(See frontispiece to the annual volume). In our botanical works we read of the corky white elm, Ulmus suberosa of Thomas, who first discovered, described and named it. This botanist was David Thomas, chief engineer of the Western portion of the Erie Canal, and father to the subject of this sketch, who thus inherited a taste for his father's scientific and mechanical pursuits. John J. was born near Cayuga Lake, in Cayuga county, New York, in the year 1810. The father being absent on his professional pursuits from 1820 to 1828, the son had, in a measure, to superintend his own education. With a natural fondness for intellectual studies, he soon acquired a considerable knowledge of the natural and physical sciences, which he applied to the advancement of his horticultural and agricultural pursuits. In his twenty-first year he became associate editor of the old, and, in its day, very successful Genesee Farmer, first published at that time by Luther Tucker & Son, with which he remained in connection many years. In 1840 the Albany Cultivator, a monthly magazine, was consolidated with the Genesee Farmer, and J.J. Thomas continued as horticultural editor.

This again became a weekly - the Country Gentle7nan, in 1853, with Mr. Thomas as horticultural editor - so that we may say he has been continuously in the editorial chair of what is actually a continuous serial for over fifty years. Few of us can boast of so many years of persevering usefulness. During a great part of this time he was engaged in business as a nurseryman, wherein he had an excellent opportunity to put into practice his horticultural learn-ing, and was thus enabled to speak from actual experience, as well as from thoughtful study. His business career extended over thirty years.

His pen and pencil have not been confined to editorial pursuits alone. In 1846 he issued the Fruit Culturist, which has been so popular that no less than nineteen successive editions have been called for, a career of usefulness allotted to but very few horticultural works. It started as a small 18mo, and has grown to a handsome octavo work. As the inventor of Thomas' smoothing harrow and other implements, he is as well known to the agricultural as to the horticultural community, and the drawings in his widely read work on farm implements are all the work of his hands. The remarkably successful illustrated Register of Rural Affairs, published by Luther Tucker & Son each year since 1855, contain altogether nearly 2,000 engravings, all from the drawings that his busy pencil furnished. He was one of the founders of the Western New York Horticultural Society, and its first President, holding the honor by election through several subsequent years, and for many years past has been chairman of one of the standing committees of the American Pomological Society.

Like so many of our leading horticulturists, he has not confined his labors to the advancement solely of his own class, but has labored to advance the interests of the whole community. His services in the cause of public education have been of a high order. The famous Oakwood Seminary was founded through his labors, and as managing trustee or president he conducted its business for sixteen years, carrying it through several critical periods to ultimate safety and success. His family consists of a wife and daughters, and all mem. bers of the Society of Friends. Among living horticultural authors, J.J. Thomas occupies a very distinguished rank, and we are happy to have the opportunity of placing his portrait among our annual illustrations.