(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.
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Robert Manning was born on July 18, 1784 at Salem, Massachussets, the son of Richard and Miriam (Lord) Manning. He was of English descent, his great-great-grandmother, Anstice Manning, widow of Richard Manning of Dartmouth, England, having come to Massachusetts with her children in 1679.
He received his education in the common schools and as a young man opened a broker's office in Salem.
In 1817 he began in a small way to collect choice varieties of fruits. In 1823 he branched out more widely and established a pomological garden, with the design of securing specimen trees of all the varieties of fruits which were hardy enough to withstand the climate of his section. Getting into touch with many noted fruit men of Europe, he received from them scions and trees of choice varieties. This interest in pomology involved the expenditure of much time and money, for, through the slowness of packet boats and from poor handling, much of the imported stock was ruined in transit. He also spared no pains to secure new varieties from fruit growers and nurserymen in America and even originated a few himself. Having tested all these, he established a nursery for the propagation and sale of the best of them, and, through his wide acquaintance with the fruit men of the country, his varieties were distributed far and wide. His interest and enthusiasm led him also to give away both scions and trees with a liberality that did more for the fruit interests of the country than for his own fortune. In 1838 he published the Book of Fruits "Being a descriptive catalogue of the most valuable varieties of the Pear, Apple, Peach, Plum and Cherry for New England culture"; in 1844, two years after his death, a revised edition, The New England Fruit Book, was issued, with some additions by John M. Ives.
Manning possessed by far the finest collection of fruits in America and one of the best in the world, consisting of over one thousand varieties of pears alone, and nearly as many more of the other fruits combined. The practical importance which was attached to this collection by the men of his day is attested by the fact that when he died the officers of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, of which Manning was one of the founders, fearing that the family might not be able to maintain the orchards, entered into an agreement by which the society was to contribute a certain amount of money each year for their upkeep, in return for which the family agreed to send to the society each year fruits for exhibition, and in particular to exhibit specimens of any new fruits as soon as they should begin to bear. To Manning, more than to any other man of his time, and perhaps more than to all others combined, the fruit growers were indebted for the introduction of new and choice fruits, for correcting the nomenclature of fruits at that time in a state of great confusion and for identifying varieties.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
Manning read widely and was for many years a regular contributor to various horticultural journals. While modest and unassuming, he was always delighted to give the best information he had regarding fruits to all comers. When only twenty-four years of age he took charge of the family of his widowed sister, Elizabeth Manning Hawthorne, afterwards sending her son, Nathaniel Hawthorne, to Bowdoin College. Later he took over the management of the extensive stage-coach lines with which his father and his uncle were connected.
On December 20, 1824, he was married to Rebecca Dodge Burnham.
