James Booth (landscaper)

James Booth (born February 16, 1770 in Larbert , † December 25, 1814 in Klein Flottbek ) was a Scottish landscape gardener and tree nursery owner .

Life

James Booth was the son of a distinguished old Scottish family. His father of the same name owned a tree nursery in Falkirk . The Hamburg merchant, social reformer and farmer Caspar Voght met the then 25-year-old gardener James Booth on an extensive England-Scotland trip (1793–1795).

Raising young plants in tree nurseries was almost unknown in Germany at the time. While in this country trunks were transplanted between the ages of 10 and 15, young plants were grown on a large scale in Scotland and offered for sale as 4- to 5-year-old plants. They were not only cheaper, but also grew better after implementation. The investment in a tree nursery therefore promised to be lucrative not only because of the increasing demand for construction timber, but also because of the possibility of reforesting large heather areas in the north-west of Altona. Impressed by the plantings in Scotland, Voght convinced Booth to settle on the Elbe and take over the operation of a tree nursery.

Booth tree nursery in Flottbek around 1855, lithograph by Wilhelm Heuer

With his wife Mary Elisabeth Richmond (1776–1826), James Booth moved to Klein-Flottbek west of Altona in 1795 , where Voght had already laid out 4 hectares of land for the operation of a tree nursery. The small company was operated from 1797 under the name "Flottbeker Baumschule". Booth received an annual salary of "1500 to 2000 marks". In 1802 the sale of shrubs and trees started and in 1804 the trade in seeds, etc. a. Grass seeds.

With financial support from Caspar Voght, Lucas Andreas Staudinger built an agricultural teaching and educational institution on his lease in 1797. Here James Booth contributed his knowledge of fruit and vegetable cultivation, Staudinger gave lectures on agriculture, the pharmacist Johann Gottfried Schmeisser in chemistry, taking into account the peculiarities of agriculture, a Mr. Wolters in physics and the doctor Johann Gottlieb Wolstein , who had been expelled from Vienna Lectures about pets, as well as breeding and diseases. The apprenticeship period was set for three years.

James Booth & Sons

Voght had withdrawn from the jointly operated "Flottbeker Tree Nursery" in 1812 because of the lack of business success as a result of the siege and occupation of Hamburg. The tree nursery was continued under the name "James Booth & Sons". The addition "& Sons" was used because he intended to involve his sons as partners. In November 1813, Marshal Davout , commanding the French troops in Hamburg, had driven 30,000 destitute citizens towards Altona due to the poor supply situation in the city, thereby exacerbating the difficult situation again. Caspar Voght's agriculture had been destroyed. However, the prospects for the company were as promising as others.

James Booth died in Klein-Flottbek in 1814 at the age of 39. His grave is in the Nienstedten cemetery .

The tree nursery James Booth & Sons was initially probably continued by an experienced gardener and the only twenty-year-old son James Godfrey , since the sons John Richmond and George were younger and still without training. From 1828 until his death, John Richmond was the sole owner.

Not a landscape architect

In publications on Jenischpark and Caspar Voght one can read repeatedly that James Booth contributed to the planning and design of the landscape park and model property. So far, no evidence has been found for this. But there was someone who was supposed to take on these tasks. Together with Booth, a “Scottish farmer” came to Klein-Flottbek as manager of the farm. Since Voght was not satisfied with his work and dealing with the farm workers, he dismissed him after a few years and referred him to the Russian Count Romanzow , for whom he worked in St. Petersburg. James Booth probably planted 400,000 trees in the period in question.

Honors

In 1930 the Boothsweg in Osdorf was named after James Booth.

literature

Sylvia Butenschön (editor): Early tree nurseries in Germany . University Press of the Berlin Technical University 2012, ISBN 978-3-7983-2414-5 , pp. 153ff.
Anja Herwartz: You live on in a rose. Queen of Denmark. In RB 1/97. Pages 32–35.
Maria Möhring: The Hamburg Booth family and their importance . Dissertation, Hamburg 1950.
Appendix to the above article by Landmann in Flottbek , in: JG Büsch's , Weiland Professors in Hamburg, mixed writings never before collected , First Part, Satorius Erben, Mainz 1801, p. 233 ff. (Caspar Voght (= Landmann in Flottbek) comments in this essay in detail on his knowledge gained on a trip through Scotland and England and the establishment of a tree nursery.)
Heinrich Christian Philipp Kiesewetter: Practical economic remarks on a trip through Hollstein, Schlesswig, Dithmarsen and part of the Bremen and Hanoverian country on the Elbe , GA Grau, Hof 1807, pp. 40-43, ( digitized , on the beginnings of the nursery) and a directory of domestic and foreign forest trees and shrub species , which can be obtained from James Booth in the Flotbeck nursery ..., p. 225 ff., ( digital copy ).

Web links

Wikisource: Communications of the German Dendrological Society - Sources and full texts

Wikisource: Isis - sources and full texts

Wikisource: Johann Georg Büsch - Sources and full texts

The James Booth Nursery. In: Route 4: Pinneberg From tree nursery barons and plant hunters. Jenischpark, Hamburg-Altona. Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Agriculture, Horticulture Department, accessed on October 1, 2018 .

References and comments

↑ Falkirk Archives (Archon Code: GB558) Russel & Aitken Papers (55) Papers of Peter Booth, Reference Code: A1855 Digitized * PDF . Deviating from this in 1771 in the death register or in 1772 as a grave inscription and in Carl Ansorge: About the introduction of foreign trees and the involvement of the Booth family . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Dendrologische Gesellschaft , No. 29, 1920, p. 272
↑ Gottlieb Rammelt, art gardener with David Samuel von Madai in Benckendorf , reported as one of the first in 1768 about tree nurseries in England, resp. their approach and praised the advantages in his publication "Mixed economic treatises for the benefit of agriculture and gardening" ( On the benefit of wild nurseries , p. 93). However, he doubts that this type of tree rearing would be quickly realized in Germany.
↑ Visit to Caspar Voght in Flottbek , in: Kurt Detlev Möller: Hamburg in the mirror of the diaries of the Holstein Chamberlain August v. Hennings 1796, 1798, 1801 . In: ZHG , Volume 42.1953, p. 42
↑ The demand was generally high. It depended on their use. Hardwood was used in shipbuilding (in Hamburg), but it grew slowly. In private households wood was burned, which was fast growing softwood .
↑ "Without a sizeable tree nursery, all planting on a large scale cannot become much, because the plants are not supplied cheaply enough". ( Appendix to the above article by the farmer in Flottbek , p. 241) "It is now also ... known that nobody plants large trees that are very expensive." ( Appendix to the above article by the farmer in Flottbek , p. 236 )
↑ "This year I set up a tree nursery of 16 acres of land and had Schöttland gardeners come to it." In: Appendix to the above article by the farmer in Flottbek , p. 241
↑ Kurt Detlev Möller: Hamburg as reflected in the diaries of the Holstein Chamberlain August v. Hennings 1796, 1798, 1801 . In: ZHG , Volume 42.1953, p. 49
^ Advertisement of the Flottbeker tree nursery in: State and learned newspaper of the Hamburg impartial correspondent , anno 1802, on Saturday October 30th, without page number, digitized

^ Advertisement of the Flottbeker tree nursery in: State and learned newspaper of the Hamburg impartial correspondent , anno 1804, on Saturday, October 20th, without page reference , digitized

↑ divergent 1813: Flottbek . In: Johannes von Schröder , Hermann Biernatzki : Topography of the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, the Principality of Lübeck and the area of the free Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck. 2nd ed., 1st vol., General Part A – H, C. Fränckel, Oldenburg 1855, pp. 387–388

↑ Second day . In: Lorenz Oken: Isis , Heft VIII – X, 1831, Col. 851

↑ "The war ... destroyed it [the agriculture is meant] completely. In 1814 everything had to be recreated. ”In: Hans-Jörg Czech, Kerstin Petermann, Nicole Tiedemann-Bischop (eds.): Caspar Voght (1752–1839) - world citizens at the gates of Hamburg. Imhof, Petersberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7319-0053-5 , p. 151

↑ Pictures from the past, according to information from largely unprinted family papers , edited and introduced by Gustav Poel, Part 1. Pictures from Piter Poels and his friends' life. 1760-1787 . Hamburg 1884, pp. 92, 93.

↑ It was about the Scottish farmer Alexander Rogers ( Gerhard Ahrens : Caspar Voght and his model estate Flottbek . English agriculture in Germany at the end of the 18th century, Christians, Hamburg 1969, p. 96ff.)

↑ Friedrich Alexander Bran (ed.): Etnographisches Archiv , Volume 27, p. 203.

^ Agricultural notebooks ; Sixth issue, JF Hammerich, Altona 1822, p. 43.

personal data
SURNAME	Booth, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Scottish landscaper and nursery owner
DATE OF BIRTH	February 16, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH	Larbert , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH	December 25, 1814
Place of death	Klein Flottbek , Hamburg

[1] Falkirk Archives (Archon Code: GB558) Russel & Aitken Papers (55) Papers of Peter Booth, Reference Code: A1855 Digitized * PDF . Deviating from this in 1771 in the death register or in 1772 as a grave inscription and in Carl Ansorge: About the introduction of foreign trees and the involvement of the Booth family . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Dendrologische Gesellschaft , No. 29, 1920, p. 272

[2] Gottlieb Rammelt, art gardener with David Samuel von Madai in Benckendorf , reported as one of the first in 1768 about tree nurseries in England, resp. their approach and praised the advantages in his publication "Mixed economic treatises for the benefit of agriculture and gardening" ( On the benefit of wild nurseries , p. 93). However, he doubts that this type of tree rearing would be quickly realized in Germany.

[3] Visit to Caspar Voght in Flottbek , in: Kurt Detlev Möller: Hamburg in the mirror of the diaries of the Holstein Chamberlain August v. Hennings 1796, 1798, 1801 . In: ZHG , Volume 42.1953, p. 42

[4] The demand was generally high. It depended on their use. Hardwood was used in shipbuilding (in Hamburg), but it grew slowly. In private households wood was burned, which was fast growing softwood .

[5] "Without a sizeable tree nursery, all planting on a large scale cannot become much, because the plants are not supplied cheaply enough". ( Appendix to the above article by the farmer in Flottbek , p. 241) "It is now also ... known that nobody plants large trees that are very expensive." ( Appendix to the above article by the farmer in Flottbek , p. 236 )

[6] "This year I set up a tree nursery of 16 acres of land and had Schöttland gardeners come to it." In: Appendix to the above article by the farmer in Flottbek , p. 241

[7] Kurt Detlev Möller: Hamburg as reflected in the diaries of the Holstein Chamberlain August v. Hennings 1796, 1798, 1801 . In: ZHG , Volume 42.1953, p. 49

[8] Advertisement of the Flottbeker tree nursery in: State and learned newspaper of the Hamburg impartial correspondent , anno 1802, on Saturday October 30th, without page number, digitized

[9] Advertisement of the Flottbeker tree nursery in: State and learned newspaper of the Hamburg impartial correspondent , anno 1804, on Saturday, October 20th, without page reference , digitized

[10] vergent 1813: Flottbek . In: Johannes von Schröder , Hermann Biernatzki : Topography of the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, the Principality of Lübeck and the area of the free Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck. 2nd ed., 1st vol., General Part A – H, C. Fränckel, Oldenburg 1855, pp. 387–388

[11] Second day . In: Lorenz Oken: Isis , Heft VIII – X, 1831, Col. 851

[12] "The war ... destroyed it [the agriculture is meant] completely. In 1814 everything had to be recreated. ”In: Hans-Jörg Czech, Kerstin Petermann, Nicole Tiedemann-Bischop (eds.): Caspar Voght (1752–1839) - world citizens at the gates of Hamburg. Imhof, Petersberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7319-0053-5 , p. 151

[13] Pictures from the past, according to information from largely unprinted family papers , edited and introduced by Gustav Poel, Part 1. Pictures from Piter Poels and his friends' life. 1760-1787 . Hamburg 1884, pp. 92, 93.

[14] It was about the Scottish farmer Alexander Rogers ( Gerhard Ahrens : Caspar Voght and his model estate Flottbek . English agriculture in Germany at the end of the 18th century, Christians, Hamburg 1969, p. 96ff.)

[15] Friedrich Alexander Bran (ed.): Etnographisches Archiv , Volume 27, p. 203.

[16] Agricultural notebooks ; Sixth issue, JF Hammerich, Altona 1822, p. 43.