The American Gardener's Calendar, Bernard M'Mahon, Philadelphia, 1804

Bernard M'Mahon (or McMahon), a transplanted Irishman, wrote the first truly serviceable guidebook for gardening Americans. For 50 years, The American Gardener's Calendar was the standard authority, its popularity attested by 11 editions, the last in 1857. His successful Philadelphia seed and nursery business had the distinction of growing out seeds brought back from the Lewis and Clark expedition, among them beans, corn and squash grown by native Americans of the mid and far West.