Elizabeth Coleman White
Elizabeth Coleman White ( born October 5, 1871 in New Lisbon, New Jersey, † November 11, 1954 in Whitesbog ) was an American farmer and plant breeder in New Jersey, which established the cultivation of blueberries in the United States. Elizabeth C. White was the eldest of the four daughters of Mary A. Fenwick and Joseph Josiah White. The family lived and worked in Camden. They also managed a farm in the Pine Barrens, from which the town Whitesbog emerged. E. White was never married. She died at the age of 83 in her 1923 built house " Suningive " in Whitesbog cancer.
Family
The family belonged to the religious community of Quakers.
Career
After leaving school at the Friends Central School in Philadelphia in 1887, White began their parents to work in Whitesbog on the Cranberry Farm (Vaccinium macro carpos ). She also explores took courses in first aid, photography, dressmaking and millinery at Drexel University.
Around the turn of the century prompted Elizabeth White, a program for the readout of blueberry bushes (Vaccinium spp.). Their goal was to select arable blueberries from wild stocks, the fruits of which could be marketed alongside the cranberries from the farmers. White took over in 1911 on contact with the botanist Frederick V. Coville ( 1867-1937 ), who carried out from wild stocks already since 1906 selection trials. It was a cooperation. While White had the financial resources and a farm area with the necessary infrastructure for a wide selection program, Coville provided the scientific know -how. White's father already marketed cranberries and blueberries ( Vaccinium eg formosum ) from wild stocks of the surrounding moors and swamps that were picked by seasonal workers. The blueberry pickers were commissioned as part of the selection program for remuneration, to make the best bushes in the area with the biggest and sweetest fruits locate. The shrubs named Elizabeth White for their finders. The plants were divided and, initially planted under glass on the farm of the Whites. Even after five years in 1916 had White and Coville created a profitable and large-fruited variety that was ripe for marketing. The "first cultivated blueberry " was ' rubles ' named after Rube Leek, the finder of the bush. It was a shrub Vaccinium formosum from the wild variety was read out. It is still grown and is part of several breeds and numerous further selections.
Despite their merits in the development of farm E. White was not allowed to take this from her father until his death. They built their own house on the farm. She was interested in all the wild plants around them and bred different varieties especially the datura ( Datura ) and Frank lines ( Franklinia ) in her garden " Suningive ". Finally, she founded her own company, Holly Haven Inc., which they sold their crops reading. It has become a recognized and known plant breeder who has been decorated with numerous awards. So she received the Medal of Honor of the Horticultural Society of Massachusetts as the highest of all awards received.
Swell
- William C. Bolger: Elizabeth C. White. A Biographical Sketch. URL accessed on March 29, 2008.
- Born in 1871
- Died in 1954
- Plant breeders
- Woman