3 Ib 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
The Greenhouses, J. W. Adams & Co. 
J. W. ADAMS AND COMPANY 
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 
HIS firm owes its origin to the same cause that has 
lead to the founding of so many other nurseries, 
the ill health of the founder while connected 
with some other line of work. John W. Adams 
began his life work, at the age of twenty as a 
teacher in a winter school at Amesbury. Later he secured 
an engagement to teach in a' yearly grammar school near 
Boston. When just about to congratulate himself on 
having been so well started at an early age, his health gave 
way under a severe attack of dyspepsia. The only course 
that lay open to him then was engaging in out door work. 
His knowledge and training in horticulture decided the 
business he should pursue. It was not, however,until after 
having taught three more terms in Massachusetts, two in 
New Hampshire and two in Maine that he finally closed his 
teaching career. 
In 1812 his father had started a small nursery for the 
purpose of raising apple trees for the orchards on his own 
farm. The area occupied was added to until in 1844-45 ^ 
became a problem to dispose of the product. A block of 
thirty acres, was selected and purchased in the city of 
Portland, Maine on October 12, 1849. Here the beginning 
of the present North Main Street Nurseries (J. W. Adams & 
Co.) was made. 
Mr. Edward Morrill bought a half interest in the nursery 
and became a partner the day he was twenty-one, having 
just finished his apprenticeship as a tanner." But not liking 
the business, though it had made his father and uncle 
wealthy, he sold out his interest and being politically ambi¬ 
tious, sallied forth to Kansas where he later became Gover¬ 
nor and member of Congress. 
Notwithstanding the many difficulties and problems 
surrounding the beginning of a nursery the growing and 
business prospered. In the fall of 1855, Mr. Adams was 
able to remark to a friend, “The nursery begins to look so 
that we can be proud to show intending buyers our work.” 
But next year the fatal winter of 1856 when many forest 
trees were injured and vast numbers of fruit trees killed. 
The result of this trying experience was the decision to 
move farther south to land that would promote the growing 
if not the selling. The sale of Arbor Vitae and other 
ornamental trees to the people in Massachusetts led the 
owners to choose that state and locate 100 miles west of 
Boston, 100 miles east of Albany, 136 miles north of New 
York and 25 miles north of Hartford, Conn. 
The soil of the present nursery seems to be identical for 
growth with that in Maine and snows do not break down the 
trees. Altogether the move was a propitious one. The 
heat and cold is not always all that can be desired but 
roomy glass structure and storage cellars help in many ways. 
The land suffers little from being either too wet or too 
dry. 
The business of the company has grown and changed 
with the increasing growth of cities in New England. The 
output of the nursery is practically only ornamental trees 
and shrubs of all the hardier sorts. Tender plants for 
bedding purposes are also raised in the half acre of ground 
covered by the greenhouses. A new cement storage cellar 
is being constructed on the home grounds and this, when 
completed, will greatly "facilitate the handling of the in¬ 
creased business of the company. 
The founder, J. W. Adams, is now in his eighty-second 
year, is still active, though not enjoying the best of health. 
The other members of the firm are, Walter and Charles 
Adams and E. J. Oatman. 
