1893 - Columbian Exposition Seed Exhibits

My old friends...

Liberty Hyde Bailey wrote this review of the Columbian Exposition Seed Exhibits.  

I have a fondness for his writing as the first serious horticultural reference book I bought was his Standard Cyclopedia. Before the internet you felt well armed with this set of fat reference books!
The very weight of them gave you confidence you would find what you needed within their covers.

Interestingly, the great majority of his article documents the French display of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co..  It is obvious Bailey respects their careful and scientific displays.  Most American states had displays that were charming, but were simply "floral" arrangements of seeds and agricultural products.  

The Columbian Exposition.

The Seed Exhibits in the Agricultural Building.

THE seed exhibits are divided between the Horticultural and Agricultural Buildings. In the latter, the field-seeds are supposed to be shown to the greater or less exclusion of garden or horticultural seeds. 

The exhibits of individual firms are not many, being comprised mainly in about seven entries. Nearly every state exhibit displays a variety of seeds and grains, but these are shown as purely agricultural products rather than as seed-merchants‘ supplies.

The exhibits in the Horticultural and Agricultural Buildings possess a decided similarity in general design, comprising heavy seeds in bags with a glass pane inserted in the top, small seeds placed in fancy bottles or deep glass trays, and collections of casts of varieties or types of vegetables. 

 The embellishments are usually produced by colored hangers, as banners, chromos and decorations of grains or grasses. As a whole, there is nothing unusually novel or striking in them, and they impress the visitor quite as much with their bulk or arrangement as with any useful facts which they may be supposed to teach. 

This wall decorated using grains and grasses!

Unquestionably the best seedsman's display, from an educational standpoint, is that of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co., of Paris, in the French section of the Agricultural Building. It is different in character from all other seed exhibits in the fact that it makes no great display of mere bulk, but looks more like a section in a well-ordered botanical museum. The space devoted to this exhibit is something like twenty-five by seventy feet, enclosed by a wall or partition about ten feet high, lined with deep red cloth. These walls are hung with panels of wheat, illustrations of the farms and buildings of the firm, specimen charts showing the sugar yield of beets, and the starch yield of potatoes, and other features calculated to fasten the attention of intelligent visitors. 

One side or counter of the apartment is occupied by fourteen glass cases which contain models or casts of many representative types of vegetables and strawberries. Disposed at intervals upon the floor are swing frames and albums of lithographs of various plants, and the centre is occupied by a modest table of vegetable and flower seeds. Everything is labeled with scrupulous neatness and accuracy, and one feels that the exhibit will bear careful study.

This is NOT the Columbian Exposition, but gives an idea of Vilmorin style of display perhaps.

Save a small collection of photographs in the alcoves of the Experiment Stations’ exhibits, in the same building, here seems to be the only attempt at the Fair to show any of the results of hybridization. The name of Vilmorin has long been connected with experiments in the crossing of Wheats, and some of the graphic results are here shown in small sheaves mounted upon tastefully framed green felt.

 The casts of which there are several hundred, represent the average or normal forms of vegetables rather than unusual or gigantic specimens, and they are the best models of garden vegetables to be seen in the Exposition. They are made of a hard composition and will bear handling. It is evident, in the character of the models and their arrangements in the cases, that their first value is a scientific one in showing the variation of plants and fixing upon a conventional standard ort pe for the chief lines of development, rather than a mere display of what the firm may have to sell. The visitor will miss some of the common American vegetable types from the collection, particularly all forms of Maize, and of the large fruits which we designate as pumpkins; but he will notice others which are comparatively new to him, as the winter muskmelons, various broad beans, the long or ridge cucumbers, mammoth blanched asparagus, and an excellent display of sugar-beets. 

Nice link...

A couple of the specimen charts are unique. One comprises six glass tubes about an inch in diameter and five feet long, containing proportionate amounts of "sugar in the juice" and refined sugar in the six leading sugar-beets. The greatest yield of refined sugar is something over sixty hundred-weight per acre in the French, while the lowest is only fifty-four hundred-weight in the Gray top. Between these are, in order, Green-top, Brabant, Vilmorin's Improved, Klein Wanzleben and Early Red Skin. 

A similar method of exhibition shows the starch-yield from ten varieties of potatoes, the figures running, per acre, as follows : Giant Blue, 76.7 cwt. ; Imperator, 63.2 ; Giant Nonpareil, 48.6; Reading Giant, 42.6; Juno, 41.9 ; Aspasia, 37.5; American Wonder, 36.9; Red-skinned Flour-ball, 30.4; White Elephant, 28.2; Reading Russet, 26.7. 

Altogether, the exhibit is just such an one as a teacher of economic botany or horticulture might be supposed to collect for museum purposes.

This style of exhibit is what one expects if he knows the history of the firm which has made it. Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co. is probably the best example of a firm which combines in successful proportions the scientific and commercial impulses, and it is the only seed firm whose opinions upon scientific questions are accepted by professional botanists. 

It has been identified with botany from its inception. The exact foundation of the firm is unknown, but it is certain that in 1745 Pierre Andrieux was botanist and seedsman to Louis XV., and was in business on the Quai de la Mégisserie, in Paris, the same thoroughfare upon which the present firm is located.

 Phillipe Victoire Levéque de Vilmorin, the youngest son of a nobleman who was reduced in circumstances through the wars, came to Paris to seek his fortune, intending to practice medicine. He fell in with the botanist Duchesne, however, and became acquainted with Andrieux, and he gave up medicine for botany. In 1774 he married the daughter of Andrieux, and upon the death of the latter, in 1781, the firm became known as Vilmorin-Andrieux.  

lt acquired a national reputation under this first Vilmorin, and its influence and business relations have increased from that day to this. The elder Vilmorin died in 1804, previous to which time his son, Pierre Phillipe Andre, became a partner in the business. This son established comparative field tests of plants, and he introduced many of the trees and shrubs collected in North America by his friend, the eminent botanist Michaux. He established an arboretum, rich in American Oaks, which, after his death in 1862, the French Government made the foundation of a national school of forestry. He retired from business as early as 1845, and left the house in the hands of his eldest son, Louis Levéque de Vilmorin. Louis gave much attention to the subject of heredity in plants, and his writings in this direction are still well known to scientists. His name is also identified with the amelioration of the Sugar-beet. He died in 1860, at the age of 44, and his widow assumed a great part of the management of the business. 

The house is now in the hands of the two sons of Louis, Henri L. and Maurice L. de Vilmorin, the latter of whom is secretary of the French horticultural division of the Columbian Exposition. A young son of Henri has lately appeared before the public in the excellent little book, The Flowers of Paris. The botanical and horticultural publications of the Vilmorins are numerous and they form a prominent feature in the exhibit at the Fair.

Other seed exhibitors in the Agricultural Building are Peter Henderson & Co., Albert Dickinson & Co., of Chicago,  Samuel Wilson, Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania, James Riley, Thomastown, Indiana, The Whitney-Noyes Seed Co., and E. W. Conklin & Son, both of Binghamton, New York. These are almost exclusively field seeds, except that of Henderson, in which are shown models of the larger or coarser vegetables, as turnips, squashes, mangels and the like. Henderson & Co. also show a good line of tree seeds. A novel feature of this display is a collection of botanical specimens of the grasses and sedges used by Henderson in his lawn grass mixtures.

L. H. Bailey, Chicago, Ill.

Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art and...- Volume 6

Links: 

1893 - Seven Seedsman at the Columbian Exposition This post contains many nice stereo views of the Agricultural Building, and information about the seedsmen named above.

1893 - Seven Seedsman at the Columbian Exposition

 

Yesterday's post  mentioned briefly how E. W. Conklin, Seedman, had won 7 prizes at the Columbian Exposition.  I started poking around and found these nifty stereo views (below),

 and more to the theme of this blog, news of which seedsman had decided to display and compete. 

World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Ill., 1893, Volume 1 had the following report on "Class 180", which was "General display of flower and vegetable, seeds by seed houses or growers.".

Two things jumped out at me from this.  That the writer saw fit to note the use of seed packets with a picture of the flower or plant that would be grown from that packages' seeds...and the cental system.  I thought at first that Google's OCR was playing games with the word central.   Nope...it is a system of weight I never heard of and which has quite a history of political machinations around its use.  I found an interesting piece about it in a New Orleans newspaper from 1867 that is at the bottom of this post. 

The following is from the 1893 Exposition publication...

UNITED STATES

Coming back to the chief class 180, general display of flower and vegetable seeds by seed houses or growers, we have to regret also here that the number of exhibitions was not greater.   D. M. Ferry & Co., of Detroit, Mich.,  the largest seed house in the United States,Atlee Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, of nearly the same importance, and the Steele Briggs Marcon Company, Limited, Toronto, the largest seed house in Canada, had not  exhibited. 

 The catalogue names from the United States only 7,  but among these 7 were some of the greatest houses of the Union— Henry A. Dreer, Philadelphia; Peter Henderson & Co., New York; Pitcher & Mandu, Shorthills, N. J., and Y. C. Vaughan, Chicago.  Peter Henderson & Co. also had exhibited in a grand style in the agricultural building, where still another great house, Albert Dickinson & Co., Chicago, and further Vilmorin, Andrieux & Cie., from Paris,  had exposed their great collections.

There were still some other exhibitions of which we will speak first.  W. Buckbee, Rockford seed farms, Illinois, had arranged his collection in a very pretty manner; all seeds were in pretty, large, green or red silk bags on a terrace, with a large mirror behind and a brass liar before, a book with the request, "Please write your address, to get a catalogue" lying out.  This latter is a very common custom in America, which should be more frequently accepted in Germany.  H. W. Buckbee especially grows vegetable seeds, onions being the principal, but also cabbage and sugar corn. Of course it would not have well been possible to exhibit flower seeds in such quantities, but the public did not miss them, and the great quantities of vegetables in the pretty bags attracted it very much.

The Michigan Seed Company, South Haven, Mich., exhibited in a smaller style about 115 flower and vegetable seeds. Their specialties are beans and radishes.

G. Barteldes & Co., Lawrence, Kans., had exhibited vegetable and grass seeds in large bags.   Some of the grass seeds were not quite clean;  the whole samples were true samples of the commerce, not extra made up for the Exposition.

Henry A. Dreer, Philadelphia, has one of the greatest horticultural businesses in the East. Not only seeds, but also a great many plants, especially palms, azaleas, carnations, ferns, etc., are grown in, the establishment out of town at Riverton, beyond the Delaware, in New Jersey, comprising 180 acres with forty-four greenhouses," while in the store, 714 Chestnut street,  Philadelphia, seeds, bulbs, and also implements are sold.   

In Chicago Mr. Dreer made a fine display, especially of vegetable seeds, etc., and his collection of implements was one of the best of all. The business was established in 1838. In 1883 Mr. Dreer had a quarter of an acre of sweet pease, employed 35 persons, and shipped 15,000 packages; in 1893 he had 6 acres of sweet pease,  employed 70 persons, and shipped 70,000 packages. The firm is now incorporated, and its president is Mr. William F. Dreer, the son of the founder.

Peter Henderson & Co., New York, the greatest house of that city, the eldest of all North America, and well renowned in thewhole world, had brought most sacrifices of all American seedsmen. As has already been mentioned, they had not only exhibited in the horticultural, but also in the agricultural building, and in both places in a highly attractive manner for the public. For our purpose it may suffice to describe the exhibition in the horticultural building. In the middle of a large pavilion stood the model of their warehouse, 35 Cortland Street, New York; around were placed large vessels with vegetable and grass seeds, and the pretty little paper bags with flower seeds, the whole decorated by exact models of the best vegetables, etc., by colored plates, figures, etc.

 Also several books were exposed, for Mr. Henderson is one of the rare gardeners who not only do practical work, but who understand how to spread their knowledge by popular publications.
So we found: Henderson's Gardening for Pleasure, second edition. 1892; Henderson's Handbook of Plants, second edition; Practical Floriculture, fourth edition, out of which we learn that in New York there are 500 florists with $6,000,000 capital—in several businesses more than $100,000; Henderson's Garden and Farm Topics, 1884; How the Farm Pays, by Henderson and William Crozier, 1884; at last, Henderson's Gardening for Profit, 1891, in which he says that a gardener must have a tleast $1,500 to $2,000 capital, and then not more than 2 acres, either bought or ten years on lease.

It is highly interesting to see Henderson's numerous greenhouses in Jersey City Heights, N. J., where there are cultivated roses in assortments (here mostly in pots what elsewhere is rare in America), chrysanthemums, palms, vines, etc. They also have large trial grounds in Hackensack. The business of Peter Henderson & Co. was founded by Peter Henderson in 1847 and incorporated in 1890, Alfred Henderson being president; Charles Henderson, vice-president and treasurer; Robert Liddell, secretary. I

n 1883 they had about 100 persons; in 1893, 200. How great the correspondence is follows by the single fact that in 1894 in one day of the chief season they received 4,000 letters and postal communications. Their specialties in garden seeds are cabbage, celery, cauliflower, pease, and beans. One variety of extra early pease alone takes 1,000 to 1,200 acres to produce enough for their trade annually during the past three years.

The Michigan Seed Company, South Haven, Mich., exhibited in a smaller style about 115 flower and 150 vegetable seeds.Their specialties beans and radishes.

Pitcher & Manda, Shorthills, N. J., is that grand horticultural establishment to which the World's Fair Commission is much indebted, for they have contributed in store plants more than any other house, and without their huge tree ferns, their orchids, and other plants, renewed the whole summer, the horticultural building would have lacked some of its most attractive features. It is a delight to see their vast establishment in Shorthills. Nowhere in America can one see such a variety of plants and flowers, indoors and outdoors; even nursery articles are to be found there. But we have to do here only with the seeds they exhibited, and this collection consisted of about 2,000 flower seeds, etc., in small paper bags as they are in use now in nearly all businesses, each having a colored figure of the flower which will come from the seed.

J. C. Vaughan, Chicago, is one of the greatest firms in the Central States, having office and warehouse at 146 and 145 Washington street; retail store at 88 State Street; greenhouses, plant, and bulb grounds at Western Springs, Ill., near Chicago, and finally a branch establishment at 22 Barclay street, New York, where all European shipments are received.  Mr. Vaughan was the horticulturist who saved the honor of Chicago itself in the floricultural department, for although there are so many florists in that city, most of them did not participate at the Exposition. Mr. Vaughan showed especially cannas in the choicest varieties, many of them not yet in commerce, gained by the celebrated raiser, Mr. Crozy, at Lyon. But Mr. Vaughan also made a grand display in seeds and his pavilion was a worthy counterpart to that of Messrs. Henderson & Co., New York.  Seeds of all kinds, vegetable and flower seeds, grass seeds, etc., in vessels of different forms, large and small ones tilled the middle and the sides,  and a good decoration was produced by living flowers. Mr. Vaughan had the great advantage to be nearest to the Fair, and he had in the person of a young lady a representative all the time, which would have been too expensive for the other houses.

The Albert Dickinson Company, Chicago, had not exhibited in the horticultural hall, but in a fine manner in the agricultural building. They handle chiefly field seeds—clovers, lucerne, timothy, and the natural grasses of that country; also linseed. Of the latter they sold, during the past five years, probably 1,500,000 bushels per year. The dealer of field seeds, especially in America, can not do like the dealer in garden seeds; he can not have seeds grown, except in special instances, exclusively for him. The territory and the quantities handled being so extremely large, it would be impossible to contract growing. So, also, the Albert Dickinson Company buys seeds in the open market or from country shippers. Most of the seeds they sell are raised in that country, the same as grain crops. The quantities of seed handled in the Chicago market exceed any market in the world, especially in timothy seed. The Albert Dickinson Company also prepared tables of equivalent quotations on clovers and grass seeds as reduced from standard bushel to cental system and cental system to bushel. They commend the change to the cental system, but they should not have stopped half way; they should have promoted the use of 100 kilograms instead of 100 pounds English.  God bless the day when England and the United States shall adopt the metric system in weights and measures.

These are stereo views of the inside of the Agricultural Building at the Columbian Exposition.  I have also posted large versions below so you can enjoy the detail.   This first one appears to be before the exhibitors have moved into the booths.

Is this the Liberty Bell made with apples?

 

What is in the bottles the Maids of Honor are guarding?

 I still can't tell what is in the bottles. Wine?  Booze?

Cool link: 

The World's Fair as Seen in One Hundred Days: Containing a Complete History of the World's Columbian Exposition...Description of Chicago, Its Wonderful Buildings, Parks, Etc (Google eBook) - Henry Davenport Northrop, 1893  (This links to an illustration of a wonderful Wardian case!!!)