Edward James Wickson (August 3, 1848 – July 17, 1923) was an American
agronomist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the Uni ...
and
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
who was a leader in agricultural education in
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Edward was the son of George Guest and Kitty Ray Wickson, the grandson of James and Jane Tuesman Wickson, immigrants to Canada in 1834.
Biography
Edward James Wickson was born on August 3, 1848, in
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...
. He graduated from
Hamilton College
Hamilton College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York. It was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its c ...
, New York, in 1868 or 1869
with distinction in
classics
Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
and
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
.
After graduation, he joined his father's
agricultural tools factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...
, but it was destroyed by fire in 1870, ruining the family's finances.
In 1871, he joined the staff of the ''Utica Morning Herald'', a champion of the state's cheese industry. This position led to his election as the secretary of the New York Dairymen's Association (1871) and as president of the
Utica Dairymen's Board of Trade (1873).
His expertise in matters pertaining to the
dairy
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...
industry was such that in 1874 and 1875 he was chosen to speak to state dairymen's conventions from
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
to the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
.
In 1875, Wickson moved to California to join the ''Pacific Rural Press'' (which later merged with ''
California Farmer
''California Farmer'' (1854-2013) was the state of California's leading farm magazine for more than a century.
History
''California Farmer'' was founded in 1854 by Col. James LaFayette Warren, a British-born nurseryman and merchant who had come ...
'' magazine). He became a special contributor in 1894 and was promoted to editor in 1899, a position he held until 1923. During his tenure at ''Pacific Rural Press'', he wrote widely on the agricultural topics of the day and published several encyclopedic books on growing fruit and vegetable crops that remain useful resources for farmers.
He also wrote on historical topics, such as the roots of the state's agriculture in the
Spanish mission system,
and he wrote various bulletins for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Wickson married Edna Harmon in 1875 at Washington College in Irvington (now a district of Fremont, CA).
Wickson was an advocate for the experimental horticulturist
Luther Burbank
Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) was an American botanist, horticulturist, and pioneer in agricultural science who developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank primarily worked with ...
and wrote about him in ''Luther Burbank; Man, Methods and Achievements'', published in book form in 1902. They had both come to California in 1875, and they knew of each other very soon thereafter. By the 1880s, Wickson was praising Burbank's hybrids in the pages of ''Pacific Rural Press'', so much so that Burbank renamed his green Perfection
plum
A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century.
Plums are ...
to the Wickson plum in 1894. Wickson is credited with being one of the two men (the other being former Stanford University president
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...
) who helped created the legend of Burbank as one of the great self-taught leaders of modern agricultural science.
Wickson is also said to be one of the half dozen authors who anonymously wrote the text for the 12-volume set ''Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries'', published by the Luther Burbank Press in 1914–15.

In 1876, Wickson organized California's first dairy association, and in 1879 he became one of the organizers of the California State Horticultural Society. He was elected secretary of the horticultural society, a position he held for 15 years. At the founding of the California Floral Society in 1888, Wickson was chosen as its first president; when he stepped down, he retained the title of honorary president.
In 1879, he joined the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
as a lecturer in practical agriculture, specializing in dairy husbandry. All told, he worked in the UC system for 33 years, rising from lecturer to assistant professor of agriculture (in 1891), associate professor of agriculture,
horticulture
Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
, and
entomology
Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...
(in 1892), professor of agricultural practice (in 1897) and superintendent of the Agricultural Extension service (in 1898). In 1906 he succeeded
Eugene W. Hilgard as dean of the College of Agriculture, and he also became director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, holding both positions until his retirement in 1912.
He was also an emeritus professor of horticulture from 1915 to 1923.
In 1905–06, he helped to select the sites for what became the
University Farm at Davisville (now
Davis
Davis may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Mount Davis (Antarctica)
* Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago)
* Davis Station, an Australian base and research outpost in the Vestfold Hills
* Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land
Canada
* Davis, Sa ...
), the Southern California Pathological Laboratory at
Whittier, and the
Citrus Experiment Station at
Riverside.
Throughout his career in both agricultural publishing and education, he retained a strong bias towards knowledge gained in the field over laboratory-oriented forms of training.
At the same time, he and Hilgard are credited as halting determined efforts by the Grange and other agricultural interests that would have split the College of Agriculture off from the University of California system.

From 1877 to 1906, he was a member (and later secretary and president) of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, an organization that championed the emerging use of
microscopy
Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view subjects too small to be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of microscopy: optical mic ...
for scientific research. The society went defunct after its laboratory was destroyed in the
1906 earthquake.
In 1913, Wickson spent six months in Europe as one of two California delegates on the American Commission to Study Agricultural Cooperation and Rural Credit in Europe.
Around 1919, Wickson consulted with real estate developer J.C. Forkner (eventual founder of the
J.C. Forkner Fig Gardens
The J.C. Forkner Fig Gardens (1883–1981) was an early 20th-century real estate development in Fresno, California, United States, that combined home ownership with fig farming.
History
In 1912, real estate developer Jesse Clayton "J.C." Forkn ...
) on the potential of
fig
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...
farming as a viable commercial enterprise in California.
He died in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, on July 17, 1923. His papers are held in the University of California, Davis, Special Collections.
In 1969, the University of California, Berkeley, named an area of the campus around the north fork of Strawberry Creek as the Wickson Natural Area in his honor. This area contains the oldest stand of
coast redwoods on the Berkeley campus.
Plant species named after Wickson
*Wickson plum (developed by Luther Burbank, introduced as the Perfection in 1883 and renamed the Wickson in 1884)
*Wickson crabapple (developed by
Albert Etter
Albert Etter (1872–1950) was an American plant breeder best known for his work on strawberry and apple varieties.
Early life and education
Albert Felix Etter was born near Shingle Springs, California, Shingle Springs in El Dorado County, Calif ...
and introduced in 1944)
Books
''Rural California'' 1923.
''California Nurserymen and the Plant Industry, 1850–1910'' 1921.
''Second Thousand Answered Questions in California Agriculture'' 1916.
''California Garden Flowers, Shrubs, Trees, and Vines: Being Mainly Suggestions for Working Amateurs'' 1915.
''One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered'' 1914.
''Luther Burbank; Man, Methods and Achievements'' San Francisco: Pacific Rural Press, 1902. Previously published as a series of articles in ''Sunset'', beginning in December 1901.
*''The California Vegetables in Garden and Field'', 1898
2nd edition, 1910''The California Fruits and How to Grow Them'' San Francisco: Pacific Rural Press, 1889
10th edition, 1926*''California Illustrated No. 1: The Vacaville Early Fruit District''. California View Publishing Co., 1885
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wickson, Edward J.
1848 births
1923 deaths
American horticulturists
American entomologists
American agronomists
University of California, Berkeley College of Natural Resources faculty