1807 - Michael Floy, Seedsman, "Upper End of Broadway", New York

Michael Floy was a good businessman, a good writer, a good seedsman and nurseryman, who lived a good and prosperous life. 

Following his father into the trade he unfortunately had no offspring interested in the business.

In 1847 his basic history was noted :
About fifty years since, a nursery was established near Rivington, east of Sheriff-street, which street derived its name from Mr. Sheriff, the proprietor. 

Mr. Michael Floy, now living, succeeded Mr. S. in this nursery. He afterward occupied land in Greenwich~lane, and in 1807 removed from thence toward the North River, his nursery being situated between King and Barrow-street, extending across Hudson-street, that beautiful and spacious thoroughfare, to Greenwich-street.

This nursery being required for building lots, he was induced in 1820, to start a nursery on the Brevoort estate, immediately north of the Sailors Snug Harbor, which he carried on until the year 1827, since which time he purchased fourteen acres of land in Harlem, where he at present resides. 

 Snug Harbor Looking North

We thus see that the march of improvement has driven the nurserymen and market-gardeners far from the fields of their early exertions, and that where “once a garden smiled,” now stand the mansions of adventurous merchants and successful tradesmen.

Transactions of the American Institute: Of the City of New-York
(This is an interesting read if you are interested in New York.)

Following up on the theme of Floy moving around a lot considering he was a nurseryman is information on land speculators in the early 1800s buying up what used to be farmland surrounding the city.  Here is more detail on why he moved taken from an interesting dissertation cited at the end.  It is a good read.

In 1835 "speculators" offered Manhattan nurseryman Michael Floy ten times what he had originally paid for land in Harlem. The following year Floy's son excitedly penned in his diary; "A gentleman today offered father a fine farm at Jamaica for $10,000, and at the same time offered only $140,000 for our Nursery! The temptation is almost too great." Thus, high prices encouraged considerable areas of farmland to transfer from farmer to speculator.
...
 Manhattan nurseryman and author Michael Floy intended to leave the family business to his son Michael, with whom he operated the family business. Yet twenty-eight year-old Michael died unexpectedly in the spring of 1837, and his father continued on alone until his death in 1854. Floy's oldest son James, a successful clergyman, had no interest in horticulture. Apparently, neither did his daughters or their husbands.  

Suspecting that upon his death the nursery would be sold, the elder Floy empowered his executors to sell the entire stock of plants, shrubs and trees. The language of the senior Floy's will also suggests that potentially serious obstacles awaited the heirs of valuable properties; whether to sell, rent or develop, or to keep the land intact.  

In Floy's case the nurseryman purchased a ten acre parcel of land between Fourth and Fifth Avenues from 125th to 127th Streets for $8,500 in 1827.  A quarter-century later it had quadrupled in value. Apparently anticipating some disagreement over the dispersal of the estate after the death of his wife (who inherited use rights) Floy requested that the executors "come into agreement" with his family over whether to sell the property "or to improve it."    In 1854 the Harlem properties included four houses and lots, the nursery, plus the "house I now occupy in Harlem and also the lot 25 feet by one-half block in depth, on which the house stands.   The Floy heirs appear to have managed through the pitfalls of probate, but other families were less fortunate.
...
Manhattan nurseryman Michael Floy described his first encounter with an " awkward and ineffective one-horse cultivator" in the summer of 1834: 

Father had a great notion to buy an instrument called a "cultivator," so he borrowed Mr. Hall's. We put up the old Gray before it, but it made sad work, and might be truly called a "cultivator," for I believe it cultivated the weeds so as to make them grow better than before. ...

Wednesday, January 7, 1835: Clear sky and most intensely cold; thermometer but one above zero. . . . The frost has got in the little Green-house, and I do not know when we shall be able to get it out. I laid all the fault to the coal, so Father got a ton of Schuylkill; if he had not done so we should have been frozen all up.  

Thursday, January 8, 1835: Same as yesterday. By keeping two fires constantly going, got the frost out of the little Green-house. I do not wish to see Jack there again; the plants do not relish such a companion.

• The Diary of Michael Floy, Jr., Bowery Village 1833-1837 (New York: Yale University Press. 1941).
•  Last Will and Testament of Michael Floy, New York, New York (Proved 10 May 1854) vol. 110, pp. 82-86, New York County Probate Court. 

Tremante, Louis P. III, "Agriculture and farm life in the New York City region, 1820-1870 " (2000). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 12290.
http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/12290

The best Dwarf Marrowfats (peas) we have ever had, were some purchased the last year from Michael Floy, seedsman, New-York. 

Testimonial from The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs, 1830

New York, Dec. 27, 1828. 

Sir,—

I send you the quantity of Bishop's Early Dwarf Prolific Pea, ordered by you, being of the same kind as presented by me to the Horticultural Society of this city. 

Agreeably to your request, I will give you a short account of its origin, peculiar properties, and mode of treatment. 

In the year 1826, they made their first appearance in London, having been sent, as I am informed, from some part of Scotland, where they were originally raised by a practical gardener, of the name of Bishop. 

In the year 1817, so great a reputation had they obtained in the neighbourhood of London, that they were readily sold by the nursery men there at a guinea a pint; and in the spring of that year I received a small portion of them as a present from an eminent horticulturist, who, in the letter accompanying them writes as follows: 

"These peas are making a great noise here, and knowing they would be highly acceptable to you, I have, with some difficulty, procured you a small quantity. Its peculiar excellences Appear to be these: its great productiveness, equalling, if not surpassing any variety hitherto known; its earliness and its remarkable dwarf habit, seldom attaining, even in the best soils, the height of twelve inches, which of itself would make it a most valuable acquisition, more especially for small gardens." 

In addition to what is here stated, I remark from my own experience, that this pea fully realizes the description here given, and the following appears the most judicious method of treating them: 

They should be planted three, or at any rate two inches apart in the rows, as from their dwarfishness and spreading habit they do not do so well if sown closer; hence it is obvious there will be a great saving of seed, as a pint of these Peas will go as far as two or three quarts of any other, sown in the usual manner. 

They commence blooming when not three inches high, bear most abundantly, and are very fine eating. If a few were planted weekly, a constant succession of Green Peas might be obtained all the summer and autumn, as from the habit of their growth they appear better calculated to withstand the heat of an American summer than any variety with which I am acquainted. 

I have still a few quarts left; which are offered to those desirous of cultivating an excellent vegetable, at one dollar per quart. Persons at a distance, by remitting the cash by letter (post paid) will receive them by any conveyance they may designate.              

Michael Floy
Seedsman, &c., New York.

1828 - THE AMERICAN FARMER

The author of the The Cottage Garden of America, Walter Elder, said in 1850:

Michael Floy, nurseryman and florist, New York City, is an excellent writer ; his edition and additions of Lindley's “Guide to the Orchard" is a valuable book on fruits.

The Diary of Michael Floy Jr. is not available online...sigh. ..BUT I got a copy for $3.48 on ABE!!! Can't wait til it gets here :-)

Mr. Brooks Edits Michael Floy's Diary, A Vivid Picture Of Life In The 1830's

By Katherine Eisenhart '42

The Diary of Michael Floy Jr. edited by Professor Richard Brooks of the English department, has just been published, in celebration of 75th anniversary and as a memorial to Margaret Floy Washburn.   Washburn,  professor of psychology at Vassar from 1903 to 1937, discovered the diary of her uncle and began the work of preparation for publication. 

The diary covers the period from October 1, 1833 to February 1837. It is of great interest because, as Miss Washburn says in her introductory note, it gives "a vivid picture of American life at a period and in a social medium of which there is little contemporary record." 

Started In Nursery Business 

Michael Floy. Jr.. was a young New Yorker, who after his graduation from Columbia, joined his father in the nursery business, and did very well, particularly with dahlias and camellias (also canaries on the side).    The Floy family lived in a brick house in the Bowery which in 1893 was a rather a different place than it is today.   Through his daily records that range from weather observations to philosophical inquiry, one sees clearly the New York of that time and at the same time gathers a very distinct picture of the author who is chiefly remarkable for the variety of his interests. 

Above and beyond his work m the nursery (which required a daily trip to Harlem to care for the fruit trees and watermelons) he was an ardent Wesleyan Methodist and regularly attended a round of religious functions.  The Sunday school that he taught, he took very seriously and confessed at one place that "it requires a person of pretty firm muscle to manage a Sunday school of youngsters." 

Floy is Versatile 

In spite of this arduous religious life, he treats it in such a way that in Mr. Brooks' words, "his diary will contribute toward a reestimate of the Puritan as portrayed by writers at the end of the century."   He was enormously susceptible to women, and having spontaneously proposed to a Miss Deborah S. from Poughkeepsie he spends several years disengaging himself.  Besides all this, he was a voracious reader of anything from the Bible to Byron, and an amateur mathematician, musing on tibei ical trigonometry and geometric proportion, and an active member of the Anti-Slavery Association.

 The diary is a delightfully frank expose of his moods, activities, and the changing state of his health. It seems quaint in some places, amazingly contemporary in others. Even in 1833 the price of travel from New York to Poughkeepsie was $1.50.

Vassar Miscellany News, Volume XXVI, Number 5, 8 October 1941

Not especially related to this story but I liked this illustration of the Sailors Snug Harbor.

1880 - Valentine Hicks Hallock, Seedsman

I was digging for the Boston seedsman M. B. Faxon on the web tonight when an ad on the following page caught my eye.  I am such a sucker for highly detailed engravings I immediately switched from Faxon to this gent - V.H. Hallock!  I had to write something about him, especially after I found his full name was Valentine Hicks Hallock. 

ad from 1891 - The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine

This is as large as I have it. Not the best quality but readable.  

Note V.H. Hallock's home to the right. 

Below is his son's house.

His son was a respected plant breeder involved in improving  gladioli.

There is nothing like a good obituary to quickly fill in some details of a person's  life.  They also give you a feeling for the times in which he lived.  A comment by the writer was, "He lived and died the consistent life of a gentleman.".

Obituary: Valentine Hicks Hallock
Valentine Hicks Hallock, senior member of the firm of V. H. Hallock & Son, died at his home, Queens, N. Y., April 17, aged 85 years, having been born in 1822 at Milton, N. Y., where his ancestors had lived for 250 years.  

At the time of his death he owned property that had been in his family for 175 years. Mr. Hallock belonged to the Milton community of Quakers, famous for its support of the government during the trying times of the civil war.  From the first he took an advanced position in agriculture and small fruits, also in blooded sheep and cattle.  

Through some dealings with C. L. Allen, of Floral Park, N.Y., he drifted into the bulb business and he was identified with the firm that bore his name for 30 years but took no active part in its affairs. At one time this firm was perhaps the most extensive grower and dealer in bulbs and roots, such as lilies, tuberoses, dahlias, gladioli, etc. 

It was during this time that the firm imported the nucleus of the present strain of Gladious Childsii which was developed into a large and merchantable collection by E. V. Hallock, the junior member of the firm and disposed of by John Lewis Childs, after whom the strain and important varieties were named.

Mr. Hallock was a mechanical engineer of considerable ability and of an inventive turn of mind. At one time he was superintendent of the power, mechanical work, etc., connected with a large Brooklyn warehouse. 

He lived and died the consistent life of a gentleman. He always believed in the integrity of his fellowman and above all he was a good Christian man in every sense of the word.
Funeral services were held April 20, interment at Westbury, N. Y.

These glads, introduced by John Lewis Childs of Floral Park, New York, were developed by Edward V. Hallock, a  son of Valentine Hallock.

1889 - Seedsman Samuel Wilson's Mexican Honey Plant

The flamboyant seedsman Samuel Wilson presented this honey plant on his seed catalog's back cover in 1889.   He more than occasionally rubbed horticulturists the wrong way with his overly optimistic claims for his plants.  In this case he went a step too far and misidentified the specie.

In the review below, editor A. I. Root of Gleanings in Bee Culture questions Mr. Wilson's claim that is Cleome integrifolia.  

It is probably Cleome serrulata...photo to the right. 

For more great large photos of the flower and honeybees go to Malheur Experiment Station of Oregon State University.

This post is a copy from my bee blog as it concerned Samuel Wilson as much as it does bees.

THE ROCKY-MOUNTAIN BEE-PLANT

Samuel Wilson, in his seed catalogue for the present season, gives a picture of what he calls the Mexican honey-plant, or cleome integrifolia, and labels it the greatest discovery of the modern age.     Now, there may be different varieties of cleome integrifolia; but the blossoms pictured in the above catalogue have very little resemblance to our well known Rocky-Mountain bee-plant. 

We have raised this plant for years on our grounds, and, as our readers are very well aware, we have for years sold the seed at 5 cents per package. As friend Wilson has always been considered a good and responsible seedsman, we can hardly understand why he should make this mistake. Very likely, however, it is no worse a mistake than many of the colored pictures of some of our new vegetables.

 In the first place, the picture is not at all correct, as compared with the cleomes that grow in our gardens; neither is it like the Rocky-Mountain bee plant that I found growing in its native state on the Rocky Mountains. The illustration shows the flowers literally dripping with honey. This, too, is a great exaggeration. 

The plant bears honey in the morning, much as the spider plant does; but I am sure never in any locality just as it is pictured. The leaves and unopened blossoms are pictured very correctly. We quote the following from the closing remarks in regard to it:

Mr. Jesse Frazier, one of the largest apiarists in the United States, and one of the most prominent and reliable citizens of Fremont Co., Colorado, says: "No other plant known to the civilized world can vie with the cleome integrifolia in producing honey as food for bees. And no other honey is as clear and of as good quality."     He further says, "I have frequently weighed my bee-stands for a number of mornings and evenings, and found many of them to increase as much as 9 lbs. a day."

Still further on he says:

As yet the seeds of this valuable plant are very scarce. Our agent, after traversing the mountains of Mexico for nearly two months, procured only about 100 pounds.

 Single packet, 25 cts.; 5 packets, $1.00. Each packet will have directions for cultivating, and contain seed enough to plant a row sixty feet long, which will produce sufficient honey for one colony of bees.

1889 - Gleanings in Bee Culture, Volume 17

1892 - Samuel Wilson, Seedsman, Takes Umbrage

1892 catalog

Before modern social media there were opportunities for people to publicly disagree in mean and petty ways...only it took a month between volleys.  

 Samuel Wilson seems to have pushed the limits of "creative selling" too far for the editor of The Rural New Yorker.  This review of Wilson's 1892 seed catalog shows the already present dislike for Wilson's misleading exaggerations. 

SAMUEL WILSON, Mechanicsville, Bucks County, PA.—A large catalogue of 112 pages of seeds, etc. 

...

Yes, it was on pink paper.

Some years ago Mr. Wilson took exception to some of our criticisms regarding his catalogue and therefore cut our acquaintance. Still, however, his catalogue comes for review. On the cover of the present edition is the statement that the present catalogue is a price list of “garden, field and flower seeds grown and sold” on his seed farm. 

We would ask Mr. Wilson if that is not a falsehood. On page 3 is an illustration of a plant of Modoc Corn “drawn from Nature on the field where it grew.” “The stalks grow to a medium height of seven to eight feet.” The illustration “drawn from Nature in the field” shows a plant five inches tall. The ears (five in number) average two inches long. Therefore, the proportion of reduction being accurate, these ears must have been two fifths as long as the plant was tall. In other words the ears averaged at least three feet long. 

On page 73 he speaks of the Washington Climbing Blackberry as bearing “the most delicious fruit” and as being “perfectly hardy in any climate.” This has been under trial at the Rural Grounds for a number of years. The canes are not hardy even in moderate seasons, the fruit is of inferior quality. Mr. Wilson gives the size of the berries as 1(illegible fraction) inch long by 1(illegible fraction) inch in diameter. The berries of THE R. N.-Y. specimen would not average an inch in length.  

On page 112 of his catalogue he alludes to THE R. N.-Y. as a “so-called agricultural paper”, “to show how much reliance can be placed on this agricultural journal” ,“so excited the ire of this wonderful paper” etc.— quotations which may serve to show our readers that Mr. Wilson is not yet ready to accept our criticisms as having been made for his benefit as well as in the interests of the seed-buying public.

Mr. Wilson's had indeed trashed The Rural New Yorker, weaving his derision into a rabbit article!  Samuel Wilson's catalog also sold poultry and rabbits. 

To read the article click on the rabbit for the larger image.

Samuel Wilson's reply to the bad review appeared the following month in The Rural New-Yorker, prefaced by the editor, of course!

MR. SAMUEL WILSON, the seedsman of Mechanicsville, Bucks County, Pa., seems not to have lost his temper while reading our review of his catalogue— page 119, February 20. 

 Here is his reply in his own words, punctuation and orthography :

“Ed. chief R. N. YORKER. Dear sir. “please accept thanks for recent coppy “RURAL. N. YORKER, containing criticism on my 92 catalog.  will you kindly inform me if you were sober when writing said criticism and about what time in the day it was written.

Yours Resy        SAMUEL WILSON.

P. S. How did you enjoy your vacation at the Water gap, Pa., last summer.         you seemed to be troubled “with a marning headache".    Try Keelys gold cure. - S. W.”

It is just as well, perhaps, that Mr. Wilson should make merry over our review of his catalogue as that he should assume to be indignant and essay to justify what is manifestly unjustifiable.
Still, it may happen with him (if he hopes to continue his business), as it has happened with others, that he will one day have occasion to regard THE R. N.-Y.'s well-meant criticisms from a more serious point of view.    The editor of THE R. N.-Y. has not visited the Delaware Water Gap since the summer of 1887. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1876 - Samuel Wilson, Exuberant Seedsman, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Samuel Wilson's ads are delightfully odd.  He was a showman, and his claims and ad styles reflect this.    His Mole Tree ad caught my attention right away for a previous post!  

Personally, I think sticking a face in the center of the flower is sort of creepy.

This next ad, which you probably can't read any better than I can, is included as an example of the DENSE style of ad. How many words can you squeeze into your space??!!

This next melon was a mystery to me...melons all winter??  I didn't know some melons "keep", like winter squashes I guess.  There was another winter melon called Santa Claus :-)

 I did read that chickens would find the seeds a treat during the winter, and the melons also made nice "conserves" (jam).  

I can't leave out the potato that was "Beautiful as an oil painting"!!

Nonetheless, he was a large business and was one of the seedsman that exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in 1893.  He was reported as planning to show over a "hundred different types of corn or ear, over 50 varieties of wheat and hundreds of flower seeds".

Below is an excerpt from a family history.

SAMUEL WILSON, dealer in and grower of all kinds of seeds, P. O. Mechanicsville, was born in Buckingham township, in 1824, and is a son of Samuel and Hannah (Longstreth) Wilson.

He is descended on the paternal side from ancestors who originally came from Yorkshire, England, and who for several generations have been members of the Society of Friends.
...
Samuel Wilson was reared on the farm, and when 21 years of age engaged in the mercantile business at Newtown. Five years later he returned and in 1852 built a house on the original tract of land. The same year he was married to Maria Webster, née Burger, by whom he had three children, all living: Samuel Howard, William E. and Mary Elizabeth.
...
In the spring of 1876 be commenced the business of growing seeds, which he has carried on extensively. In 1885 he built a larger seed-house, and erected a three-story stone building, 35 by 60 feet. He employs a large number of hands, and has sale for seeds in all parts of the world. 

His establishment is one of the largest of its kind in this part of the country.
...
Mr. Wilson has served as school director nine years. He is an intelligent and enterprising citizen.

History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; 

edited by J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887.

His successors didn't last long! They kept Samuel Wilson's  name and added "Company" to it.

For those of you who may have come to this page for more ancestry information about Samuel Wilson, here is what I edited out:

The first emigrants of the name came to America about 1683, and settled in Bucks county, and in New Jersey, opposite Bristol and Morrisville.
The first of the family in Buckingham township was Samuel Wilson, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was born in Bucks county, January 6, 1706. He moved to Buckingham and took up a large tract of land extending to the Delaware river, and in 1731 built the older portion of the two storied stone house, near the present village of Mechanicsville. In 1729 he married Rebecca, the ninth child of Thomas Canby, whose ancestors also came from Yorkshire, England, and to this marriage were born thirteen children. Of these, the tenth, Stephen, born in 1749, remained upon the original homestead and married Sarah Blackfan, to whom were born eight children.

Of these, the second, Samuel, born in 1785, married Hannah Longstreth, and was the father of the subject of this sketch. The mother of the present Samuel Wilson was a granddaughter of Bartholomew Longstreth, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1679, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1698. He belonged to the Society of Friends, and in 1727 married Ann Dawson, who was born in London and came to America in 1710. By her he had eleven children.


The eleventh child, Benjamin, married Sarah Fussel, daughter of Solomon Fussel, and to this marriage were born twelve children, of whom the ninth child, Hannah, born in 1791, married Samuel Wilson, and had eight children, of whom but two are living: Samuel, and Margaret O., wife of Elias Paxson, of Solebury.

above: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Including an Account of Its Original Exploration, Its Relation to the Settlements of New Jersey and Delaware, Its Erection Into a Separate County, Also Its Subsequent Growth and Development, with Sketches of Its Historic and Interesting Localities, and Biographies of Many of Its Representative Citizens

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 - Samuel Wilson's Mole-Tree!

I love the outrageous claims you can find in old seed catalogs!  And when it is accompanied by a great illustration my day is complete.

The mole to the right has been edited by me...Samuel Wilson wasn't that tacky...but he was wasn't afraid to make a definitive statement!

It seems he rubbed a number of reviewers the wrong way, however, with his claims in this 1893 catalog.

THE MOLE TREE OR MOLE PLANT 

The Mole Plant is not only desirable for ornamental purposes, but highly valuable and useful to plant in gardens or lawns infested with moles. Every one knows the trouble and loss caused by these destructive little animals, especially in the vegetable or flower garden, as well as in borders and walks.

The Mole Plant is a sure remedy for this evil. A few plants set out in places infested by moles will drive them away and keep your garden entirely clear of this troublesome pest. 

This fact has been proved in hundreds of cases where moles have been so troublesome as to almost ruin vegetable and garden plants. On our own grounds we made a thorough experiment with this valuable plant he past Summer. We had a row of a dozen planted on a piece of ground which, for years previous, had been so infested with moles as to make it almost impossible to raise a crop of anything we planted. We tried every means by trapping, poisoning, etc, and even hired a man to watch them while making their runs, so as to dig them out with a fork or spade. But all this did not seem to diminish the moles. For every one destroyed, two more came in its place.

We finally gave it up in despair until we accidentally heard of this wonderful Mole Plant. It seemed to work like a charm. The small trees were planted in the Spring and our closest observation could not discover any signs of a mole within sixty feet of these trees the whole season through. On other parts of our grounds the moles were as thick and as destructive as ever. But the grounds where these trees were planted were entirely clear of moles.  

We intend to plant then largely another year, and would recommend our customers who are troubled with moles to try this simple remedy, as it costs but little and will save them much. Half a dozen or a dozen trees would keep an ordinary size garden free from moles and save much vexation and loss.  

The plant is a biennial and easily raised from seeds which must be sown in the Fall. Besides in great value in this way, it is quite an ornamental plant ; grows to the height of two to two and one-half feet, in a perfect tree-like form, with neat and attractive foliage.
Plants, by mall, post-paid, each, 15c: 2 for 25c; 5 for 50c; doz., $1.00.

Below are some responses the ad elicited. The first is the best!   The second fills you in on more detail than you want, which can be a good thing in the long run, plus it also slams this flim-flam style of advertising.

AMONG the “novelties” which we find in the catalogue of Samuel Wilson, of Mechanicsville, Pa., is “The Mole Tree or Mole Plant.”  An illustration shows a round-headed tree loaded with fruit which seem to be about the size of apples. Beside this beautiful little tree lies a dead mole. We assume that he is dead because, first, he is lying on his back with his legs up, and, second, because he lies within a few feet of the deadly tree. 

Mr. Wilson says that a dozen trees (they grow to a height of less than three feet) “would keep an ordinary sized garden free from moles.” He says, “the plant is a biennial and easily raised from seed.” Mr. Wilson, however, fails to allude to the fine fruit borne by the tree, and he further omits to mention its botanical name or to intimate in any way to what order it belongs.

The Rural New-Yorker 1893

THE MOLE-PLANT.— Euphorbia Lathyris.


The horticultural community was interested last spring in the announcement of Samuel Wilson, of Mechanicsville, Penn., that he had a plant which will drive moles from the garden. This plant, although said to be biennial, was called the Mole-Tree, and the account was verified by the picture, which shows a diminutive tree beneath which lies the corpse of a mole.

Nothing is said by the introducer about the origin, nativity or botanical affinities of the plant. We were able to secure but one plant of the Mole-Tree, and we were so choice of it that it has been grown in the greenhouse. It turns out to be an interesting old garden plant, which has a continuous history of at least three hundred years, and which was known as a medicinal plant to Galen in the second century. It is the Caper Spurge, Euphorbia Lathyris. The name Spurge is applied to many related plants, in reference to their purgative qualities, and this particular species is called Caper Spurge from the fact that the little seed-like fruits are sometimes used as a substitute for capers. The plant is known chiefly as a household medicine, although it is used in materia medica and is figured by Millspaugh in his recent work upon American Medicinal Plants. Its use as a food plant seems, fortunately, to have ceased. Johnson, in Sowerby's Useful Plants of Great Britain, 1862, speaks of this use of it as follows: “The three-celled capsules are about the size of a large caper, and are often used as a substitute for that condiment, but are extremely acrid, and not fit to eat till they have been long macerated in salt and water and afterwards in vinegar ; indeed it may be doubted whether they are wholesome even in that state.”

This plant is a native of Europe, but it has long been an inhabitant of old gardens in this country, and it has run wild in some of the eastern states. Its use as a mole repeller is not recent. 

Pursh, in writing of the plant in 1814, in his Flora of North America, says that 

“It is generally known in America by the name of Mole-plant, it being supposed that no moles disturb the ground where this plant grows.” 

Darlington makes a similar statement in Flora Cestrica, 1837 :

 “This foreigner has become naturalized about many gardens,— having been introduced under a notion that it protected them from the incursions of moles.” 

In later botanies it is frequently called Moleplant.

I do not know if there is any foundation for these repeated statements that the Caper Spurge is objectionable to moles, but the fact that the notion is old and widespread raises a presumption that the plant may possess such attributes. The statement occurs only in American works, so far as I know. It would be interesting to know the experiences of those who have grown the plant for a number of years, for the subject is worth investigation.  

We cannot too strongly deprecate the practice of introducing plants to the public without giving purchasers definite knowledge of their history and nature, and without having detailed proof that the plants possess the virtues which are claimed for them. It would have been better in the present example, no doubt, to have submitted the plant to a botanist before introducing it, in order that its proper name and history might have been determined; and if the public is at all inclined to buy a moleplant it would have been persuaded much more by the long tradition of its virtues than by any consequential statement of its value.

The Caper Spurge is apparently biennial, although Boissier, a celebrated monographer of the euphorbias, calls it annual. The plant is very unlike in its early and flowering stages. Until it begins to branch and flower, the leaves are long linear-lanceolate, opposite, and arranged in four perfect rows down the thick, smooth stem. As this stage of the plant is rarely illustrated or described, I have introduced here a photograph of our Mole-plant as it appeared eight months after its receipt from Mr. Wilson. It was placed horizontally and an end view was taken in order to show the serial arrangement of leaves. The plant is exceedingly curious and interesting, and we shall grow it in our greenhouses as an ornamental subject. Few plants have a more novel or striking appearance. In its second or flowering stage, the leaves are ovate and shorter. 

Mr. Wilson writes me that he knew this plant in old gardens more than fifty years ago, where it had a reputation for expelling moles, but he lost sight of it until a short time since, when he again met with the plant. It was then propagated and introduced to the public.

1894 - Annual Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Volume 6