The cherries of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

[82] Elliott's American Fruit Growers Guide, published in 1858 and dedicated to Professor Jared P. Kirtland, was one of the notable pomological books of its day. Cherry growers, in particular, owe Elliott a debt of gratitude for the publicity that he gave to Kirtland's cherries, having described in his book 20 of the sorts originated by Professor Kirtland. Beside his fruit book he published Popular Deciduous and Evergreen Trees (1868), Handbook for Fruit-growers (1876) and Handbook of Practical Landscape Gardening (1877). He also served pomologists well for many years, at various times, from 1850 to 1873, as the secretary of the American Pomological Society. Franklin Reuben Elliott was born in Guilford, Connecticut, April 27, 1817. We know, from complimentary speeches, accepted by Elliott, that he was a descendant of John Eliot, "The Apostle of the Indians." As a young man he engaged with a brother in New York as an importer of dry goods, the firm being rated at half a million dollars. Financial ruin came through a disastrous fire and, in 1836, Elliott went to Newburgh and was employed by A. J. Downing from whom he imbibed his knowledge and much of his love for pomology and horticulture. A roving disposition and dissipated habits led him to leave Downing for a position with a relative near Cincinnati who was a market-gardener. A ready pen seems from this time on to have been his chief means of livelihood for we find him successively in Cleveland, Ohio, and St. Louis, Missouri, in newspaper work; after a few years in each place he wandered to Washington where he was employed in the Agricultural Department of the Patent Office illustrating American fruits. From his hand in the Patent Office reports and from his fruit book, came some of the most accurate and beautiful representations of the fruits of this continent. It is probable that while in Washington he began work on his Fruit Growers Guide, the time for which, he tells us in his preface, took ten years. Social infirmities seem to have cost him his position in Washington and his last employment was with the Cleveland Herald, after which comes the record of his death and burial in a pauper's grave January 10, 1878. One of the most brilliant pomologists of his time, his career seems again and again to have been checked by the weaknesses of his life; even so, he rendered horticulture valuable services for which we must give him gratitude and honor.

[83] Jared P. Kirtland, M. D., though now less well known than some of his contemporaries, was one of the great pomologists of his time and a man of notable achievements in other branches of natural history as well. Professor Kirtland was born at Wallingford, Connecticut, November 10, 1793, and died at East Rockport, near Cleveland, Ohio, December 11, 1877. For sixty years of a long life his avocation was the production of new varieties of fruits and flowers and, though a half century has passed since he ceased active work, the results of his labors are yet to be found in the gardens and orchards of the whole country. In pomology he gave special attention to breeding grapes, raspberries, pears and cherries. He achieved success, too, as a hybridizer of peonies and in the introduction of rare foreign magnolias. Professor Kirtland is given credit as being the first horticulturist successfully to bud and graft magnolias, an achievement which has made possible their cultivation under many conditions and to a degree of excellence that otherwise could not be obtained. He was the founder of the Cleveland Society of Natural History and was for many years its president. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the highest recognition for scientific work to be obtained in his time in this country. He served as professor in several medical schools and filled other places of honor and trust. From his boyhood we are told that he was interested in natural history and was intimately acquainted with the plants and animals of Ohio, having special knowledge of birds and fishes, the propagation of the latter being one of his hobbies. In pomology we owe him most for the many new cherries he has given us, thirty varieties described in The Cherries of New York having come from his breeding grounds. Among these are Wood, Pontiac, Powhatan, Tecumseh, Osceola, Kirtland and Red Jacket, sorts scarcely surpassed for high quality and grown commonly in America and to some extent wherever Sweet Cherries will thrive. His 84 years seem to have been well ordered, given almost wholly for the good of the public, and his name should be cherished by pomologists among those who have done most for fruits and fruit-growing on this continent.

[84] Charles Downing, whose likeness we show in the frontispiece, was born at Newburgh, New York, July 9, 1802. He spent his life in the place of his birth, dying January 18, 1885. His parents were natives of Lexington, Massachusetts, who shortly before the birth of Charles Downing, the eldest son, came to Newburgh, the father establishing a shop for the manufacture of wagons, a business which he soon abandoned to become a nurseryman. Here, in the first successful nursery established in the region, were trained Charles and Andrew Downing, receiving under the careful guidance of the father a knowledge of the business and of fruits which with later self instruction made them the most distinguished pomologists of their day. With the death of the father in 1822, before Charles had obtained his majority, the responsibility of conducting the business and the support of the family devolved upon him. Andrew J., the younger brother, in 1834, at the age of 19, united with Charles in the management of the nursery business under the firm name of C. & A. J. Downing, a partnership which lasted only until 1839. Charles continued in the nursery business for many years during which time he became the foremost pomologist in the United States and eventually, about 1850, sold his holdings to devote himself to the study of varieties of fruits and the revision of the Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. This great pomological book was projected and published by Andrew but most of the work of the book as it is now known was done by Charles in revising the original and adding to its many editions. It is and has long been, as all know, the highest authority on American fruits. Naturally of an inquiring turn of mind Charles Downing studied closely the qualities of the varieties that came under his observation and seldom described without the fruit in hand. His variety orchard is said to have contained at one time 1,800 varieties of apples and 1,000 pears with lesser numbers of the other fruits. A few trees of this wonderful collection still stand. Charles Downing was one of the most modest and retiring of men, in his younger days delighting in the things of which his brother wrote and seldom putting pen to paper until after his brother's death when he became a regular contributor to horticultural publications over the signature "C. D." He was never known to make a public speech. He earned his high distinction in American pomology by his accurate and conscientious descriptions and discussions of varieties of fruits.

[85] Andrew Jackson Downing was born in Newburgh on the Hudson, the town in which he always lived and which he loved, October 30, 1815. He perished while trying to save other passengers in the burning of the steamer Henry Clay on the Hudson River, July 28, 1852, at the age of 37. Andrew Downing's education was largely acquired from self instruction although he attended the schools of his native town and the academy in the adjoining village of Montgomery. His father, a nurseryman, whose work was mentioned in the sketch of Charles Downing, elder brother of Andrew, gave the younger son every opportunity to cultivate an early developed taste for horticulture, botany and the natural sciences. When but a youth he joined his brother Charles as partner in a nursery firm, a relationship maintained for but a few years and which he severed to begin a career as a writer on landscape gardening and pomological subjects. His first publication was a Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening adapted to North America, with a view to the Improvement of Country Residences, with Remarks on Rural Architecture, a book published in 1841, the author being but 26 years of age. The work passed into instant popularity and is the word of authority which has told thousands of Americans what to do to make their grounds beautiful. Within a few months so great was the success of the first venture that in response to the demand he published his Cottage Residences, a companion book which was received with equal favor, thus giving Andrew Downing first rank as an authority on rural art. In 1845 the Fruits and Fruit Trees of America, then and now the chief pomological authority of this continent, was printed simultaneously in London and New York, a second edition coming out in 1850. In 1846 Andrew Downing became the founder and editor of the Horticulturist, which he continued to publish until his death. In 1849 he wrote Additional Notes and Hints about Building in the Country, published in Wightwick's Hints to Young Architects. The summer of 1850 was spent in England in the study of landscape gardening and rural architecture from the result of which came his Architecture of Country Houses. His last work was the editing of Mrs. Loudon's Landscape Gardening for Ladies though Rural Essays appeared after his death as a collection of his writings with a memoir by George William Curtis and a Letter to his Friends by Frederika Bremer. He was employed in planting the public grounds of the Capitol, the White House and the Smithsonian Institution at Washington when he met his untimely death. Downing is the creator of American landscape gardening and shares with his brother Charles the honor of being the most distinguished pomologist of the country. In the epoch-making Fruits and Fruit Trees of America Andrew Downing was the real genius, Charles Downing the conscientious and painstaking student who worked out the details.

[86] Oregon has given to pomology two notable breeders of cherries, Seth Lewelling and C. E. Hoskins, the subject of this sketch. Cyrus Edwin Hoskins was born on a farm in Clinton County, Ohio, July 3, 1842, and there he grew to manhood. Almost at the first call for men to defend the Union in the Civil War, Mr. Hoskins responded and joined the 13th Ohio regiment, serving until the close of the war. Returning to Ohio, he gave attention to fruit culture, testing many varieties of several fruits and producing some new grapes and berries. In 1877 Mr. Hoskins moved to Newberg, Yamhill County, Oregon, settling on new land and thus becoming a pioneer in the Northwest. His first pomological venture in Oregon was in growing prunes, his orchard of this fruit being one of the first, and he is credited with having built one of the first evaporators for the curing of prunes in America. For some years he maintained his prune ranch and evaporator, developing a product that gave him the highest reputation in prune markets and made him one of the leading authorities on this fruit in the United States. Early in his orchard work in Oregon Mr. Hoskins began to produce new varieties of cherries and soon offered for sale a number of promising seedlings of which Vesta, Lake, Occident, Stryker and Hoskins were most worthy. Unfortunately, ill health in the family compelled Mr. Hoskins to move from Yamhill County, to which place, after having spent several years in Jackson County, Oregon, and in the Hawaiian Islands, he returned with the expectation of taking up his work in breeding cherries and prunes, but his death, August 18, 1908, occurred before his work had been again well begun. The Pacific Northwest owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Hoskins for the spendid part he played in developing the fruit industry of that region and pomologists the country over owe him much for his labors in breeding cherries.

Transcribe's Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.