Heirloom Garden Writings

I just read a fascinating article in the Seed Savers 2000 Harvest Edition, which was a transcript of a speech given at the Seed Savers Exchange Annual Campout, by Keith Crotz of The American Botanist Booksellers .  He outlines the history of garden writing in America and shows how gardeners have always had a bigger appetite for knowledge than the market could satisfy.

Here are some highlights from the article that heirloom hunters might find interesting.
 

It wasn't until the 1720's that the Colonies had even developed a seed industry.  Until then, seed was sent from home (England) by mail.  The first truly American garden book was published in 1793.  It was written by John Randolph, who eventually returned to England because of the Revolutionary War.  His son, Edmond Randolph, became Secretary of State under Jefferson and had his father's book published.  The book was lost - no known copies - until 1997!  Hollis College in Central Virginia found a copy of the small but informative book and Colonial Williamsburg has reprinted it.  Now the "Treatise on Gardening" is a little piece of American History, the first garden book written for America growers, available for $12.00.

The next effort came from an Irishman, Bernard M'Mahon.  "The American Gardener's Calendar" was 667 pages of information that went through 11 editions, from 1806-1857.  Yes, this book stayed in print for over 50 years.  Mr. M'Mahon had an exceptional nursery and some of his seed catalogs from the early 1800's still exist and the descriptions are used to help identify surviving heirlooms.

Mr. Crotz reminds us of the irony that while the U.S. was expanding westward, it was very hard to get something to eat in California when farming was centered east of St. Louis and now it's almost always the other way around.  So gardening and the propagation of plants and seeds played an important part in the history of U.S. expansion.

Fearing Burr came out with the 1st edition of his "Field and Garden Vegetables of America" in 1862.  This 1st edition describes some 800 vegetable varieties.  Evidently the Civil War didn't disturb garden writers too much.  Burr came out with an expanded edition three years later, detailing 1,100 varieties.  Peter Henderson published "Gardening for Profit" in 1867, for those truck farmers living just outside of town.  I would have assumed full scale farmers still supplied all the produce families didn't grow themselves.  Even more surprising to me was the book titled "How to Lay Out Suburban Home Grounds of Small Extent". 

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