THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
”3 
WILLIAM FELL. 
William Fell, senior partner of the firm of William Fell & 
Co., royal seedsmen and nurserymen, Hexham, England, who 
is still in the prime of life, was born near Grange-over-Sands, 
Westmoreland, England, and completed his education at the 
Cartmel grammar school in that locality. He received his early 
training and experience in the nursery and seed trade with the 
late John Little, of Carlisle, after which he was for some time 
with A. Cross & Son, seed merchants, Glasgow, and returned 
to Carlisle just before Mr. Little’s death ; was advanced to the 
charge of the seed department, and remained in that establish¬ 
ment after Mr. Little’s death for about io years. 
Seventeen years ago, he succeeded by purchase to the old 
established nursery and seed business which had so long been 
conducted by the late Ralph Robson and his predecessors at 
Hexham. During the past 15 years Mr. Fell has been ably 
assisted by his partner William Milne 
in the development of the business, 
which has now been established con¬ 
siderably upwards of a century, but 
its greatest development dates from 
the time that Mr. Fell became head 
of the firm. Since then the trade 
has rapidly developed and has gained 
a world-wide reputation. 
Latterly the name of the firm has 
been much associated with Whin- 
ham’s Industry gooseberry, which 
has become a household word among 
the English, continental and American 
nurserymen. Mr. Fell has been 
mainly instrumental in procuring for 
this gooseberry the universal repu¬ 
tation which it now enjoys. In a 
few successive seasons the firm re¬ 
ceived orders for over 1,742,800 
bushels of this variety, which were 
for the greater part exported to 
America and Canada, although the 
continent and the British Isles con¬ 
sumed no mean quantity, and we 
learn that the firm has this season 
already sold a larger quantity than 
usual. Mr. Fell has now visited 
America for seven successive years, and has regularly a- 
tended the convention of the American Association of Nursery¬ 
men, of which he is a member. 
A prominent feature of William Fell & Co’s business is the 
laying out of gardens, parks, cemeteries, etc., and as landscape 
gardeners they have gained for themselves a high and well- 
deserved reputation. Among some of the larger contracts, 
carried out by them latterly, are the planting of about 15 
acres of ornamental beltings on the town moor Newcastle for 
the corporation of that city ; the laying out and planting of 
the extensive grounds of the new lunatic asylum at Ryehope 
near Sunderland ; the planting and ornamenting of about 10 
miles on the sides of the new electric railway from Douglas to 
Laxey in the Isle of Man. 
They are extensive rose growers and devote a large amount 
of their energy in that direction. Forest trees is another of 
their most successful lines, while fruit trees, herbaceous plants 
and all appertaining to the general nursery trade, are grown by 
them in great quantity. 
In 1887 they were appointed seedsmen and nurserymen to 
H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, after a visit of the royal family 
to the North of England. 
Besides their large nursery trade they are carrying on an 
extensive and most successful seed trade, where the needs of 
agriculturists and floriculturists are carefully studied, and 
where the yearly recurring contracts from England’s largest 
co-operative societies are secured by them in the face of the 
keenest competition. 
Mr. Fell was intimately associated with the founding of the 
English Arboricultural Society, some thirteen years ago, and 
is now a vice-president of this institution, a society which has 
done much good in disseminating practical and scientific 
knowledge of forestry. It is now a very strong organiza¬ 
tion, having members over a wide 
area throughout the British Isles, 
the continent, and including Profes¬ 
sor Fernow, of Washington, in its 
membership. Its importance may be 
estimated by the fact that this season 
the annual meeting and excursion 
covering three days was held in 
Wales and Chester district, taking 
in Hawarden, the seat of the Right 
Honorable William E. Gladstone, 
who received the members and de¬ 
voted about half an hour to the so¬ 
ciety when at Hawarden. 
At the Mining, Engineering and 
Industrial Exhibition held in New- 
castle-on-Tyne in 1887, Mr. Fell 
was elected vice-president of the 
horticultural and arboricultural sec¬ 
tions. During his career Mr. Fell 
has gained many personal friends 
as well at home as abroad, and is 
warmly interested in everything 
connected with the field of enter¬ 
prise in which he has so success¬ 
fully labored and in which he is 
generally recognized as an ex¬ 
pert. 
CEMETERY SUPERINTENDENTS. 
The tenth annual convention of the American Association 
of Cemetery Superintendents was held in St. Louis, September 
16th. The following officers were elected : President, George 
W. Creesy, of Salem, Mass.; vice-president, A. W. Hobert, 
Minneapolis, Minn.; secretary and treasurer, Frank Eurich, 
Toledo, O. The newly elected president appointed the fol¬ 
lowing executive committee : William Salway, of Cincinnati, 
0 .; ’J. C. Cline, Dayton, O.; J. J. Stephens, Columbus, O. 
Henry Augustine, Normal, Ill., while at the meeting of the Michigan 
State Horticultural Society at St. Joseph, Mich, said he did not think 
that half enough trees were being planted to keep pace with thg increas¬ 
ing population of the country, and the increased demand for fruit. 
WILLIAM FELL 
