72 Frederick Law Olmsted 



Taste" and your Rept. of Prof. Lardner's Lecture. I should 

 like to find more of those comprehensive Lectures on such 

 subjects. Prof. Lardner's Lectures are brief and compre- 

 hensive and very well adapted to give a simple man a com- 

 mon information in regard to Natural Science and Mechanics. 

 You must have been bored with this letter but I expect you 

 to answer it becomingly. 



It must have been earlier than this that he attended with 

 Charles Brace "a private course of lectures on architecture." 



From 1845, Mr. Olmsted's main study centered in agri- 

 culture. From "Fairmount, " Mr. Geddes's farm, he wrote 

 to his father June 16, 1846: ''Farmer's Lib. &c I received 

 Monday. I am glad they are going to publish the Book of 

 the Farm next. I had hoped they would. It is a cheap way 

 of getting it. English price is I think $20. " 



Again on Aug. 12, 1846, he wrote: 



I have been looking for a letter from you and the Monthly 

 Journal for two or three days. I am anxious to hear about 

 the Head Farm. If the Farmer's Library can be had sepa- 

 rately at half subscription price, I would drop the Monthly 

 Journal though it is very good, in favor of Drs. Emmons and 

 Prime's Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and Science, a very 

 able, practical, scientific, periodical, $1.50, 



"I have thought of writing an article about Fuller's 

 Farming, etc. for the Cultivator, but have given it up because 

 I have not myself sufficient reliance on the correctness of 

 statements. 



The same year he wrote to Fred. Kingsbury : " I am read- 

 ing now everything on Horticulture and Pears and Arnold's 

 life and correspondence — I always loved Arnold — and pears. " 



From Guilford, Connecticut, February 16, 1847, Freder- 

 ick wrote his brother John : ' ' Tell Father I want the Horticul- 

 turist, etc. Nothing here but the Boston Cultivator. " 



On a visit to New York City in October, 1847, he men- 

 tioned spending a forenoon "at Coknan's, " who has "a 

 beautiful new portfolio of sketches in Holland and Belgium, 



