mm<r»iure* > @3.00 PER YEAR 
TERMS. f gi n ^|e Xo„ Eight C« 
Cents. 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
nprTPT .« J41 Pnrlt Row, \ew York. 
OFFICSS. -j ya UuN'nlo fet., Rochester. 
YOL. XXI. NO. 7. 
WHOLE NO. 1047. 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEBRUARY IE, 1870. 
f Entered according t.. *ct of Cumrrcss. in tnc year 1ST0. by I). D. T. -Moore, in the Cleric’s OlHwof the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.] 
[nbnstrial fttm. 
POPULAR SEEDSMEN.-L 
— 
BY F. R. ELLIOTT. 
James Vick, Rochester, N. Y. 
The progress and refinement of a people 
are made evident by tlieir home surround¬ 
ings as much as by their dress, scientific and 
social accomplishments and religious regard 
for the Creator. The man, therefore, who 
honestly disseminates the seeds of flowers 
and plants with which to adorn the homes 
of the land, is one of God’s own ministers of 
good to man. Such a man is Jambs Vick 
of Rochester, N. Y., the subject of my 
present sketch. Although he is not the 
oldest seedsman in the United States, he has 
such reputation and is so well known by 
his editorial connection witli the Rural 
New-Yorker, that I feel no apology is due 
to his seniors in the trade for the presenta¬ 
tion of liia name as one of the first and best 
in the line of his vocation. I hope to add 
several others to the list worthy to he named 
and honored, in a similar manner, in the 
Rural. 
Born in the suburbs of Portsmouth, Eng¬ 
land, in 1818, he came to this country with 
his father’s family in 1833. Ilia early ambi¬ 
tion was to become an author, but the neces¬ 
sity of labor for daily support gave him little 
opportunity to apply himself thereto; and 
although he occasionally got an article in¬ 
serted it was not remunerative, and ho there¬ 
fore abandoned literature as a life profession, 
although writing has been and still Is a pro¬ 
pensity which will crop out whenever he has 
any new item ol value worth giving to the 
world. Me also had a fancy for the printing 
business, and in early life connected the two 
together as inseparable, a fallacy he soon dis¬ 
covered, when, soon after arriving in New 
ten to twelve years 
old.” Here, occu¬ 
pied in setting type 
a certain number 
of hours daily for 
the Genesee Farm¬ 
er, and spending 
the balance of his 
time in growing, 
studying and writ¬ 
ing about flowers, 
plants and horticul¬ 
ture generally, he 
saw the Farmer 
passed from Mr. 
Tucker’s to D. D. 
T. Moore’s hands; 
and soon after Mr. 
Moouk commenced 
the publication of 
the Rural New- 
Yorker Mr. Vick 
assumed the publi¬ 
cation of the Farm¬ 
er, and continued it 
until January, 1853. 
It will be remem¬ 
bered that in July, 
185a, our loved and 
lamented Andrew 
J. Downing, the 
then editor of the 
Horticulturist, was 
drowned near Yon¬ 
kers, while on a 
passage from New¬ 
burgh to New 
York; and soon 
after the publisher 
of that journal, 
trembling and fear¬ 
ful, with little con¬ 
ception of the wants 
and impulses of the 
American people, 
Figure 1—Residence at Home Place. 
nting office for the I gave notice of a wish to sell. 
York, he entered a printing office for the gave notice of a wish to 
purpose of learning the art, and at which he with an intuitive percep- 
worked several years. Finally, his inborn tion, -hesitated not a mo- 
love of flowers caused him to seek a position incut in becoming its pro- 
and location, where, in near connection with prietor; and in January, j 
his daily label’s at the case, he could employ 1853, removed the publi- 
his leisure hours in the care and study of cation office of the llorti- 
flowera and flowering plants. Hence he re- culturist to Rochester,and \ 
VICK. 
ENGRAVED EXPEKBSLY FOR MOORE’S RURAL NEW- YORKER. 
In January, 1857, he commenced editing 
the Horticultural Department of the Rural 
New-Yorker, which position he held until 
18G2, when his seed business demanded so 
much of his time that lie was obliged, great¬ 
ly to the regret of the thousands who hold 
those volumes, and weekly read his practical 
contributions thereto, lie was for several 
years Secretary of the American Pomologi- 
cal Society, which office, with pleasant sar¬ 
casm lie tells me, “was next to being Presi¬ 
dent of the United Slates.” He was for a 
time Secretary of the Genesee Valley Horti¬ 
cultural Society; also Secretary of the West¬ 
ern New York Horticultural Society, of 
which he is now the President. 
Like everything else in this country, where | 
energy, industry and intelligence combine 
in its direction and management, the garden 
of James Vick has grown from less than a 
quarter of an acre to seventy five acres, and 
the product and rarity of flowers from seeds 
grown by his own hands or under his direc¬ 
tions have come to 
number so much 
that, while I once 
wrote a guefis state¬ 
ment of Ids doings, 
and thought 1 gave 
abroadr/um, I now 
find I was no true 
Yankee, in the art. 
Commencing a s 
early as 1850 to 
import seeds and 
bulbs from Eng¬ 
land, France, and 
other parts of the 
world, according as 
he read of a. now 
or beautiful produc¬ 
tion, he now lias 
standing orders lo 
send him, without 
regard to cost, each, 
all and every new 
and rare seed or 
bulb; and this he 
does surely know¬ 
ing and relying 
upon an intelligent 
and appreciative 
public for his re¬ 
compense. 
The grounds sur¬ 
rounding his homo 
place or residence, 
and situated about 
one and a. half 
miles cast of the 
city of Rodiester, 
(see Fig. 1,) com¬ 
prising twenty-five 
acres, arc mainly 
devoted to the 
growing of Urn very 
choicest flower 
seeds and bulbs, 
we count ten acres of Phlox Drummond! 
and its varieties, and ten acres of Toma¬ 
toes, we can sec that the lending items 
of the public demand have here the largest 
share of ground. Figure 2 is a view of the 
house upon this seed limn, by which it can 
be seen Mr. Vick provides for those who 
labor for him ns well ns for himself. Figure 
3 shows the drying-house for seeds at the 
farm, together with a range of propagating 
houses and hot-beds, requisite Ibr an extensive 
and successful prosecution of tlie business. 
It should be remembered that orders come 
from all parts of the States and Canadas, 
from the far South as well as the far North, 
and that seeds, bulbs and plants must be in 
condition to meet the wants and require¬ 
ments of each and every customer, relative 
lo location. 
Of Mr. Vick’s town office and warehouse 
for distribution, 1 shall here only relate 
that the building is about eighty by one 
hundred and twenty feet, four stories high, 
and thoroughly fitted and arranged, floor by 
floor, for the perfect and, in a sense, classical 
—as I may say—labors that belong to a care¬ 
ful putting up of and filling orders for seeds. 
In the busy Season some seventy-live young 
ladies are employed in the discharge of du¬ 
ties or labor that can readily he performed 
by woman without overtaxing her strength. 
About thirty men are employed for the 
more laborious and rude portions of the 
work, such as the receiving and delivering 
of boxes, hoisting, storing, etc., etc. The 
amount of sales, yearly, foots up hundreds 
of thousands of dollars; the number of let¬ 
ters received is from one thousand to eighteen 
hundred a day; or about One quarter of all 
received at the Rochester post-office; and 
it takes four to six persons steadily employed 
in opening and filing orders, and as many 
more In answering correspondence under 
Mr. Vick’s personal dirccliofl. 
In conclusion, and to show the great 
Mr. Vick, 
moved to Rochester in 1835, and engaged as 
a printer in setting type for the Genesee 
Farmer, then published by Luther Tucker, 
now the publisher of the Country Gentleman, 
Albany, N. Y r . Here, in a small garden, 
he commenced anew the practice of his 
l childhood by raising flowers yearly from 
seed; and although his success was such, 
and the demand for seeds from his seedlings 
so great as to compel him, as it were, after a 
/A time, to enter the seed business proper, yet, 
lie says—I think lie depends somewhat on 
cflv imaginative, youthful remembrance, — that 
A lie “ has never produced so good pinks, car¬ 
le nations and picotees a9 he did when only 
there, with Mr. P. Barry, 
a well known and compe¬ 
tent horticulturist, as its 
editor, continued its pub¬ 
lication until, as we have 
before said, the demand on 
him for rare and choice 
(lower seeds induced him 
to dispose of all publica¬ 
tion matters and devote 
his whole time to an inter¬ 
est that seemed to suit 
especially his talents and 
knowledge,—a course ad¬ 
vised by his friends. 
Figure 2—House at the Seed Farm. 
that, being daily under his own eye, the lenst i benevolence and the all inspiring, yet soft- 
imperfection maybe noted I cning, character of this seedsman, and which 
and the plant discarded. I consider of more value than money, 1 shall 
^ Here lie has four propa- quote bis own lines to me in reply to a 
gating houses, and here query ns to why he should so engross him- 
the visitor who loves the self and consume time that otherwise he 
Figure 3— Dry and Propagating Houses, Etc. 
beautiful in nature will al¬ 
ways find the gates open 
and some one to point out 
and explain the history 
and value of the many 
rarities that, in season and 
out of season, embellish 
the grounds. 
Ilia seed ground, or 
farm proper, is situated 
live miles north of Roch¬ 
ester, and contains fifty 
acres of rich, warm, sandy 
loam. This is mainly de¬ 
voted to bulbs of sorts 
such as Tulips, Hyacinths, 
Lilies, &c., and yet when 
might enjoy in travel, etc. lie says:—“My 
business is my delight, and half the pleasure 
is in making so many around me happy. 
Another great source of pleasure is the op¬ 
portunity of making poor w omen and chil¬ 
dren happy. The lit tic child saves up ten or i | 
fifteen cents and sends on for seeds, and tells j | 
how long it took to save it, and how great 
the sacrifice. That child's heart is made 
glad with a package of seeds that would 
cause a florist to smile. Then the poor 
widow — made so perhaps by war—writes 
me a note, enclosing, perhaps, thirty cents— csjp 
the last cent she could spare, for she has h. 
four little children to support. Once she Vj/% 
could have flowers, but not now. She must 
have some sweet corn and cabbage and beet 
-wliln 
