Long Red Studley and the 1834 Wm.Prince Seed Catalog

Recommended Selection of Vegetables from 1835; 1834 Wm.Prince  Seed Catalog

I just found this sitting in drafts.  Since I recently did a post from 1873 on recommended vegetables I might as well carry on the theme.  There is a pleasant contrariness to writing about vegetable gardens while snow fall and the weather man goes on about Blizzard Warnings.

In the following article I particularly like the spelling variations, such as "turneps".   That was probably a printer error, as Prince's 1834 catalog lists Turnips!  

And it is hard to beat a name like "Long Red Studley"!!  

(Oh, bummer...reading the original catalog it is the carrot Long Red, Studley, or Surrey.  Phooey, darn comma, that isn't funny at all. That typesetter must have done this job after lunch and a few beers too many.)

While linking the Wm.Prince & Sons below to a previous Prince page, I saw that I hadn't given much information on the formidable family of botanists and horticulturists.  They deserve more, and now I am curious why I stopped before! They listed their location on this catalog as "Flushing, near New-York"

(Studley Park was a fertile estate in Yorkshire that competed with success in the active Victorian horticultural shows...maybe that is the Studley?)

article from The Genesee Farmer, Volume 5

Selection of Vegetables for 1835

BY WM. PRINCE & SONS

Mb. L. Tucker—We have been repeatedly asked to designate the finest varieties of vegetables, and we now enumerate some of the most desirable, and will do so with regard to others at a future opportunity.

Yours very respectfully,

Wm Prince & Sons,  Linnean Botanic Garden, near N. Y., March 7,1835

Beet—Long Blood, Early Turnep Blood, Early Yellow Turnep, Early White Sugar.

Brocoli—Grange's Cape, Sulphur Colored, Purple Cape, and New Imperial Late Dwarf White.

Cauliflower—Early, and Half Hardy.

Cabbage—Earliest French, Early York, Early Royal Dwarf, Large York, French Oxheart, Early Emperor, Bonneuil, Harvest Battersea, Large Late Bergen, Early Savoy, Cape Savoy, Monstrous French Savoy, Large Pancalier Savoy, the latter extra fine and far surpassing the kinds of Savoy usually cultivated.

Carrot—Early Scarlet Hom, Altringham, Long Red Studley, and Large White.

Celery—-Turkish Large White Solid, North's Giant Red, Dwarf Curled.

Cucumber—Early Long Frame, Long Green Prickly, Long Green Turkey, Early Green Cluster, and Long Green Southgate, for table, the latter longest of all; and the Small Green and Gherkin for pickles.

Endive—Italian Green Curled, and White Batavian.

Indian Corn—Early White Tuscarora, and Sweet or Sugar.

Lettuce—Early Curled Silesia, Large Early White French, Versailles, Turkish, and Red Edged Early White, as Head or Cabbage Lettuces for spring and summer towing; and Florence Coss, Magnum Bonum Coss, and Monstrous Coss, for loose, or less solid heads. The Coss Lettuces are deemed sweeter and more tender than the cabbage varieties.

Onion—Early Silver Skinned and Pale Red Madeira, are earliest of all, and sure to attain their size the first season. The Yellow Dutch, not quite as early, but produces very large onion the first season.

Melon—Pine Apple, Persian, Citron, Skillman's Netted, Minorca, Netted Romana, French Muscadc, Malta Winter, all of which arc green fleshed. The Cohansa, Imperial, Cyprian, Green Fleshed Sugar, Largo Yellow Cantaloup, and other Cantaloup varieties are also valuable.

Peas—Six Weeks, Washington, Dwarf Blue Imperial, Dwarf Green Marrow, Knight's Marrow, Woodford's Marrow, and various others.

Pumpkin—Spanish Cheese, Yellow Cheese, &c.

Radish—Earliest French Scarlet, very tender and earliest of all, Mason's Scarlet Short Top, Salmon, and White Naples, as long varieties. The Scarlet, Violet and White Turnep varieties are best for early sowing, and the Yellow Turnep and Spanish varieties for hot seasons, or for tropical climates.

Squash—Summer Bush, Summer Crookneck Bush, Vegetable Marrow, and Italian, for early ; White Canada, Yellow Fall Crookneck, for autumn ; and Teneriff, Acoin, and Cocoanut, for winter.

Turnep—Early White, and Early Yellow Dutch, White Stone, Yellow Stone, &c, for spring sowing as garden varieties

To put the age of this 1834 Wm. Prince & Sons catalog into perspective, Prince still lists Tomatoes with the alternative name Love Apple. 

Under Indian Corn he lists a variety called Mottled Pearl.  I wonder if that is the old variety that has recently become the hot heritage variety that we currently call Gem.  The Gem kernels are pearlescent...Pearl is a better name.  Later: In another publication I found reference to "Mottled, or Curious Pearl" and I think they are pop corn, so the pearl refers to the round seed. This thought was backed up by another list from a 1835 Genesee Farmer where Pearl is Pop.