ыа 
сй: мыл, 
B ofthe New 
- 
Janxvary 15, 1887.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
87 
Mr. Wilder great work, as we have purus 
d 
stated, was in the field of horticulture 
pomology, and i ese pursuits he has Eun 
he fame wh is so justly due to him 
t с 
Wilder has himself said of his work in these fields: 
“ Endowed from my youth with a love for rural life 
and rural tastes, I have only obeyed the instincts of 
my nature in devoting such time, ability, and means 
as I could command to the cultivation of the earth." 
But it was in pomology that he was most successful 
and most widely known. sen Pears in his orchard 
of 2500 trees and 800 v ecome noted, 
Fruit trees and fruit Mtn fioricatture hybridising, 
more than three hundred varieties, and will compare 
favourably with those r ab s latc 
years have been given almost entirely to his favourite 
field of work. 
окуса journ 
s zeal, industry and determination has not 
on his co 
4 
culture laid the horticulturists of all nati 
heavy obligations.” He has shown a es zeal in 
advancing the interests of agricultural study among 
s own researches and labours 
t pea under- 
g his part in the found- 
yea He im- 
ported fruit trees from England, France, Belgium, 
and Germany, and more than. 300 varieties of the 
Pear have been brought from his grounds to a single 
exhibition 
Mr. Wilder was one of the founders of the Massa- 
chusetts Horticultural Society, and was its President 
from 1840 to 1848. He also initiated the organi- 
sation ч. the State Board f metas — 
State Agri ral 
ym and of the United ue Agricultural n 
His lon i wit р; 
As President of this Association he heade 
the circular for a convention of fruit growers, held in 
N A October 10, 1848, when the American 
1832) he has experimented largely in the growth and 
етае of the Pear and Apple, and from his 
n producing choice varie- 
p and Feini attracted world-wide 
attention. His opinions and methods of culture of 
these fruits were eagerly sought and followed by the 
leading fruit growers of the United States of 
America and of 
At the time of his death Mr. Wilder was President 
Historic-Genea iety, 
the American Pomological gerne and the Massa- 
тороч Agricultural Club. i 
th 
in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the 
DOR National Bank. the New England М 
and Home Savings' 
. sponding member of the Royal Horticultural Society 
of London, and the Société Centrale d’Horticulture of 
France, and a Fellow of the Reale Academia Aral- 
dica Italiana of Pisa 
Mr. Wilder has hs some notable birthday cele- 
brations, 
е com- 
mend to ae attention of the author of “Locksley 
Hall” :—“ At the time of my birth there were not 
r agricultural, and for nearly a quarter of 
a century afterward not a horticultural society in 
our land, Now there are more than 1500 ofthese and 
similar associations recorded in the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington. Then the products of 
our soil were not deemed worthy of a place in the 
statistics of our nation; now we produce more than 
2,000,000,000 of busbels of grain, with a constant 
reserve sufficient to supply the deficiency of the Old 
World, ame to this city no steamship had 
ever reached our aber: now there na pes a da 
the year when many of them do not e or depart 
from our pos But I need not prolong tuli strain of 
remarks. бий AA mo nc 
bmp and everythiug tha 
ort aud happiness к. n or, the present age is 
transcendent superior to any that has preceded it.” 
he horticultural societies with which Mr. Wilder 
was so arme connected receive by his will funds 
and special prizes. The following is an extract from 
AE 
* I giveto the Massachusetts Horticultural MT 
dol., to constitute a fund, the income 
h shall be annually o offer edi in sien pen 
as lowe: One half of the income shall be offered 
annually in prizes for Grapes ; 
the other half of the i ns asi in prizes for the Pear. 
These h nue as the Marshall Р. 
i i Bie z^ praed the xm 
by 
d for objects of special m Also the further 
of 4000 dol. for the general purposes of the 
Society." 
In our columns for April 6, 1872 (p. 463), we laid 
before our readers a portrait of the Hon. M. P. Wilder, 
and gave an account of his labours in and services to 
йй, 
Ермохр РнпилрР Drxon, seed merchant and nur- 
seryman, Hull, who died on the 2d inst., was born at 
Donnington, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, on July 4, 
,he was consequently in his eighty-third m. 
He commenced his career in connection with t 
pene rom eren about the year 1817 or i 
= 
t the old Brompton Nursery, then in the bein a 
Messrs. "mene Brothers, where he remained 
iind yea 
their’ about the year 1828 we find he was en- 
gaged at the extensive nurseries of Messrs. G. & W. 
Tindall, Beverley, Yorkshire, whom he represented 
throughout England, his ves rneys in those days being 
principally effected on k with his changes 
of raiment, &c., in pera as was the custom in 
the early part of this centu 
It was during the course of these peregrinations 
that he icd orders for the earliest specimens of iron 
roofed rvatories to be found in nue 
Relics of pose are now extant at Everin Р К; 
Rise Park, Sunderland, Wick, and ы places; 
-houses, at Brocklesby Park, 
ire and 
Yorkshire. We think the year 1833 was the dat 
his first emba n business on his own account 
at No. 2 or 3, Queen си 
In 1835 he had settled down at 67, Queen Per 
where the nucleus of the now extensive seed an 
here he remain " 
From this time he tu 
—€— E ati of his business until, in 
increasing ААА 
businesses rendered extensive accommodation neces- 
sary, he therefore purchased the site, and built the 
first portion of warehouses, 75, High Street, four 
bis in height, to which was supplemented in 1870 
of the same height, but of still greater area of 
есы surface, at Nos. 76 and 77. 
Of a retiring nature, he did not seek public office, 
although he considered it his duty to serve as a guar- 
dian of the poor, and from 1849 sat for three years 
in the Town Council of Kingston-upon-Hull. The 
repeated efforts to induce him to continue were met 
with a decided negative, and a request gn they 
should ask others w ho were anxious for the office. 
and personal industry ; his 
business qualifications were д е S n Ao 
and. to these he added 
manner, iit his ат pave nce ыа ges 
that in a crowd he was recognised as no ordinary 
man. He married in 1835, and leaves a numerous 
family. 
‚ McErnox.—' The ow бы Mr. John F. 
, Esq, Mora 
, Ken nsington, get for the last 
yis f years the Б ‘Secre tary of the United Horti- 
cultural Benefit a vident Society, took place 
on Sunday last, fren a short illness, in the sixty-ninth 
year of his age. 
His father was gardener to 
son of his employer, William Miller Christie, took a 
great interest in botanical studies, and young 
McElroy was his companion, and in the course of 
rambles gained a good knowledge of botany, which 
i in after years. 
eed at Erith, but t 
was sei 
and died on 
a fit on Friday t the ith. р 
of his faculties 
tributed а 
i бл the ura in full possession 
to the last. In years past he contri 
deal to the columns of met acon papers, and 
fit 
ested, for w 
ind all the remuneration he receiv ved 
he ll 
J. F. McElroy. e 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Tastitetion 
He was buried in Brompton Cemetery on Wednesday 
last. 
ENQUIRIES. 
“ He that questioneth much shall learn much." —BACON. 
GOLDEN Pyrre VARIETIES оғ Wir е 
Warner, Жони, Ch Chelmsford, would be glad to 
be informed by Mr. A. D. Webster where these can 
be obtained. 
