excellence, or 

 native deficiencies. 



He has achieved much of his present reputation by this characteristic, upheld by a 

 native honesty of purpose, remarkable and " Sui Generis." He newr endorses miything 

 without knowledge drawn from his own experience, nor condems without observation of 

 failure. His rare honesty of character and justice in dealing is as widely known as his 

 name ; and has secured him an enviable reputation with classes, especially among the 

 leading Horticulturists and Pomologists of the age. 



Mr. Downer is a man of rare mental endowments. He has procured one of the finest 

 libraries in the country on Horticulture and Pomology, and has studied and appropriated 

 all its value. He has long since become accustomed to wield the pen of " the ready wri- 

 ter." In speech he is modest and letiring, but ever clear, forcible and plain. He has 

 labored earnestly in behalf of Pomology in Kentucky, and has in fact done more to ele- 

 vate and ennoble his busine.ss than any other man in the middle or .southern States. He 

 yet lives, though advancing into a "green old age," upon the grounds he first settled near 



