26 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
A VETERAN NURSERYMAN. 
D. S. Grimes, Denver, Claims to Be the Oldest Nursery Sales¬ 
man-Recollections of a Tree Missionary to Whose 
Efforts Are Due Thousands of Orchards that 
Dot the Western Plains—Nearing 
His Seventieth Milestone. 
D. S. Grimes, Denver, Colo , writes : The claim R. Blair 
made in an exchange of being the first nursery salesman in 
this country is seventeen years short of my own personal 
record. 
On February 2, 1829, recognized as ground-hog day all over 
the land, I commenced the nursery business in old Virginia in 
partnership with my mother. She was to furnish the capital 
and I was to do the work. In less than two years, however 
mother became dissatisfied, claiming that her partner was ap¬ 
propriating to himself both capital and profit. The evidence 
of my ground-hoggishness was so plain that a dissolution of 
the firm was the result. 
Left without a cent in my pocket, with only the clothes on 
my back, or drying on the line, the junior partner was placed 
in the hands of “Aunt Sylva,’’ the old black cook, as the re¬ 
ceiver. Our folks being of the Friend Quaker persuasion did 
not own slaves, but kept Sylva as one of the family. Father 
was not only a prominent fruit grower, but propagated and 
grew trees as well. In those days budding was not practiced. 
Neither was grafting wax used. After inserting the grafts in 
the tree a ball of soft mud was placed around the graft and 
tied fast with a rag. 
My mother was a natural born florist. No garden in the 
“ Old Dominion ” exhibited such a fine array of choice 
flowers. Belonging to the F. F. V.’s, while visiting in Wash¬ 
ington each year she would go to the President’s garden to 
examine the choice things received from foreign lands. The 
gardener not being allowed to sell plants or seeds she would 
beg them of him. She would also purchase from David 
Landreth of Philadelphia the best his seed store could furnish. 
She never sold to anybody, but would collect and distribute 
free of charge seeds and plants from her “ Garden of Eden ” 
to all who would apply. 
My great love for trees, fruits and flowers was inherited 
from my parents. A year after the nursery firm of mother 
and son had been dissolved by the arbitrary ruling of the 
senior member, with unlimited faith in my own ability I de¬ 
termined to engage in business on my own hook. Selecting 
three corners of a rail fence that enclosed the orchard, I there 
laid the foundation of my future life. From orchard, nursery 
and garden father and mother furnished me all the stock 
wanted to establish, in my mind, one of the largest nurseries 
on earth. 
During my early life father had been a Quaker conductor 
on the night shift of a horse-car railway line, running from 
slavery to Canada. The road eventually becoming unsafe for 
travelers he decided to sell his valuable farm and emigrate 
over the mountains to the new West. For 98 cents my entire 
nursery, including all tools, seeds and patronage, was sold to 
the man who bought the farm. On entering my “teens,” the 
wise period«of youth, I thought my knowledge of pomology 
was surpassed by none. What puzzled me most was, how 
could it be that such ignorant parents as I had could raise 
such a smart son ; but after the paternal threshing machine 
had separated the tares from the small crop of good seed, I 
realized that my parents’ knowledge and experience was far 
in advance of the usual. They were the originators of 
Grimes’ Golden Pippin. 
My father had secured from the government 3,000 acres of 
heavily timbered land in Western Indiana. A portion of this 
prospective valuable timber had to be cleared off to raise 15 
cent corn. Two or three years in grubbing up the young 
crop of timber nature had planted for a wiser generation, and 
the felling and burning in log heaps of the venerable oak, 
stately poplar, and valuable black walnut, made one “ tired.” 
Laying the axe at the root of the tree, with a Dewey plate 
book I commenced the itinerant life of a tree missionary to 
preach trees to treeless sinners in the great prairies of Illinois. 
In those days settlers had begun to venture out a short dis¬ 
tance from the sylvan shores of these boundless seas of 
prairie, whose undulating surface of waving grass represented 
the ocean in grandeur and limitless proportion. 
Since then I have followed the path of the pioneer emigrant 
through Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. Thousands 
of orchards that dot the prairies and plains of the great West 
owe their origin to my ministry as a tree missionary. 
I have already passed my sixty-ninth ground-hog birthday. 
As with all classes of mankind these years have represented 
both the sunshine and shadow. But I loved the sunshine 
best, and would seek it even while the wolf was at the door. 
My life’s work, commenced under the morning shadows of 
the Virginia hills, will eventually end under the evening 
shadows of the Rocky mountains. I have been a close ob¬ 
server of human nature and experience connected with horti¬ 
cultural matters covering all phases of character. Ten years 
ago I wrote a series of articles for the Iowa Homestead, under 
the head of “ Fallen Leaves from a Tree Agent’s Life.” 
Afterwards they were continued in Colman’s Rural World. 
These papers paid the “ fallen leaves ” a high compliment. 
They represented the sunshine and shadow of life as exhibited 
in my business association with all kinds of people. Although 
representing the amusing, educational, and sometimes the 
ludicrous phases of horticultural experience, the aim was to 
educate and elevate to a higher plane of progress, by seeing 
themselves as I saw them. Possibly I may have these leaves 
compiled and printed in book form. 
AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY. 
Twenty rosarians assembled in New York City on March 
13 and reorganized the American Rose Society which had 
been inactive for five years. It was decided to hold an exhi¬ 
bition in New York in June. Life membership fee $50, act¬ 
ive membership $3 per year, associate membership $1. The 
following officers were elected : President, William C. Barry, 
Rochester, N. Y. ; vice-president, Benjamin Dorrance, Wilkes- 
barre, Pa.; secretary, Paul M. Pierson, Scarborough, N. Y.; 
treasurer, John N. May, Summit, N. J. Executive commit¬ 
tee for one year, N. Butterbach, Oceanic, N. J. ; Henry A. 
Siebrecht, New York City ; for two years, W. C. Eagan, Chi¬ 
cago, and E. N. Wood, Natick, Mass.; for three years, E. 
Asmus, West Hoboken, N. J.. and E. G. Hill, Richmond, Ind. 
HOW TO KEEP POSTED. 
Subscribe for or renew your subscription to the National Nursery¬ 
man and join the American Association of Nurserymen of which this 
is the official journal. 
