Charles Downing (pomologist)

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Charles Downing

Charles Downing (born July 9, 1802 in Newburgh ; † January 18, 1885 ibid) was an American gardener, pomologist and author. He was the brother of the American landscaper Andrew Jackson Downing .

Life

Charles Downing was born in Newburgh (New York) in 1802 as the eldest son of the wheelwright Samuel Downing (* 1757 or 1761, † November 1, 1822 and his wife Becky, née Crandall). The couple had three other children:

  • Emily (* 1801)
  • George Washington (* 1804, † 1846)
  • Andrew Jackson Downing (born October 30, 1815 in Newburgh, New York, † July 28, 1852 on the Hudson River), landscaper and writer

His parents had moved from Lexington , Massachusetts to Newburgh shortly before the birth of their first child , where the father first opened a cartwright shop. However, he gave up on this to start a nursery that became the first successful tree nursery in the area.

Charles Downing became interested in horticulture at an early age and still works in his father's tree nursery while he is still at school. After his father's death in 1822, he took over the company.

In 1830 he married Mary Wait († 1880) from Montgomery near New York.

His younger brother Andrew joined the company as a partner in 1835, which from then on operated under the name C. & AJ Downing . The brothers ran the nursery together until Charles sold his stake in 1839 to open his own nursery.

He sold these around 1850 in order to be able to devote himself entirely to fruit growing and pomology. He endeavored to put fruit growing on a scientific basis and carried out experiments with types of fruit. He maintained a test orchard in which he cultivated 1,800 different apple varieties, 1,000 pear varieties and numerous other types of fruit.

He published numerous articles on fruit growing in recognized journals and helped his brother compile the book The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1845). After his brother died suddenly in an accident in 1852, Charles Downing revised and expanded this book several times until it was twice the size of the first edition.

In 1883, Charles Downing was hit by a carriage in New York and suffered injuries from which he did not fully recover. He died two years later. He bequeathed his extensive library and manuscripts on fruit-growing topics to Professor Joseph Lancaster Budd , director of the horticultural department at Iowa Agricultural College , on condition that they in turn be bequeathed to the library of Iowa State College. They have been kept there since 1930. Downing's manuscripts contain numerous records of various types of pear, plum and cherry. His descriptions and drawings of apple varieties were used for the fruit growing chapter in the 1903 American Horticultural Manual . Charles Downing is the breeder of the Champagne cherry variety, which originated around 1850.

Honors

HA Terry named the plum variety Downing he bred in honor of Charles Downing.

Publications

  • Andrew Jackson Downing: The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. Edition revised and corrected by Charles Downing, John Wiley 1860.
  • Andrew Jackson Downing: The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. Revised and corrected edition, with extensive additions and descriptions of numerous new varieties by Charles Downing, John Wiley 1890.
  • Charles Downing: Selected fruits from Downing's Fruits and fruit-trees of America. With some new varieties: including their culture, propagation and management in the garden and orchard. Illustrated with upwards of four hundred outlines of apples, cherries, grapes, plums, pears. John Wiley & Son, New York 1871.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry on Andrew Jackson and Charles Downing on ancestry.com
  2. ^ A b U. P. Hedrick: The Cherries of New York - Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1914. JP Lyon. Albany 1915, pp. 234f.
  3. ^ UP Hedrick: The Cherries of New York - Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1914. JP Lyon. Albany 1915, p. 235.
  4. ^ Entry on Charles Downing's manuscripts on the homepage of the Special Collections Department at Iowa State University.
  5. ^ Notes on Cherries. In: AJ Downing (Ed.): The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste. Albany 1850, Volume 5, p. 76.
  6. ↑ Downing. In: U. Hedrick: Cyclopedia of Hardy Fruits. Macmillan Company 1922, p. 197.
personal data
SURNAME Downing, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pomologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1802
PLACE OF BIRTH Newburgh
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1885
Place of death Newburgh