The peaches of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

[259] Welsh, F. S. and Anderson, E. H. The Marketing of New York State Peaches 5. 1916.

[260] Ibid. 6-7. 1916.

[261] For a brief history of William Prince, the first, and his contributions to American pomology, the reader is referred to The Plums of New York, page 389.

[262] For a brief history of the life and horticultural activities of Andrew Jackson Downing, whose likeness is shown in the frontispiece of The Peaches of New York, the reader is referred to The Cherries of New York, page 244.

[263] The Plums of New York is dedicated to William Robert Prince through the likeness shown of him in the frontispiece. A brief history of his life is given on page 21 of The Grapes of New York and reprinted on page 24 of The Plums of New York.

[264] Fruit Trees, published in 1817 by William Coxe, is the first American pomology. Though written by an amateur, during most of his life a merchant, his work was done with so much care and exhibits such nice discrimination in selecting, describing and discussing varieties of fruits that until the later and more complete work of Andrew Jackson Downing and Charles Downing, Coxe's Fruit Trees, competing with several other manuals, was the standard pomological work of America. William Coxe was born in Philadelphia, May 3, 1762, and died near Burlington, New Jersey, February 25, 1831. He seems to have inherited wealth and with it scholarly habits and such refinement and charm of personality that in Philadelphia and later in Burlington, to which place he removed in early manhood, he was one of the leaders in literary, scientific and social circles. His tastes early led him to the cultivation of fruit and he began to grow the varieties then to be had in America and to import sorts from England and France so that by 1817 he was able to say that he had been "for many years actively engaged in the rearing, planting and cultivating fruit trees on a scale more extensive than has been attempted by any other individual in this country." Previous to this for some years, how long cannot be said, he was the moneyed partner with one Daniel Smith in what, for the times, was an extensive fruit-tree and ornamental nursery. Demands for information became so frequent that he determined to put his knowledge in print and his Fruit Trees was the result. The objects he sought to obtain in writing are well set forth in the title page as follows: "A VIEW of the CULTIVATION of FRUIT TREES, and the Management of Orchards and Cider; with Accurate Descriptions of the Most Estimable Varieties of NATIVE AND FOREIGN APPLES, PEARS, PEACHES, PLUMS, AND CHERRIES, Cultivated in the Middle States of America; Illustrated by Cuts of two hundred kinds of Fruits of the natural size; Intended to Explain Some of the errors which exist relative to the origin, popular names, and character of many of our fruits; to identify them by accurate descriptions of their properties, and correct delineations of the full size and natural formation of each variety; and to exhibit a system of practice adapted to our climate, in the Successive Stages of A NURSERY, ORCHARD, AND CIDER ESTABLISHMENT." He was at one time a member of the State Legislature and later a Congressman intimately associated with Daniel Webster. He was, also, an honorary member of the Horticultural Society of London to which during many years he was a faithful correspondent. It was Coxe's privilege to see the very beginnings of commercial peach-growing in America and through his nursery, his orchard and his book he contributed much to American peach-culture.

[265] Theodatus Timothy Lyon, fruit-grower, experimenter and writer, was for many years the leading pomological authority of his adopted State, Michigan. T. T. Lyon, as he always signed his name, was born in Lima, New York, January 13, 1813, and died in South Haven, Michigan, February 6, 1900. At the age of fifteen he moved with his parents to Michigan where until his thirty-first year, in 1844, he worked at most of the arts and crafts practiced by pioneers in a new country. In the year named, he began the career of horticulturist, by planting a nursery at Plymouth, Michigan. In the nearby regions French missionaries had early planted orchards and old settlers had long been importing varieties of fruit. The nomenclature of these fruits was in uttermost confusion. T. T. Lyon set himself the task of ascertaining the correct names of these varieties in the old settlements of the State. The result was he became the pomological authority of the State. In 1874 Mr. Lyon moved to the famous "peach-belt" of western Michigan, where he lived until his death. Here, at first, he was president of a prominent nursery company. In 1876 he was elected president of the State Horticultural Society and continued as its active president until 1891 and from then on until his death was honorary president. In 1888 T. T. Lyon wrote a History of Michigan Horticulture which was published in the Seventeenth Report of the State Horticultural Society. From the beginning of his interests in horticulture in southwestern Michigan Mr. Lyon was particularly interested in peaches—growing seedlings, testing new varieties, planting orchards and in every way helping to forward the great peach-industry of the region. He was probably, in his time, the best informed, the most accurate and the most critical judge of peaches in this country. In 1889 he was given charge of the South Haven Sub-station of the Michigan Experiment Station which gave him added facilities for studying and describing fruits and a means of publishing, through his connection with the Experiment Station, bulletins on fruits. These, for accuracy of description of varieties, are still unsurpassed among American pomological publications. Besides these bulletins, the fruit-lists in the reports of the Michigan Horticultural Society and in the American Pomological Society, during the last half of the Nineteenth Century, show the results of his accurate judgment of fruits. A modest man, shrinking from publicity, his printed works but poorly represent his vast knowledge of fruits and his great influence in the betterment of American pomology.

Transcriber's Note:

Page 144, "but appear he peach-growers" was changed to read "but appear to peach-growers".

Page 373, "Hazelhurst, Mississippi" changed to read "Hazlehurst, Mississippi".