Gbe national nurseryman 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
Copyrighted 1903 by The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
Vol. XVI. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., JANUARY, 1908. 
No. 1. 
THE EVOLUTION OF A GREAT ENTERPRISE 
WHERE HARDY TREES ARE GROWN FOR THE 
MILLIONS OF THE VAST NORTH WEST. 
STORY OF THE JEWELL NURSERIES OF LAKE CITY, MINNESOTA. 
T HERE was a time, and that not very long ago, when 
Minnesota was considered either on the extreme 
edge or entirely outside of the fruit zone. By the 
use of the latter term we mean, strictly speaking, the com¬ 
mercial fruit producing belt. With the exception of wild 
plums and small fruits, this and other neighboring states 
gave little promise of producing fruit enough for its own 
scanty population. As time went on, however, and the tide 
of immigration grew stronger, the settlers from the East 
brought seeds of their own fruits and their personal ideas 
of fruit production with them, ‘ and many of them en¬ 
deavored to grow the former and systematically to put the 
latter into effect. The attempted acclimatization of the old 
standard varieties of apple and the introduction of the Rus¬ 
sians is now a mat- 
ter of history. 
Thousands of dol¬ 
lars have been spent 
by the settlers of the 
Northwest in the 
past quarter century 
along this line, and 
to-day, as a result, 
Minnesota, while she 
does not usually ap¬ 
pear in the published 
reports of the apple 
crop, is at least sup¬ 
plying a very ma¬ 
terial quantity of the 
apples consumed by 
her people. 'With 
her Horticultural 
Society having a 
membership of over 
2,000, it is safe to 
say she stands near 
the head, if not in 
the lead, of other states in horticultural enthusiasm. The 
very obstacles which seemed insurmountable twenty-five 
years ago have had the effect of stimulating a proportion¬ 
ately greater effort on the part of the people. 
To-day, not only fruit production is a question, but the 
ornamentation of grounds, public and private, is assuming 
enormous proportions, as it is in all other parts of the coun¬ 
try, and the Northwest is practically forced to select and 
propagate varieties of shrubs and plants that will withstand 
the rigors of the northern climate. 
PIONEERS IN NURSERY WORK. 
Among the first horticultural pioneers to cross * the 
boundaries of Minnesota was Dr. P. A. Jewell. A veteran 
of the Civil War, having served in the Washington hos- 
pitals, he came 
North to endeavor 
to recover his brok¬ 
en health. Having 
been long interested 
in horticulture, he 
determined to en¬ 
gage in the profes¬ 
sion of a nursery¬ 
man, and essayed to 
preach horticulture 
and grow trees for 
the sparse settle¬ 
ments of the Minne¬ 
sota and Dakota 
prairies. 
In 1867 he made 
his first planting at 
Winona, Minnesota, 
but the following 
year he ventured 
farther up the river 
and, being struck 
with tfie beauty of 
The Jewell Nurseries. Office building, showing two of their propagating houses. 
