time is spent in testing their correctness, and the results of his study are often far from satisfactory, even to himself; whereas the tillage of the soil invigorates man's mental as well as his bodily powers, and elicits more deep science, and more observation, and more general acquaintance with Nature, whose laws cannot be violated with impunity, than any other pursuit in life.

It should be borne in mind that the products of our fields, and gardens are natives of all the various climates and soils of the earth, each requiring its peculiar aliment. How preposterous, then, the expectations of people in general to raise whatever they may fancy, without reference to soil, season, or other important considerations. Such plants as require heat, will grow best in hot summer weather, while those vegetables whose most essential nutriment is moisture, must in cold climates, be raised either in the spring or autumn, and in our Southern States in the winter. Our object should, therefore, be to improve the various seasons as they pass, in the cultivation of such productions as can be brought nearest to perfection, in whatever situation we may be placed.

I have been led to the discussion of this subject from the efforts of zealous and patriotic theorists to introduce productions of tropical climates into our gardens as substitutes for the potato. As well might we expect to see the fields of England waving with Indian corn or cotton, as to witness the plants indigenous to tropical climates, attain perfection in the variable temperature of the Eastern and Middle States of North America.

The effect of climate cannot be better demonstrated than in the growth of the turnip, which requires great moisture for its perfection. As an instance: Mr. R. Rowley, of Hastings, Weschester county, exhibited at the Fair, four turnips averaging twenty-inches in circumference, being one-third larger than the same variety generally attains in this country, and which were regarded as giants by many a visitor; but they were dwarfs, when compared with the turnips grown in the humid fields of "merry England." To evade the laws, poachers have been known to scoop out this vegetable, and to pack a hare, a rabbit, a pheasant, and other prohibited game, in the rind― enough to supply a good round family with an ample repast at the Christmas season, so well depicted by Dickens in his “Cricket on the Hearth." Two or three of these turnips mashed, furnish, with caper sauce, sufficient "trimmings" for an English leg of mutton, [AM. INS.]

D

confessed by epicures to be unsurpassed by any dish; which opinion was heartily coincided in by George the Third, surnamed the Royal Farmer, who held this joint and its adjuncts in high estimation.

The potato is now considered one of the most important productions of the earth: upwards of one hundred millions of bushels having been raised in the United States in a single year. Much controversy and speculation have recently taken place relative to the alleged disease of this esculent, and many a ridiculous conclusion has been drawn by writers on this subject, some of whom seem to have lost sight of the difference between cause and effect. Rottenness is the effect of deterioration produced by the absence of a living principle. In a certain stage of growth, cherries, after a single week's rain, will rot on the tree. Such, also, is the case with other fruits. It is well known that grapes, gooseberries, currants, melons, &c., in some unfavorable seasons and situations, often prove a failure. Indeed, it would be difficult to name any production of the earth that yields full and perfect crops annually; on the contrary, it is well known that famine has been of frequent occurrence in populous countries, through short or defective crops of the necessaries of life. We read in the Old Testament of one famine which lasted seven years. Why, then, I would ask, should we expect uniformly good potato crops twice in every year? Having devoted much attention to the nature of plants in general, I have come to the conclusion that the alleged disease in this esculent is not caused by defective seed, but that it is generally the effect of variableness of the weather, and of one extreme of temperature suddenly following another. In some instances the defect may have been occasioned by the injudicious use of acrid manure, which is destructive to all descriptions of succulent plants, in hot, dry weather. New land, without manure, generally produces the best crops in dry seasons. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the extremes of heat, cold, and moisture, are alike detrimental to vegetation in all seasons; and that hot, dry summers, are often attended with results as fatal to vegetable productions, as the coldness of winter.

It is well known to all experienced gardeners, that the difficulty of raising early cauliflower in our climate is such, that, in the event of one month's extreme warm weather taking place when this vegetable is near maturity, its effects are so injurious that very few perfect heads can be obtained; whereas, in the temperate climate of England, this vegetable, as well as broccoli, which some consider the

greatest luxuries of a garden, are as plentiful for eight or nine months of the year as cabbages are here.

With heartfelt pleasure, I now enter upon a description of what Flora, the Goddess of Flowers, (those glowing, chaste and beautiful inmates of the garden of nature,) furnished on this interesting occasion. Full twenty thousand dahlia blooms, of the richest tints and most perfect formation, embracing over two hundred varieties, were offered to the admiring gaze of the visitors to the Fair. Delightful as was their appearance, the scene was still heightened in attraction by that modest queen of the parterre, the rose, the choicest of her offspring, appearing in its unassuming yet captivating vesture. Bouquets arranged with effective taste, baskets decorated with many " an emblem sweet," and ornamental designs, which reflected the glories of the patron goddess, riveted the attention of our contemplative ladies. Do they not themselves appear most lovely when engaged in the instructive and virtue-creating cultivation of these floral beauties? As an example worthy of imitation, a lady from our sister city of Brooklyn furnished on this occasion twenty-two beautiful bouquets, and three dishes, embracing twenty-two distinct species, and seventy-eight varieties of the flowers of the season, which adorned this most inviting department of the exhibition. The statue of Flora was crowned with a "living wreath of beauty," while in her fair hands the gems of the garden, and wild flowers of the field, betokened that the gladdening nymph is capable of conferring the highest happiness on man, strewing his path through life with flowers. Nor was so sweet a goddess in her sphere alone: Pomona was there, as the representative of more than two hundred varieties of fruit; apples, fourteen inches in circumference; perfect specimens of pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, quinces, and grapes, alike grateful to the appetite and conducive to health, attested her kind superintendence over these "luscious dainties." A wreath of cranberries encircled her head, emblematic of her wish that men should taste the most enduring of her ample fruits the long cold winter through.

But there, too, is that joyous goddess who delights in the golden harvest-in mountain, hill, and valley crowned with plenty, and who spreads "a common feast for all that live:" Ceres! generous deity, from thine own 66 green arch" behold thy bounty! At thy feet are laid not only the products of the field, but those of the dairy. As a rival to Stilton and Cheshire, in the fatherland, have we not here mammoth cheeses, evidences of what an American dairy can produce? verily, cheeses nearly six hundred pounds in weight, with a

circumference of ten feet. Pumpkins weighing over two hundred pounds, and of ten feet rotundity. Squashes of nearly the same magnitude. Beets twenty inches round and two feet in length. Sweet potatoes, in girth a foot, and in length eighteen inches. Corn from fourteen to eighteen inches long; some ears of the fourteen row kind containing about 700 grains, and weighing nearly a pound, with abundant practical proofs of what can be effected by skilful culture, as will appear in the catalogue subjoined, of all the most important articles entered for competition on this gratifying occasion.

FLOWERS.

Peter B. Mead, William S. Carpenter, Richard Field, and Aaron Arnold, Judges.

G. C. Thorburn, Astoria, L. I, for several fine varieties of dahlias, renewed during the Fair. A silver cup; and for 24 varieties of choice dahlias, exhibited October the 11th, a copy of Brown's Trees of America.

Dunlap & Thompson, 635 Broadway, for a display of splendid dahlias, frequently renewed the first two weeks of the Fair. A silver medal; and for the best twenty-four varieties of dahlias, exhibited October the 11th, a silver medal.

L. Prevost, Astoria, L I, for an assortment of dahlias, renewed during the Fair. The Farmer's Library and Monthly Journal of Agriculture; and for twenty-four blooms of seedling dahlias, exhibited on the 11th of October, Brown's Trees of America.

Gerhard Schmitz, Philadelphia, for the best 24 seedling dahlias, exhibited October the 11th. A silver medal.

Charles Moore, 98th street, Third Avenue, for fine specimens of dahlias, frequently renewed. Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture; for several varieties of cut flowers, tastefully arranged in flower stands of rustic work, and frequently renewed, Downing's Horticulturist; and for the best 24 varieties of roses, exhibited October 11th, a silver medal.

Matheo Donadi, 44th street, Bloomingdale road, for several choice varieties of dahlias. Downing's Horticulturist; for several rare varieties of cut flowers, frequently renewed, Downing's Landscape Gardening; and for 24 fine varieties of roses, exhibited the 11th of October, Transactions of the New-York State Agricultural Society.

J. B. Lenoir, 45th street, Bloomingdale road, for several fine varieties of cut flowers, frequently renewed. Prince's Manual of Roses; and for 24 choice varieties of roses, exhibited October 11th, Brown's Trees of America.'

Bernard Kelly, gardener to E. W. Fisk, Brooklyn, for several va rieties of dahlias, frequently renewed. The American Flower Gar den Directory; for a splendid ornamental design of cut flowers, a silver medal; for several splendid bouquets of choice flowers, Downing's Landscape Gardening; and for a fine assortment of cut flowers, Prince's Rose Manual.

Donald Ross, Hudson, for an ornamental design, tastefully arranged. The Farmer's Library.

Mrs. A. A. Smith, Cottage Place, Warren street, Brooklyn, for three dishes of cut flowers, tastefully arranged and frequently renewed. Bridgeman's Gardener's Assistant; and for several splendid bouquets of choice flowers, Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture.

E. H. Kimball, Flatlands, L. I., Patrick Condon, gardener, for a beautiful ornamental design. Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture. Isaac Buchanan, 17th street, near Fifth Avenue, for a basket of splendid flowers, tastefully arranged and frequently renewed. American Flower Garden Directory.

J. W. Wood, gardener to P. P. Perit, Bloomingdale, for an ornamental design, frequently replenished. Mrs. Loudon's Ladies' Flower Garden.

Wm. Phelan & sons, 5th street, near Avenue A., for a fine display of dahlias, frequently renewed. American Flower Garden Directory. Messrs. Bol & Hauser, 50th street, Bloomingdale road, for several varieties of choice dahlias. Bridgeman's Gardener's Assistant.

Samuel M. Cox, 49th street, Bloomingdale road, for a bouquet of flowers, tastefully arranged. Transactions of the American Institute. Andrew Reid, No. 163, 11th street, for two handsome bouquets of choice flowers. Bridgeman's Florist's Guide.

As I promised to record on the annals of the Institute the names of all contributors to the Floral Department, I hereby acknowledge the receipt of some of the choicest flowers of the season, which were placed at the feet of Flora, the Goddess of Flowers on this interesting occasion.

Splendid varieties of Flowers-From W. S. Carpenter and Peter B. Mead, New-York; E. H. Kimball, Long Island; J. Eltringham, A. Coe, and Cornelius White, New Jersey.

Beautiful Bouquets-From J. M. McCullough and D. Higgins, Long Island; Sarah Jones, of Hudson; Sarah Burrows and Ann Jackson, of Williamsburgh; Mrs. Robinson and Mary Thaden, of Brooklyn, and Mary Butts, Bloomingdale.