THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
439 
dividual troubles and worries, in fact they always loom 
big. A bad account, even though it he a small one on 
our books is likely to slick in the mind much longer than 
a large one that was paid promptly and the failure of 
one crop to pay expenses is remembered much longer and 
oftener than those that were successful. 
In spite of the war low prices, inert surplus stock, 
irritating legislation and the numerous evils that beset 
the nurseryman, the credit side of the ledger shows bless¬ 
ings to balance and the feeling remains that the game 
has been worth while, because we have made progress 
while perhaps some of us as individuals have gone back, 
the cause for good trees and plants and more of them is 
going forward. 
Thankfulness is a mighty good thing to have even of 
'itself. 
bituary. 
GEORGE R. BRACKETT 
Pomologist, Dept, of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Col. Gustavus Benson Brackett, who for the last 
eighteen years has been chief pomologist of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, passed away August 2d. last, 
at Washington, D. C., at the advanced age of eighty- 
eight years. 
He w as born at Unity, Maine, March 24, 1827, receiv¬ 
ing his education in the schools of Lynn, Massachusetts 
and Cincinnati, Ohio. During the Civil War he served 
three years, holding positions as captain of engineers on 
General Grant's staff. After the war he held position 
as lieutenant-colonel in the Iowa militia. 
He has to his credit more than seventy years of active 
and energetic work for the American fruit industry. 
Pioneer of the pioneers, he began immediately following 
'the close of the Civil War, in the nursery business in 
Denmark, Iowa, when that flourishing state was a terri¬ 
tory, a broad expanse of unbroken prairie over which 
the Sac and Fox Indians roamed at will. He assisted 
,in establishing the first nursery in what is now Lee 
County, Iowa. He secured the seeds from which he 
grew the seedling apple trees from pomace washed from 
!the cider mills on the hills overlooking the then village 
of Cincinnati, Ohio. These seedling trees were later 
June-budded, as it was before the art of root and collar 
grafting came into general practice. In that pioneer 
nursery he grew such varieties as Golden Pippin. Yel¬ 
low Bellflower, Baldwin, Maiden Blush, Red June, Sum¬ 
mer Rose, Summer Queen, Early Harvest, Autumn 
Strawberry, Rambo, Fall Wine, Moore Sweet, Roxbury 
Russet, Rhode Island Greening. Red Stripe, Ralls, Wine- 
sap, White Winter Pearmain, Harrison, Newton Pippin 
and Yandevere—not a bad list for so early a day. From 
that day until his death he kept pace with the pomological 
progress of this country. 
Mr. Brackett has been styled “the father of Iowa hor¬ 
ticulture” and was konwn as the most discriminating 
judge of fruits this country ever produced. Few have 
passed more useful and laborious lives. Gentle, honest, 
manly, his honorable, useful toil fully justifies the tri¬ 
bute paid him that “he left his enduring monument in 
thousands of farms and homes throughout America, un¬ 
der the broad, kind shelter of the trees that his hands or 
advice helped to plant and grow, and a grateful public 
will long revere his memory.” 
He was superintendent of pomology, Centennial Exposi¬ 
tion, 1876; commissioner to Paris Exposition, 1878; 
representative of State of Iowa, Cotton States Exposition, 
New Orleans, 1883; representative of Division of Pomo¬ 
logy, Department of Agriculture, at World’s Columbian 
Exposition, Chicago, 1893; expert in horticulture. Ex¬ 
position Universelle, Paris, 1900, where he received the 
decoration of the order of “Merite Agricole.’ He re¬ 
ceived many medals and diplomas at various times tor 
expert work in horticulture. His name and fame as 
a pomologist was world wide. 
Mr. Brackett was descended from that branch of the 
Brackett family (English Quakers that settled at Port¬ 
land, Maine, more than 300 years ago. the branch of 
which the late speaker ot the House, 1 homas Brackett 
Reed, was a faithful exponent. New England history 
would be incomplete without the dominant part played 
by the Brackett family. Colonel Brackett leaves two 
brothers in this state, Charles S. Brackett, a prominent 
business man of Minneapolis, and Arthur Brackett, ol 
Excelsior, the well known horticulturist and member of 
the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. He was a 
