¹ “The Nursery Business,” Prairie Farmer (July 1854): 258.

² For an overview of the cultural circumstances surrounding this unprecedented interest in horticulture, see Lyon-Jenness, Cheryl, For Shade and For Comfort: Democratizing Horticulture in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest (West Lafayette, 2004)Google Scholar. See also “Surroundings Indicate Character,” Prairie Farmer 5 (16 Feb. 1860): 106Google Scholar; and Breck, Joseph, The Flower Garden; or Breck's Book of Flowers (Boston, 1851), 15Google Scholar.

³ See “The Meeting of the State Horticultural Society,” Michigan Farmer 16 (Jan. 1858): 47Google Scholar; and Sanders, Edgar, “Who Buys the Seed?” Prairie Farmer 7 (11 Apr. 1861): 239Google Scholar.

⁴ Cayton, Andrew R. L. and Onuf, Peter S., The Midwest and the Nation: Rethinking the History of an American Region (Bloomington, 1990), 34–35Google Scholar; and Blanke, David, Sowing the American Dream: How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest (Athens, 2000), 7Google Scholar.

⁵ Ravenswaay, Charles Van, A Nineteenth-Century Garden (New York, 1977), 18Google Scholar. Historian and botanist George H. M. Lawrence has also described the second half of the nineteenth century as a period of unprecedented horticultural activity, unrivaled “before or since.” See Lawrence, George H. M., “The Development of American Horticulture,” in America's Garden Legacy, A Taste for Pleasure, ed. Lawrence, George H. M. (Philadelphia, 1978), 93CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also see Lees, Carlton B., “The Golden Age of Horticulture,” Historic Preservation 24/25 (Oct.-Dec. 1972): 35–36Google Scholar; and Tice, Patricia M., Gardening in America, 1830–1910 (Rochester, N.Y., 1984), 71–73Google Scholar.

⁶ See for example, Bushman, Richard L., The Refinement of American Persons, Houses, Cities (New York, 1992)Google Scholar; Bronner, Simon J., Consuming Visions: Accumulation and Display of Goods in America, 1880–1920 (New York, 1989)Google Scholar; Halttunen, Karen, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in American, 1830–1870 (Bloomington, 1982)Google Scholar; and Laird, Pamela Walker, Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing (Baltimore, 1998)Google Scholar. For perspectives on salesmanship and its influence on expanding consumer culture in the mid-nineteenth-century, see Spears, Timothy B., 100 Years on the Road: The Traveling Salesman in American Culture (New Haven, 1995)Google Scholar; Hahn, Steven and Prude, Jonathan, eds., The Countryside in the Age of Capitalist Transformation: Essays in the Social History of Rural America (Chapel Hill, 1985)Google Scholar; Jaffee, David, “Peddlers of Progress and the Transformation of the Rural North, 1760–1860,” Journal of American History 78 (Sept. 1991): 511–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Studies of the influence of the postal service on escalating consumer interest also provide useful context. See John, Richard R., Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse (Cambridge, Mass., 1995)Google Scholar; Fuller, Wayne E., The American Mail: Enlarger of the Common Life (Chicago, 1972)Google Scholar; and Kielbowicz, Richard B., News in the Mail: The Press, Post Office, and Public Information, 1700s–860s (New York, 1989)Google Scholar. Many have also written on the social consequences of advertising. See especially Ewen, Stuart, Captains of Consciousness: Advertising the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture (New York, 1976)Google Scholar; Fox, Stephen, The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators (New York, 1984)Google Scholar; and Garvey, Ellen Gruber, The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s (New York, 1996CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

⁷ For an early study of problems in the horticultural trade, see Hayter, Earl W., “Horticultural Humbuggery Among the Western Farmers, 1850–1890,” Indiana Magazine of History 43 (Sept. 1947)Google Scholar. See also Lyon-Jenness, Cheryl, “A Telling Tirade: What Was the Controversy Surrounding Nineteenth-Century Midwestern Tree Agents Really All About?” Agricultural History, 72 (Fall 1998): 675–707Google Scholar.

⁸ See Lawrence, George H. M., “The Development of American Horticulture,” in America's Garden Legacy: A Taste for Pleasure, ed. Lawrence, George H. M. (Philadelphia, 1978), 9294CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lawrence, Henry W., “The Geography of the United States Nursery Industry: Locational Change and Regional Specialization in the Production of Woody Ornamental Plants” (Ph.D. diss., University of Oregon, 1985), 129–38, 147–48Google Scholar, for accounts of early American nurseries and seed houses and their geographic requirements. Also see Bailey, Liberty Hyde, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, vols. 1–3 (New York, 1937), 1537Google Scholar; and Hedrick, U. P., A History of Horticulture in America to 1860 (New York, 1950), 214, 245Google Scholar.

⁹ Downing, A. J., “Notes on the Progress of Gardening in the United States during the Year 1840,” Gardener's Magazine 16 (1840): 643–44Google Scholar; and “Henry A. Dreer,” Gardener's Monthly 16 (Jan. 1874): 19Google Scholar. See also Hedrick, A History of Horticulture in America, 203–4, 249–51; and Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 1518.

¹⁰ For commentary on the rise of Rochester as a nursery center, see Grosso, Diane Holahan, “From the Genesee to the World,” University of Rochester Library Bulletin 35 (1982): 7–11Google Scholar; and Garden of the Genesee (Rochester, N.Y., 1940), 11Google Scholar. Also see McKelvey, Blake, “The Flower City: Center of Nurseries and Fruit Orchards,” in The Rochester Historical Society Publication, vol. 18 (Rochester, N.Y., 1923), 127Google Scholar; McKelvey, Blake, Rochester: The Flower City 1855–1890 (Cambridge, Mass., 1949)Google Scholar; and Parks, Dan, “The Cultivation of Flower City,” Rochester History 45, no. 3–4 (1983): 25–45Google Scholar. For a detailed portrayal of the Mount Hope Nursery, see History of Monroe County, New York (Philadelphia, 1877), 113Google Scholar.

¹¹ For a good discussion of the rise of Rochester seedsmen, see Parks, “The Cultivation of Flower City,” 25–45; Kabelac, Karl Sanford, “Advice for Gardeners: Vick's Monthly Magazine (The First Series, 1878–1891),” University of Rochester Library Bulletin 39 (1986): 24–35Google Scholar; and History of Monroe County, New York (Philadelphia, 1877), 113–14Google Scholar.

¹² For a study of Kennicott and his accomplishments, see Ernst, Erik A., “John A Kennicott of The Grove: Physician, Horticulturist, and Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Illinois,” Illinois State Historical Society Journal 74 (Summer 1981): 109–18Google Scholar; Bragdon, Charles D., “A Biographical Sketch of the Life of Dr. John A. Kennicott,” Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society for 1863 (Alton, 1864), 38–42Google Scholar; and Bardolph, Richard, Agricultural Literature and the Early Illinois Farmer (Urbana, 1948)Google Scholar, esp. chs. 2 and 3. See also Watson, Daryl G., “Shade and Ornamental Trees in the Nineteenth-Century Northeastern United States,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 1978), 209–11Google Scholar.

¹³ For numbers of Illinois nurseries and their location, see “Nurserymen, Florists, Seedsmen, and Dealers in Horticultural Stock,” American Horticultural Annual 1871, 147. Also see Phoenix, F. K., “Some Observations on the Climate and Soil, and the State of Horticulture in Wisconsin Territory,” Magazine of Horticulture 11 (Feb. 1845): 56–58Google Scholar; and “Trees, Plants, Seeds” [advertisement], American Agriculturist 31 (March 1872): 115Google Scholar.

¹⁴ For an overview of the number of Ohio nurserymen, see “Nurserymen, Florists, Seedsmen, and Dealers in Horticultural Stock,” American Horticultural Annual 1871, 146. Also see Hedrick, A History of Horticulture in America, 311.

¹⁵ See, for example, B. W. Steere's description of his early years as a nurseryman in Adrian Michigan, in Lyon, T. T., History of Michigan Horticulture: Being a Part of the Seventeenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Horticultural Society of Michigan (Lansing, 1887), 220–21Google Scholar.

¹⁶ See “Occupations of the Male Inhabitants,” U. S. Census of Population 1850, 1850.1–1850.3, microfilm copy, roll 1, lxxi; Kennedy, Joseph C. G., compiler, “Occupations in the United States,” in Population of the United States in 1860: Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census (Washington, D.C., 1864), 662, 664, 674Google Scholar; Walker, Francis A., compiler, “Persons Engaged in Each Occupation,” The Statistics of the Population of the United States from the Original Returns of the Ninth Census, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C., 1872), 674Google Scholar; Compendium of the Tenth Census 1880, part 2 (Washington, D.C., 1885)Google Scholar, microfilm copy, roll 3, 1382–83.

¹⁷ See “A Talk about ‘Horticulture’,” American Agriculturist 19 (Oct. 1860): 305Google Scholar; and “American Taste in Gardening,” Moore's Rural New Yorker 14 (6 June 1863): 183Google Scholar.

¹⁸ “Western New York Nursery Business,” Horticulturist 22 (Nov. 1867): 350Google Scholar.

¹⁹ For mid-nineteenth-century commentary on the growth of Vick's, see “An Immense Seed Establishment,” Horticulturist 22 (Oct. 1867): 320Google Scholar.

²⁰ See, for example, Kennicott, J., “The Late Pomological Convention at Buffalo,” Prairie Farmer 9 (Jan. 1849): 24–25Google Scholar. For brief biographies of prominent horticultural advocates, see Bailey, Liberty Hyde, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (New York, 1937), 1563–1604Google Scholar.

²¹ See R. O. Thompson, Nebraska City, Nebraska Territory, to John A. Kennicott, The Grove, Illinois (24 July 1860), Kennicott Business Papers no. 889; and Andrew L. Siler, Fountain Green, Utah Territory, to John A. Kennicott, The Grove, Illinois (22 Mar. 1862), Kennicott Business Papers no. 1183. Original copies of all Kennicott correspondence are housed at the Grove National Historic Landmark in Glenview, Illinois. A portion of the Kennicott Business Papers are also available on microfilm from the Illinois State Historical Society in Springfield. Hereafter, Kennicott's name and location will be abbreviated JAK, and the Kennicott Business Papers will be abbreviated KBP.

²² For commentary on economic problems in the Midwest, see Huston, James L., The Panic of 1857 and the Coming of the Civil War (Baton Rouge, 1987)Google Scholar; Gates, Paul W., Agriculture and the Civil War (New York, 1965), 5–6, and 224–25Google Scholar; and Cayton and Onuf, The Midwest and the Nation, esp. ch. 5.

²³ For an evaluation of popular plants and garden designs in the mid-nineteenth century, see Cheryl Lyon-Jenness, For Shade and For Comfort, 53–86.

²⁴ For Lay's own account of the early years of his nursery, see Holmes, J. C., “The Early History of Horticulture in Michigan,” Collection and Researches Made by the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan, 2nd ed., vol. 10 (Lansing, 1908), 73Google Scholar.

²⁵ Charles Hamilton, Ridgefield, to JAK (10 Dec. 1861), KBP 1078.

²⁶ For a typical comment on this problem, see Kennicott, John, “Valuable Notes on Fruit Culture in Northern Illinois,” Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, vol. 3, 1857–58 (Springfield, 1859): 60Google Scholar.

²⁷ For a typical description of the problem, see O. B. Galusha, Lisbon, Illinois, to JAK (30 Apr. 1860), KBP 846.

²⁸ For an early history of the express industry see, Weir, Levi C., “The Express,” in One Hundred Years of American Commerce 1795–1895, vol. 1, ed. DePew, Chauncey M. (New York, 1895), 137–40Google Scholar; and Ball, Franklin W., “Just Express It,” Railroad Magazine 47 (Oct. 1948): 94–103Google Scholar.

²⁹ See United States Domestic Postage Rates, 1789–1956 (Washington, D.C., 1956), 33, 58–59Google Scholar; and Scheele, Carl H., A Short History of the Mail Service (Washington, D.C., 1970), 91Google Scholar.

³⁰ For an example of complaints about packing charges, see “Packing Charges by Nurserymen,” Gardener's Monthly 16 (Sept. 1874): 277Google Scholar.

³¹ H. A. Terry, Crescent City, Iowa, to JAK (1 Oct. 1861), KBP 103; (31 Oct. 1861), KBP 1050; and (20 Mar. 1862), KBP 1171.

³² “Mice in the Post Office,” Gardener's Monthly 9, no. 3 (Mar. 1867): 85; and Babcock and Brothers, Summerfield, 111., to JAK (11 Apr. 1861), KBP 975.

³³ See, for example, United States Express Company Bill, (10 Oct. 1856), KBP 116.

³⁴ “Shipping Trees,” Prairie Farmer 45 (13 June 1874): 186Google Scholar.

³⁵ See for example, “Detroit Nursery” [advertisement], Michigan Farmer 10 (Apr. 1852): 126Google Scholar.

³⁶ “Lovers of Flowers, Attention!” [advertisement], American Agriculturist 23 (Mar. 1864): 90Google Scholar.

³⁷ See American Agriculturist 17 (Mar. 1858): 92–94Google Scholar; and American Agriculturist 23 (Mar. 1874): 109–20Google Scholar. A number of historians have documented the history of advertising and have emphasized its increasing importance in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, but almost without exception they have ignored the early advertising efforts of the horticultural industry and its effect on the establishment of a national market for horticultural goods. See, for example, Pope, Daniel, The Making of Modern Advertising (New York, 1983)Google Scholar; Goodrum, Charles A. and Dalrymple, Helen, Advertising in America: The First 200 Years (New York, 1990)Google Scholar; Jay, Robert, The Trade Card in Nineteenth-Century America (Columbia, 1987)Google Scholar; Norris, James D., Advertising and the Transformation of American Society, 1865–1920 (New York, 1990)Google Scholar; and Presbrey, Frank, The History and Development of Advertising (New York, 1929Google Scholar; reprint, 1968).

³⁸ See Dexter Leader, 15 Apr. 1869, 21 Feb. 1873, and 19 Mar. 1875. Circulation figures are drawn from “Table VI–Periodicals,” Statistics of the State of Michigan Collected for the Ninth Census of the United States, June 1, 1870 (Lansing, 1873), 670–76Google Scholar.

³⁹ For an early example of a catalog using the list form, see Catalogue of Fruit and Ornamental Trees and Plants, Bulbous Flower Roots, Greenhouse Plants Etc., Cultivated at the Linnaean Botanic Garden, William Prince, Proprietor, 22nd ed. (New York, 1823)Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ For an example of Vick's presentation and comments on the quarterly publication, see Vick's Floral Guide for 1875 (Rochester, N.Y., 1875), esp. 128Google Scholar, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.

⁴¹ See Washburn and Co.'s Amateur Cultivator's Guide to the Flower and Kitchen Garden (1868), 11; and Vick's Illustrated Floral Guide for 1871 (Rochester, N.Y., 1871), 1Google Scholar, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.

⁴² Vick's Illustrated Catalogue and Floral Guide for the Spring of 1865, i–iv; Catalogue of New and Rare Green House Plants, Evergreen Shrubs, Bedding Plants, Dahlias, Verbenas, Roses, Petunias, Fuchsias, Chrysanthemums, Phlox, Geraniums, Bulbs, Etc., Grown and For Sale by Hubbard and Davis (Detroit, 1871), 8–9Google Scholar, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Mich.; and Dreer's Garden Calendar for 1868 (Philadelphia, 1868)Google Scholar, National Agricultural Library, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Md.

⁴³ See, for example, A Descriptive Catalogue of a Choice Collection of Flower, Vegetable and Agricultural Seeds Cultivated and For Sale by Benjamin K. Bliss (Springfield, Mass., 1860), 46Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ See Washburn and Co.'s Amateur Cultivator's Guide to the Flower and Kitchen Garden (1868), 42–43.

⁴⁵ Bliss, B. K., [advertisement], American Agriculturist 24 (Mar. 1865): 93Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Sinclair, Robert, “Cook's Favorite, Tilden and the Monumental Tomato Compared— Humbugs—Latakia (Turkish) Tobacco—Trellises,” Gardener's Monthly 8 (Nov. 1866): 322Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ “Fraud in Seed,” Horticulturist 17 (Nov. 1862): 500Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ “Abridged Descriptive Catalog of Fruit Trees, Ornamental Trees, Shrubs and Greenhouse Plants Cultivated and For Sale by Hubbard and Davis,” Michigan Farmer 2 (10 Mar. 1860): 76–77Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Cook, Daniel, “Wm. Prince & Co., and their Nursery,” Michigan Farmer 4 (Feb. 1847): 172–73Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ “A Word to the Trade,” Horticulturist, 16 (Jan. 1861): 9Google Scholar.

⁵¹ See, for example, G. G. Burdick, Chicago, Illinois, to JAK (31 Aug. 1863), KBP 1716. Mr. Burdick wrote to inquire about a job with Mr. Kennicott and pointed out that he had been paid $40 per month plus expenses for his labor with a Rochester nursery.

⁵² See William J. Green, Green Bay, Wisconsin, to JAK, (15 July 1862), KBP 1420; (10 Apr. 1862), KBP 1240; (8 Mar. 1862), KBP 1141; and (27 Aug. 1856), KBP 104.

⁵³ For examples of problems with nursery agents, see W. B. Atkinson, Hamilton, III., to JAK (7 Sept. 1857), KBP 245; and (27 Dec. 1857), KBP 289; and John Bovee, Kankakee, III., to Charles Kennicott (12 Nov. 1856), KBP 127.

⁵⁴ See Grosso, Diane, “From Genesee to the World,” 7, 9–11Google Scholar; “American Horticulture,” Gardener's Monthly 5 (June 1863): 175Google Scholar; and “Nurserymen's Association,” Prairie Farmer 3 (19 May 1859): 311Google Scholar. For information on eighteenth-century plant peddlers, see Sandy, Barbara W., “Nurserymen and Seed Dealers in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake,” Journal of Garden History 9, no. 3 (1989): 111–17Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ For a general background on types of peddlers and their techniques, see Jaffee, David, “Peddlers of Progress and the Transformation of the Rural North, 1760–1860,” Journal of American History 78 (Sept. 1991): 511–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Several marketing historians have pointed out that shifts in marketing strategy, such as the introduction of nursery agents, are likely to occur when items are new, need special handling, or require individual contact with customers to convince them to buy. See Porter, Glenn and Livesay, Harold C., Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth-Century Marketing (Baltimore, 1971), 4Google Scholar; and Jones, Fred Mitchell, Middlemen in the Domestic Trade of the United States, 1800–1860 (Urbana, 1937), 61Google Scholar. Other historians have argued that the commercial drummer or traveling salesman replaced the peddler as an important marketing tool in the last decades of the nineteenth century. See Carson, Gerald, “The Indomitable Peddler,” in Readings in the History of American Marketing: Settlement to Civil War, compiled by Shapiro, Stanley J. and Doody, Alton F. (Homewood, III., 1986), 328Google Scholar; Spears, 100 Years on the Road, xi, 25–26; Hollander, Stanley C., “Nineteenth Century Anti-Drummer Legislation in the United States,” Business History Review 38 (Winter 1964): 480–81Google Scholar; and Harrington, Bates, How 'Tis Done: A Thorough Ventilation on the Numerous Schemes Conducted by Wandering Canvassers together with the Various Advertising Dodges for the Swindling of the Public (Chicago, 1879)Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ “Beware of Traveling Tree Peddlers,” American Agriculturist 22 (May 1863): 186Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ “Dealers in Fruit Trees” [advertisement], Michigan Farmer 2 (7 Apr. 1860): 109Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ “1859–1860 Wholesale Catalogue of Fruit Trees etc. Cultivated and For Sale at the Columbus Nursery for the Fall of 1859 and the Spring of 1860” (Columbus, 1859), KBP 658Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Dewey, D. M., The Tree Agents' Private Guide: A Manual for the Successful Work in Canvassing for the Sale of Nursery Stock (Rochester, N.Y., 1875), 12Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Kabelac, Karl S., “Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates,” Library Bulletin (University of Rochester), 35 (1982): 99Google Scholar, 93–94. For additional information on fruit and flower plates, see Van Ravenswaay, Charles, Drawn from Nature: The Botanical Art of Joseph Prestele and His Sons (Washington, D. C., 1984)Google Scholar; Van Ravenswaay, Charles, A Nineteenth-Century Garden (New York, 1977)Google Scholar; Van Ravenswaay, Charles, “Drawn and Colored from Nature. Painted Nurserymen's Plates,” Magazine Antiques 123 (Jan.–Mar. 1983): 594–99Google Scholar; and Drepperd, Carl W., “The Tree, Fruit and Flower Prints of D. M. Dewey, Rochester, New York from 1844,” Spinning Wheel 12 (May 1956): 12–15, 46Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Kabelac, “Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates,” 94; and “Colored Plates of Fruits and Flowers” [advertisement], Moore's Rural New Yorker 21 (22 Jan. 1870): 63Google Scholar; “Colored Plates” [advertisement], Michigan Farmer 6 (9 Aug. 1860): 92Google Scholar.

⁶² Dewey, The Tree Agents'Private Guide, 7–29

⁶³ “The Tree Agents Private Guide,” Gardener's Monthly 17 (Sept. 1875): 283Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Harrington, How 'Tis Done, 246, 248; and “September Meeting,” Tenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Pomological Society of Michigan, 1880 (Lansing, 1881), 296Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ See, for example, J. A. Kimberly, Neenah, Wisc, to JAK (6 May 1862), KBP 1353.

⁶⁶ DeGraff Nelson and Company, Fort Wayne, Ind., to JAK (3 Mar. 1862), KBP 1132; Levi Thumb, Irving, III., to JAK (26 Feb. 1860), KBP 754.

⁶⁷ See “Dishonest Tree Agents,” Horticulturist 26 (Mar. 1871): 45Google Scholar; and “Tree and Plant Swindlers,” American Agriculturist 32 (Apr. 1873): 143Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ “Imposition,” Horticulturist 10 (Mar. 1855): 142Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 1559, 1587–88; Hedrick, A History of Horticulture in America, 490, 496.

⁷⁰ See, Holmes, J. C., “Valedictory,” Michigan Farmer 7 (1 Nov. 1849): 326Google Scholar; Noble, S. B., “To Our Horticultural Readers,” Michigan Farmer 11 (Jan. 1853): 24Google Scholar; Holmes, J. C., “Salutatory,” Michigan Farmer 13 (Jan. 1855): 12Google Scholar; and “Our Horticultural Department,” Michigan Farmer 14 (Jan. 1856): 23Google Scholar.

⁷¹ John A. Kennicott, “Deprecatory,” Prairie Farmer (Nov. 1853): 417.

⁷² See “Taking Up and Packing Trees and Plants,” American Agriculturist 17 (Apr. 1858): 117Google Scholar; and “How to Send Plants by Post,” Michigan Farmer 11(1853): 318Google Scholar.

⁷³ For information on the formation of other midwestern organizations, see Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 1553–55; and “State Agricultural Associations,” Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, vol. 1, 1853–1854 (Springfield, 1855), 10–23Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ For a general account of the history of the Detroit Horticultural Society, see Holmes, “The Early History of Horticulture in Michigan,” 75–79. The Society's preamble and constitution were reprinted, along with a description of the founding by Holmes, J. C., in “May Meeting,” Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Pomological Society of Michigan, 1872 (Lansing, 1873), 96–103Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ For information on other Illinois horticultural activists, see Ernst, Erik A., “John A. Kennicott of The Grove, Physician, Horticulturist, and Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Illinois,” Illinois State Historical Society Journal, vol. 74 (1981): 109–18Google Scholar; Bardolph, Richard, Agricultural Literature and the Early Illinois Farmer (Urbana, 1948), esp. ch. 2,49–89Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ See, for example, Bateham, M. B., “Floriculture for the Million,” Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Pomological Society of Michigan, 1872 (Lansing, 1873), 416Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ Kennicott, J., “The Late Pomological Convention at Buffalo,” Prairie Farmer 9 (Jan. 1849): 24–25Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ For an account of the Association, see Holmes, “The Early History of Horticulture in Michigan,” 79–83; and “Constitution of the Michigan Nurserymen's and Fruit Growers' Association,” J. C. Holmes Papers, 1849–1854, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Michigan. See also “To Nurserymen and Fruit Growers,” Michigan Farmer 13 (Jan. 1855): 13Google Scholar; and Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 1553.

⁷⁹ “Nurserymen's Association,” Prairie Farmer 3 (19 May 1859): 311Google Scholar; “The Nursery Trade,” Prairie Farmer 14 (26 Nov. 1864): 340Google Scholar; and “Methods of Selling Nursery Stock,” Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Pomological Society of Michigan, 1879 (Lansing, 1880), 306–7Google Scholar. For historical background on the development and importance of trade associations, see Galambos, Louis, “The American Trade Association Movement Revisited,” in Trade Associations in Business History, eds. Yamazaki, Hiroaki and Miyamoto, Matao (Toyko, 1988), 121–35Google Scholar; Bradley, Joseph F., The Role of Trade Associations and Professional Business Societies in America (University Park, Md., 1965)Google Scholar; and Froth, Joseph Henry, Trade Associations, Their Services to Industry (New York, 1930)Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ William R. Prince, Flushing, N.Y., to JAK (10 Jan. 1862), KBP 1098.

⁸¹ J. B. Turner, Jacksonville, III., to JAK (23 Feb. 1858), KBP 321.

⁸² “Mr. Editor,” Horticulturist 17 (Nov. 1862): 528Google Scholar.

⁸³ “Bad for Tree Pedlers,” American Agriculturist 26 (Feb. 1867): 50Google Scholar. See also “The Adrian Horticultural Society,” Horticulturist 10 (Mar. 1855): 151–52Google Scholar. A number of historians have commented on this process of defining itinerant salesmen as disreputable. See, for example, Spears, 100 Years on the Road, 55.

⁸⁴ “Mr. Editor,” Horticulturist 17 (Nov. 1862): 528Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ T. T. Lyon, South Haven, Mich., to Webster Cook, Saline, Mich., 13 July 1874, T. T. Lyon Letterbook, vol. 1, collection 345, Historical Collection and Archives, Michigan State University, East Lansing.

⁸⁶ See, for example, J. B. Hunt, Tuscola, III., to JAK (22 Dec. 1862), KBP 1506; George H. Work, Carlinville, III., to JAK (7 May 1862), KBP 1357; and B. C. Church, Odell, III., to JAK (3 July 1863), KBP 1695.

⁸⁷ For examples of industry practice, see “Abridged Catalogue of Select Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Cultivated and Sold by Ellwanger and Barry,” Rochester, N.Y., 1860Google Scholar, Ellwanger and Barry Company Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.; and Truett's Sons and Morgan, “Nursery Agents and Tree Peddlers,” American Agriculturist 34 (Oct. 1875): 383Google Scholar; “Methods of Selling Nursery Stock,” Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Pomological Society of Michigan, 1879 (Lansing, 1880), 307Google Scholar.

⁸⁸ “Advertisements,” Michigan Farmer 4 (June 1846): 56Google Scholar; and “Our Nursery Advertisements,” Michigan Farmer 11 (Mar. 1853): 81Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ See, for example, “Horticultural Notes,” Michigan Farmer 16 (Mar. 1858): 80Google Scholar; and “The Toledo Nurseries,” Michigan Farmer 15 (Mar. 1857): 89Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ John L. Wilson, Chicago, III., to JAK (27 March 1862), KBP, 1193.

⁹¹ “Nurseryman's Reputation,” Horticulturist 10 (June 1853): 293Google Scholar.

⁹² See for example, Chicago, “Nurserymen's Protective Associations,” Gardener's Monthly 17 (Apr. 1875): 126Google Scholar; and Galusha, O. B., “Nurseries of Illinois,” Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, vol. 3, 1857–1858 (Springfield, 1859), 372–77Google Scholar. See also “Horticultural Register 1867, of Nurserymen, Fruit-Growers, Agents, Dealers and Publishers,” Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society for 1866 (Chicago, 1867), 109Google Scholar 22; “List of the Principal Nurserymen, Florists, and Seedsmen,” American Horticultural Annual 1867 (New York, 1867), 147Google Scholar; and “Nurserymen, Florists, Seedsmen, and Dealers in Horticultural Stock,” American Horticultural Annual 1871 (New York, 1871), 140–52Google Scholar.

⁹³ “Protection Against Horticultural Swindlers,” Gardener's Monthly 11 (June 1869): 182Google Scholar; “Swindle,” Prairie Farmer 44 (1 Feb. 1873): 34Google Scholar; and “Convention of American Association of Nurserymen,” Moore's Rural New Yorker 39 (3 July 1880): 442Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ J.A.K., , “To Purchasers of Fruit Trees,” Prairie Farmer 13 (Jan. 1853): 5Google Scholar; and Holmes, J. C., “Itinerant Fruit Tree Peddlers,” Michigan Farmer 13 (Aug. 1855): 245Google Scholar.

⁹⁵ Kennicott, John, “Orchards in Illinois,” Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, vol. 4, 1859–1860 (Springfield, 1861), 329Google Scholar; and “October, 1879,” Vick's Illustrated Monthly Magazine 2 (Oct. 1879): 289Google Scholar.

⁹⁶ Adams, H. Dale, “Fruit Culture on the Farm,” Sixteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture of the State of Michigan, 1877 (Lansing, 1878.), 321Google Scholar; “Hints to the Purchasers of Trees, Seeds, &c,” Horticulturist 10 (1 July 1855): 250Google Scholar; and “Roses, Roses, Roses” [Loud and Trask advertisement], Adrian Times and Expositor (26 Mar. 1870).

⁹⁷ “October, 1879,” Vick's Illustrated Monthly Magazine 2 (Oct. 1879): 289Google Scholar; and “The Blue-Rose Fraud,” Vick's Illustrated Monthly Magazine 2 (June 1879): 184Google Scholar.

⁹⁸ See Van Ravenswaay, Charles, A Nineteenth-Century Garden (New York, 1977), 18Google Scholar. By the early twentieth century, Ellwanger and Barry advertised that they hired no agents, but sold plants only through their catalogs. See Ellwanger, and Barry, Advertisement, House Beautiful 23 (Apr. 1908): 44Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ See Downs, Buck, ed., Directory of National Trade and Professional Associations of the United States (Washington, D.C., 2002), 108Google Scholar. Today, the association is known as the American Nursery and Landscape Association.

¹⁰⁰ Montgomery Ward began catalog sales in 1872, and Sears offered serious competition in the 1890s. See Danbom, David B., Born in the County: A History of Rural American (Baltimore, 1995), 149Google Scholar.