Born in Northampton, England, educated in the United States, Annie Linda Hayr (1839-1912) married prominent farmer Robert Jack (1821-1900) in Quebec, Canada.
Annie L. Jack in Chateauguay, Quebec
Annie obtained a teaching position in Chateauguay district south of Montreal where she met Scottish farmer Robert Jack. Married in 1860, they raised eleven of their twelve children to adulthood, with Annie as their teacher.
On their large farm, “Hillside”, they experimented with new fruit varieties for introduction into the market. Industrious and prosperous market gardeners, the Jacks shipped apples to England several years after adding 1,000 trees to their orchard.
Writer of Horticultural Articles
Annie regularly contributed articles to the Montreal Horticultural Society and the Fruit Growers’ Association of Quebec from 1877 to 1890. Through her personal observations, experiments, and studies, Annie Jack presented well-written articles. Her inspirational stories and poetry were published in various Canadian and United States publications for many years.
Through her extensive gardening and experimental work with flowers, vegetables, and fruits, and her articles and lectures, Annie was well known by horticulturists throughout North America.
Practical Gardening Advice in Newspaper and Book
In 1898 Annie started a regular column, Garden Talks in the Saturday edition of the Montreal Daily Witness. She presented practical gardening advice and provided answers to readers’ questions.
The Canadian Garden: A Pocket Help for the Amateur, (1903), her only published full-length material, set the standard during that era.
The book is written in a friendly, personal style for home gardeners. It begins with Annie Jack questioning those who would include labour in the cost of a garden. “No, let me take time to look at the sunset…sit down in the grass and dream, if I wish, of happy results in harvest time…admire the satin leaves of a fragrant rose, to inhale its perfume…consider the lilies.”
In The Canadian Garden: A Pocket Help for the Amateur, Annie Jack presents well-organized information, most of which is applicable today. She describes issues related to the lay of the land and the personal preferences for design and layout. Referencing the Experimental Farm at Ottawa, Ontario, where tests are done, she explains the advantage of knowing the soil’s chemistry.
Garden Care Described in Annie L. Jack Book
Also provided in the book are instructions for usage of hotbeds and the correct methods for transplanting seedlings, shrubs, and trees. There is also useful information on flowers, fruits, and
- Kitchen gardens
- Vegetable crop rotation
- Lawns
- Hedges and trees
- Pruning and grafting
The information in one chapter is definitely not applicable today. The products and mixtures used to rid gardens of insects and pests are extremely dangerous. Among those are kerosene emulsion and tobacco water.
True to the natural way of tending to gardens, Annie Jack reminds readers that it is “well to remember that the birds are the gardener’s best friend”.
Source:
The Canadian Garden: A Pocket Help for The Amateur byAnnie L. Jack, Publisher William Briggs 1903
Kathleen Airdrie - Kathleen has thirty years' freelance writing experience covering history, biographical profiles, environmental and social issues
Join the Conversation