THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
T. V. MUNSON. 
Mr. Munson was born in Fulton County, Illinois, near 
the village of Astoria, September 26, 1843. His father, 
William Munson, was a New Englander, his mother a 
Kentuckian. Farming and orcharding was their occupa¬ 
tion. The boy, known in his neighborhood as VoL, 
received the common log-house schooling ; then a year at 
the county seminary. He taught three terms of public 
school in his own and adjoining districts, then took a full 
course in Bryant & Stratton’s Business College of Chicago, 
getting his diploma in 1864. In [866 he entered Ken¬ 
tucky University, taking the full scientific course, graduat¬ 
ing as B. S. in 1870, and was at once elected adjunct- 
professor in the sciences. This position he held one 
year, when too long-continued hard application in the 
school-room weakened his health 
so that he chose to give up teach¬ 
ing for the pursuit of horticul¬ 
ture, which was always his delight 
from earliest boyhood. Having 
married the daughter of the noted 
florist and landscape architect, C. 
S. Bell, of Lexington, Ky., a most 
favorable and congenial opening 
was found with Mr. Bell in his 
nursery and rose-houses, until the 
fall of 1873^ when Mr. Munson 
determined to open the nursery 
business for himself and chose a 
beautiful site near (now within) 
Lincoln, Nebraska. Three years 
there through probably the se¬ 
verest drought, the severest win¬ 
ter, and the greatest Rocky 
Mountain locust scourge ever 
known in that state, and the ter¬ 
rible panic in financial matters of 
’73 to ’76, convinced him that he 
must have a more congenial 
climate, in order to follow his 
pursuit successfully. 
In April, 1876, Mr. Munson arrived in Denison, Texas, 
where he at once improved with vineyards, orchards, 
nursery, and suitable buildings his first nursery of 45 
acres. In eleven years it had become too small for his 
business, which grew steadily from the start. Then he 
moved to the opposite side of the city to a most beauti¬ 
ful place of over 100 acres of fine sandy loam, lying upon 
a red clay subsoil. 
This place is now pretty well filled up with the nursery 
blocks, vineyards and orchards, and the business has 
grovn solidly throughout Texas and the adjoining 
country, and to more or less extent in all the states, and 
quite a business in resistant grape stocks and seeds has 
been made in France and other parts of Europe. In 1883 
the State A. & M. College, of Kentucky, conferred on 
Mr. Munson the degree of M. S., in recognition of his 
T. V. MUNSON. 
145 
attainments in the continued pursuit of scientific horti¬ 
culture. Mr. Munson, early and continuously, associated 
himself with the national horticultural, pomological, 
forestry, nursery, and several scientific associations, and 
has often occupied prominent official position in them, 
being first vice-president of the American- Horticultural 
Society for three consecutive terms. 
In 1888 Mr. Munson was honored by the Republic of 
France, which conferred upon him the title “Chevalier du 
Merite Agricole” and presented him with the diploma 
and decorations of the Legion of Honor, for valuable 
information on the native grapes of North America, 
especially as to resistant stocks and such as would grow 
well in diy, chalky soils. While Mr. Munson experi¬ 
mented much with peaches and plums, between which he 
produced many hybrids, all proving sterile; and with 
strawberries leading to the origi¬ 
nation of the Parker Earle variety, 
in the hands of Mr. J. Nimon, 
his greatly esteemed neighbor, it 
is among the species of native 
American grapes that he has 
achieved during twenty years of 
experimentation some most re¬ 
markable results in hybridiza¬ 
tion. This work he is still pursu¬ 
ing. and only future generations 
will be able to fully appreciate 
the broadening he has given to 
American viticulture. 
IWery horticulturist in the land 
is familiar with the writings of 
o 
Mr. Munson, on numerous horti¬ 
cultural topics that have appeared 
in the leading agricultural and 
horticultural press during the last 
twenty years or more. Mr. Mun¬ 
son does not confine his range 
of thought alone to horticulture, 
but indulges much in other scien¬ 
tific studies, and “ takes a nip ” 
now and then in the abstractions 
of philosophical and political thaumaturgy. He sees the 
chief cause of our financial troubles in the wreckless 
debt-making by individuals, corporations and general 
government; and believes in the wholesomeness of the 
doctrine, or motto, “ pay as you go, and if you cannot 
pay, do not go.” 
Mr. Munson, finding himself over-loaded with the 
entire management of his business, has associated with 
himself his son, William Bell a splendid young man, full 
of enthusiasm for the nursery profession when intelli¬ 
gently conducted. 
The neat catalogue sent put by T. V. Munson & Son 
to the number of 15,000 annually, is a good sample of 
“ Valuable articles are put up in compact packages,” and 
is really a valuable horticultural work, especially for the 
Southwest. 
