Why is New Jersey called the garden state?
According to the New Jersey State website: There is no definitive explanation for New Jersey’s nickname of “The Garden State.” It is on our license plates as the result of L.1954, c. 221; NJSA 39:3-33.2. This legislation was passed over Governor Meyner’s veto. His veto message to A545, dated August 2, 1954, says in part “My investigation discloses that there is no official recognition of the slogan ’Garden State’ as an identification of the State of New Jersey.” Alfred M. Heston, in his two-volume work, Jersey Waggon Jaunts, published in 1926 (Camden, NJ, Atlantic County Historical Society, 1926), twice credits Abraham Browning of Camden with coining the name at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia on New Jersey Day, August 24, 1876. On page 310 of volume 2 he writes: “In his address Mr. Browning compared New Jersey to an immense barrel, filled with good things to eat and open at
