Foreign Notices. — North America. 2^5 



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NORTH AMERICA. 



Messi-s. Thorhurn, New Yorh. — Dear Sir, In your Magazine (Vol. II. 

 p. 54.5.) I observe a notice of the seed establishment of Messrs. Thorburn 

 of this city. I have often heard Mr. Thorburn relate the following in- 

 teresting anecdotes of his life, and as you may rely on them as facts, I doubt 

 not but they will amuse many of your readers : — Mr. Thorburn is a native 

 of Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, and was by trade a nail-maker. In 1793 he 

 belonged to the societies for parliamentary reform, known by the name of 

 Friends of the People, and was a prisoner on that account at the time 

 Muir, Palmer, and others were tried and banished. He got out of jail by 

 the influence of friends, and landed in New York in 1794, being then ia 

 his 20th year. He followed nail-making six years in New York, when the 

 introduction of cut-nails [nails cut out of sheet-iron by machinery] de- 

 prived him of employment. He then took to keeping a small retail grocery 

 store; but as this did not fully occupy his time (for even now he works 

 among his seeds and plants almost night and day), he got a quantity of com- 

 mon flower-pots, and painted them with green varnish colour, the sale of 

 which exceeded his expectation. In the spring of 1801 he observed a man 

 selling plants, the first he had ever seen for sale in the market. Care- 

 lessly passing the stand, he broke a small leaf, and it smelling agreeably, he 

 enquired the name of the plant from which he broke it, and was told that 

 it was the Rose geranium. Mr. Thorburn says until that moment he never 

 knew there was such a plant in the world as a geranium. Taking another 

 observation, he thought the plant would look well in one of his green 

 flower-pots, to stand on the counter, to draw attention (not for the purpose 

 of sale). However next day some one fancied the plant and pot, which 

 were sold at a shilling advance. He next purchased two plants, and dis- 

 posed of them also ; soon after he had twentj' or thirty, and, erecting a small 

 stage in his shop, opposite the door, he carried on a regular trade of plant- 

 selling. This being something novel in New York, it drew attention. 

 Strangers, when going the rounds of curiosity, stepped in to see the plants : 

 some wished to buy, but could not convey the plants 200 or 300 miles 

 into the interior; and would buy the seed if it could be had ; others, 

 again, would ask for cabbage or radish seeds, &c. These enquiries set 

 Mr. Thorburn a thinking about selling seeds ; but as no one made a busi-' 

 ness of selling seeds in New York in those days, he could not find any to 

 commence with. He related his plans and difficulties to the gardener from 

 whom he bought all his plants, who informed him that he was now saving 

 seeds with the intention of selling in the market the following spring ; but 

 if Mr. Thorburn would take his seeds and plants, he would keep at home 

 and raise plants and seeds for Mr. Thorburn to sell. A bargain was struck, 

 and he thus commenced with a stock of fifteen dollars' worth of seeds. 

 Just as this stock was sold off, a passenger in a ship from London called, 

 and offered to sell Mr. Thorburn a small invoice of seeds which he had 

 brought out. On opening the cask, he found a catalogue having the time 

 of sowing on the margin. This, Mr. Thorburn observes, was a prize to 

 him, as it gave him the time of sowing, and also a model from which to 

 print one for himself. After surmounting many difficulties, the seed store 

 is now located in a building 60 ft. by 40 ft., late a meeting-house of the 

 Society of Friends, in the very centre of business. Perhaps there is no 

 where to be found a building so well adapted, and a seed-shop so well filled 

 up with every thing necessary for the garden and farm, as is this establish- 

 ment. Seeds, tools, pots, glasses, roots, and a library of the latest English, 

 French, and American works on botany, gardening, &c., are kept for sale, 

 and also for the inspection of the public (gratis). The seed-drawers behind 

 the counters run the whole length of the shop. Suspended above the 

 drawers, in handsome glazed gilt frames, is a complete set of Curtis's Atlas, 



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