HISTORY AND PUBLICATIONS OF THE MISSOURI State Horticultural Society F. A. SAMPS OM. {From Thirty-third Annual Report of the Society.^ JEFFERSON CITY, MO.: TBIBUNE PRIMTINO COMPANY, STATB PRIMTBBS AND BINDERS. 1891. HISTORY AND PUBLICATIONS OP THE MISSOURI State Horticultural Society BY F-H.^ ' A^^*"S AMPSON lFro7n Thirty-third Annual Report of the Society.'] JEFFERSON CITY, MO.: TaiBUNB PRINTING COMPANY, STATE PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 1891. "£^ ^EB 10 1905 D.afO, HISTORY AND PUBLICATIONS State Horticultural Society. BY F. A. SAMPSON, SEDALIA, MO. Previous to 1859, Hon. l!f. J. Colman, then editor of the " Valley Tarmer " at St. Louis, in editorials in the tenth and eleventh volumes, urged the formation of a society for the promotion of fruit-growing, and on the 5th of January, 1859, a few persons met in Jefferson City *' for the purpose of advancing and directing the fruit-growing interests of Missouri and the west." The meeting organized by calling Prof. G-. C. Swallow to the chair, and the appointment of Mr. F. R. Elliott, afterward Secretary of the American Pomological society, as secretary. The name " Missouri Pruit Growers' Association" was adopted, and Mr. Oolman was elected President ; F. E. Elliott, Recording Secretary, George Husmann, Oor- TespondiDg Secretary, and John Garnett, Treasurer. The Vice-Presi- dents were Dr. McPherson, Prof. G. C. Swallow, George M. Horner, Dr. McGuire, Eldridge Burden, William 0. Price and John Dedrick. Among others taking part in the meeting were Hon. W. B. Morris, of St. Louis ; Mr. C. C. Man waring, of Hermann ; Mr. Richter, of Jef- ferson county ; Hon. R. W. Wells, Gen. Minor, Gen. E. L. Edwards and ■others, of Jefferson City. Twenty-one years later the Society again elected Mr. Colman as its President, and in his address at the annual meeting in 1880 he thus re- fers to the early years of the Society : At the time of its organization the golden era of horticulture was dawning in "this State. The Society flourished and horticulture flourished. Enthusiasticho r- ticulturists, not only from all parts of this State but from our neighboring State of Illinois, became members . The meetings were awaited with interest, and the at- tendance was large. The discussions were interesting and instructive, and the pub- lications of the proceedings were eagerly sought by horticulturists from all parts 4 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Of the Union. The tables were loaded with the finest specimens of fruits an. Morse was made Eecording Secretary in place of Mr. Elliott, who had moved from the State, and various kinds of fruits were exhibited and discussed. The first annual meeting after the organization was held at Jefferson City on the 27th of December, 1859, and Mr. Colman was re-elected President; Vice-Presidents, Dr. A. W. McPherson, Prof. Gr. 0. Swallow^ Geo. M. Horner, Dr. McGuire, E. Burden, W. 0. Price and John Ded- rick ; Corresponding Secretary, Dr. L. D. Morse ; Eecording Secretary, Wm. Muir ; and Treasurer, Dr. 0. W. Spalding. It was decided ta publish a pamphlet containing the proceedings of this and all prior meetings, and an essay on grape culture, by Mr. George Husmann. For a number of years Mr. Muir filled the oflBce of Secretary, and is- afterward described by Mr. Mudd as " a devoted and intelligent horti- culturist, understanding all our terms and phrases, familiar with our nomenclature, his reports got up in such manner as to be of interest to. all, and it is believed, contributed, in great measure, to create that zeal and devotion in our members which enabled us not only to maintain our organization, but to increase the interest in and attendance on our meetings through the period of a civil war, which destroyed all similar organizations in all the other slave-holding states." A called meeting was held on the 7th of September, 1860, at Her- mann. The next annual meeting was held at St. Louis on the 8th of January, 1861. At the former annual meeting no fruits except grapes were exhibited ; but at this and all succeeding meetings many varieties of fruits and wines were shown. By-laws were adopted at this meeting, and Dr. C. W. Spalding was elected President; Vice- Presidents, Dr. A. W. McPherson, Prof. G. C. Swallow, Geo. M. Horner, W. L. Irving, Eldridge Burden, Wm. C. Price and W. S. Jewett ; Ee- cording Secretary and Treasurer, Wm. Muir; and Corresponding Sec- retary, Dr. L. D. Morse. The next annual meeting was held in St. Louis on the 14th of Jan- uary, 1862. It is said that the address of the President was " most BIBLIOGRAPHY. 5 Ibeautiful and forcible," but unfortunately it was not printed in the pro- ceedings. It was at this meeting that the name was changed, on the suggestion of Dr. Spalding, to that which it now bears, in order that the society might have a " wider range of purpose, embracing all the objects of horticultural design and improvement." Dr. Spalding was Te-elected President ; the Yice-Presidents were Dr. A. W. McPherson, Prof. G. C. Swallow, Geo. M. Horner, W. L. Irving, Eldridge Burden, Wm. C. Price and W. S. Jewett; Corresponding Secretary, Dr. L. D. Morse, and Eecording Secretary and Treasurer, Wm. Mjiir. A com- mittee was appointed to see if the transactions of the society could be published in the same volume with the transactions of the Illinois Horticultural society, but this does not seem to have been done. . The next annual meeting was held at St. Louis in January, 1863. The following officers were elected : President, Henry T. Mudd ; Vice- Presidents, Dr. B. F. Edwards, George Husmann, O. H. P. Lear, Isaac Snedeker and William Hadley, the two latter of Illinois ; Correspond- ing Secretary, Dr. L. D. Morse, and Eecording Secretary and Treas- urer, Wm. Muir. An essay on the grape was read at the meeting by Mr. George Husmann, and was published on pages 38-43 of "An Essay on the Culture of the Grape in the Great West," by the same author, published at Hermann in 1863. In the Proceedings of the meeting of January, 1864, I find the active members included Henry T. Mudd, IST. J. Colman, George Husmann, Dr. L. D. Morse, Dr. H. Claggett, Dr. B. P. Long, Dr. B. F. Edwards, Wm. Muir, John H. Tice and others well known in later years. The report for 1864 gives a list of 133 members. Only a part of the later reports give lists of members, but the number varied greatly from year to year, in 1873 it being only 29. The membership fee has been a mere nominal amount, and this is sufficient reason for the great variation in the number. Perhaps the present plan of giving a list of the members and correspondents is the best, without making any spe- cial effort to have a large membership, the work of the society in any event being done by a few members. The first list of life members was given in the Proceedings for 1872. The following are all of the names found in the different published lists : Henry T. Mudd, Charles Peabody, J. C. Evans, A. E. Trabue, John H. Tice, L. A Goodman, Hezekiah Claggett, Daniel L. Hall, D. M. Dunlap. Honorary members were first given in the Proceedings for 1884, and the list to the present time is made up of the following : George Husmann, C. W. Murtfeldt, Marshall P. Wilder, T. T. Lyon, N. J. Colman, Charles Downing. 6 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. In 1883 the constitution was amended so as to especially provide for lady members, and since that time they have made a part of the society, and joined in the proceedings at the annual meeting. The society has made exhibits of fruit at various places, and accomplished much in this way by directing the attention of the people of other states to Missouri as a fruit state. At the meeting of the American Pomological Society, at Eochester in 1879, several medals were awarded to it — one for the largest and best display of apples made by any society, another for the best display of grapes, and another for the best display of pears. Again in 1883 it made an exhibit of fruits at the meeting of the same society, and also at the Grand Rapids meeting in 1885. In February, 1883, it showed 85 varieties of fine fruits at the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society at Kew Orleans. In 1884 it took various premiums at the Exposition in New Orleans— a gold medal and |200 on 200 varieties of apples ; a silver medal and $100 on 100 varieties of apples ; a silver medal and $75.00 on 50 varieties of apples ; two other silver medals and twenty smaller pre- miums. At the at. Louis Fair, the St. Louis Exposition and other places it has made exhibits with similar results. In 1882, the society having an appropriation from the Legislature of $2,500 for two years, decided to establish an experimental orchard and garden at the Agricultural College grounds, for testing new fruits and vegetables ; and the reports of the committee in charge of the work show valuable results. The first report of the present secretary was that of 1883, and it,, as well as the succeeding ones, contains not only the original papers readat the meetings, but selections from the horticultural journals published during the year. The twenty-eighth report has the " Flora of Missouri," by Prof. S. M. Tracy, taking up 106 pages, the first cata- logue of the plants of the state published since that by Geyer in 1842. I will not notice in detail the different meetings, or the contents of the Proceedings. Each volume contains much of interest, and if the practical horticulturist had a complete set of the Proceedings and would read them all through carefully once a year, he would learn mucli that would help him to do more intelligent work, and to reap more abundant reward for work done. Each volume has many papers which would teach him new ideas to be put in practical operation or which would assist in educating the mind, and at least enlarge the capacity of enjoyment, and widen the scope of vision — the tiller of the soil too often contenting himself with simply living an animal life, with mind but little more developed than those of the animals with which his work brings him into contact. BIBLIOaRAPHY. 7 The following table shows the officers of the society from its organization to the present time. After 1868 the offices of correspond- ing and recording secretary were united in the same person, and since 1881 the constitution has provided for a vice-president, instead of one for each congressional district as was the case previous to that time. The table also gives the time of each meeting, its serial number and the number by which it is known in the published proceedings : STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Publ'd No. of meet. inco-^iocot-ooosoi— is^co .-^locot-oo •!— ((Meo-^iacot- qo.oj o i-h c<5 so Annual meet. (MC0-^>0C0l>.C005O>— i(MCO-^ O 5 .2 -S .2 .-i *' « 'i' » fl ;a rd ,a -c ^ -5 ,=! .a ooooooooo '-5'-5l-Sl-S>-5"-S*-S>-Sl-S 5:^: .£3 J CC OS 3 =i cqco. ^1 Pi' o o 00 OQ ooootCDoCCrtrigdn c3 cS ej 53 iiO SiCq "o o 'o "S cccc 66 C C CI CI o ^ ^ CO c^ o o o O o ddd d 02 ai«2a2cc CO cc '-i-^'-jt-icsJNQQQQQ M Mi t; ^ tj; _t: ^h _fH _fH ;^ .^ _^h _^ t^^ '3 'S '5 "3 "3 "3 '5 '3 s '3 3 '3 j g a aa g a g g g a aa'S (-acicicicaca i«^ :^ :^^j : ^gaaagaggg -bMte .2222ooooooooo (J >-< S • 0) 1-^ »-i f-l »-i »H 9 T-k 7-K rK r-K ,-h r^» ni 7-k a; (D 1^ '^ ""I o) ^ ■" ^ - 'S'c g gi-scjg^^^ 5 aj a3 ^ 00 50 oQ tn >^ ^H ^^ f^ t^ QQQQP P4d -a^ a O t>iS c? 03 c8 ea 58 ^ ,:e . O-a S f^ M fH fH &CbC c a +3 oj 1" ^' n3'T3 2a c c c H *^ -* «* IT? a e3 03 c8 g C-3 t>, l>j" 5£ g - '^ "^ "^ "73 X5 'O "^ ' ' '^~ "^ '-i^ ' 'w 'w :^dd bbbbb^^td b^^ ^^^^^S"^"^"^^ S -odd DQ 00 OQ QQ a c a CI d ^ ^ ^ > > > > '-ji-s'-s^ 1 t-cc 00 < - _>CD^T--1 QOGOCOGOOOOOCOQO -< 52 f-i a 03 03 a a X3 t!^ >i t^ >i t^ t>^. gfH fH ^H fH ^, fH c3 <^ CO ^ o3 * « 3 a a 3 p 3 g a a a c a a >r c3 c3 cC o3 ni ^ 1-1 '-S •-» l-S t-S 1-5 l-S 53 a 53 3 Si 3 a S a § o ^ t>; t>i' >^ >^,.Q ^^ t-i ^ t-i a 03 03 TO 03 a 3 3 3 3 « a a a a « 03 03 03 d^ 05 0) b- 00 rH GOOD 53 53 a c3 o3 a 3 3 0; cog e3 c3 aJ 000OQ000'0000'"/)00O0OS QOQCCOCOOOQOOOOCOOOO gggaaaaagg QQDPQfifiQQQ ^ Vice Elliott, removed from the State. ^ yice Vories, resigned. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 9 The organization of the Horticultural Society was prior to the in- corporation of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, which was by act of the Legislature approved December 1, 1863, though previous to that time there existed the Missouri State Agricultural Society, to which, by an act of November 23, 1855, county societies were required to report. The act of 1863 provided that there should be printed each year 3,000 copies of a volume containing the report of the Board of Agriculture and the proceedings of the Horticultural Society, the volume to be issued under the direction of the presidents of the two bodies. This was afterward changed so as to make the number of copies 6,000, and that section of the act was again amended March 24, 1875, providing that the volume should be issued under the direction of the President of the Board of Agriculture, without joining with him the President of the Horticultural Society, and providing that 14,000 copies should be issued, 2,000 of these being in German, and that the volume should not exceed 500 pages. Provision was afterward made for the State to publish the proceedings of the Horticultural Society in a separate volume, and 3,000 copies of this are now issued. President Mudd, in his annual address in 1865, recommended a library for the Society, to embrace horticultural, pomblogical and agricultural works and periodicals. The recommendation does not seem to have been acted upon, and should the society now wish to do so, it would find much difficulty in getting a set of its own Proceedings, or even that part of the set which has been published since the date of that address. Had each Secretary saved from immediate distribution a hundred copies of the Proceedings of every year, it would now have not only a supply for itself, but the means of completing sets for such libraries as would care for and preserve its publications. Previous to the law of 1863 the proceedings were published by the Society itself, and as the annual dues of its members were but $1.00 before 1866, special contributions had to be made by the mem- bers to provide the funds for publication. In numbering the reports the first meeting was not counted, so that when the Society issued what it called the proceedings of the eighteenth annual meeting for 1877, it had met in annual meetings 19 times. The Proceedings of the meeting in January, 1879, were called the twenty-first, there having been but one meeting between these two. I have not a copy of that report, but presume the explanation was made in it, that there was a change in the numbering so that the volumes would correspond with the years. The Proceedings of the January, 1874, meeting were published in the Agricultural report for 1873, and 10 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. as that report was only a pamphlet of 72 pages, copies soon became destroyed, so that I have never seen but one copy of it, though I have searched for it a long time in different parts of the State. It furnishes another proof of the fact that an unbound book or pamphlet is soon destroyed, while the bound one is not. In my library I have nearly a complete set of the Proceedings of the Society, and wishing to see those I have not got, I wrote the prin- cipal libraries in the State to find which of them had the copies wanted. The replies were as follows : The State Historical Society had none, and did not know that there was such a society which published its pro- ceedings; Mercantile library, St. Louis, has none of those wanted, its set being very deficient, but hopes to be able to fill it up ; Public library, St. Louis, has no reports whatever of the society ; Academy of Science^ St. Louis, has none of those wanted ; Agricultural College of the State University, Columbia, ''the University library does not contain the horti- cultural reports ; " the State library, Jefferson City, has none of those wanted. These replies suggest various thoughts, perhaps the most striking being that the State Historical Society does not know of the existence of this Society, and that the horticultural department of the State Agricultural college has none of the publications of the State Horticultural Society. Is the state of facts shown the result of negli- gence on the part of librarians, or because the publications are not worthy of preservation ? 'Mo one would intimate the latter, and ta par- tially overcome the former, the Secretary might put the different libra- ries in the State on his list to receive copies of the proceedings. The following bibliograpy of the publications of the Society will show the exact title of each report, the time and place of holding the meeting, the number of pages of each volume, and the publication of which the proceedings formed a part, when they were not in separate books in themselves. The number I have given each shows its numer- ical order of publication : Proceedings of the Missouri Fruit Growers' Association, for 1859, and the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting for 1860, to which is ap- pended an Essay on Grape Culture, By George Husmann, of Her- mann, Mo. St. Louis: T.W.Ustick, Printer, 78 Pine Street. 1860. 64 pp. The report of the Meeting at the Fair Grounds in September, 1S59, contained in this, was furnished by the Secretary to the " Valley Farmer," and is in Volume XI, pp. 350-1, Nov., 1859, BIBLIOGRAPHY. H Proceedings of the Missouri State Horticultural Society, at their annual meetings, in 1861 and 1862. 65 to 116 pp. The report of the meeting of January 1861 is also contained in the "Valley- Farmer," Volume XIII, pp. 89-90, 118-9, ir)2-2, and 182-4, March to June, 1861. The report of the meeting of January 1862 is in Volume XIV, pp. 87-9, 117-9, 149-50, 247-8, 310-12, 275-8, 342-5 and 372-5. 3 Proceedings of the Missouri State Horticultural Society, at their Fourth Annual Meeting, held at St. Louis, on Tuesday, 13th January, 1863 and three following days. Saint Louis: Printed at the "Valley Farmer" office. 97 Chestnut street. 1863. 58, (2), pp. 4 Proceedings of the Missouri State Horticultural Society, at their Fifth Annual Meeting, held at St. Louis, on Tuesday, January 12th, 1864,. and three following days. Saint Louis : George Knapp & Co.,. Printers and Binders. 1864. 148 pp. 5 Proceedings of the Missouri State Horticultural Society. [Sixth Meet- ing, Jan. 10, 1865.]