LETTER 



CONCERNING M. ANDRE LEROY, OF ANGERS, FRANCE. 



The Hon. Horace Greeley, 



President of the American Institute, City of New York: 



Sir — Charged with the agreeable duty of delivering to M. 

 Andre Leroy of Angers, France, the Large Gold Medal and 

 Diploma of the Institute, awarded to him for the fine collectioa 

 of fruits, sent to its Exhibition held in New York in September, 

 1864, I have the honor to report : 



That the Diploma and Gold Medal were delivered to him in 

 Deccml)er, 1865, the receipt of which and his letter of thanks is 

 on file in the ofiice of the Institute. 



Mr. Leroy also instructed me to make known personally to the 

 members his high appreciation of the honor thus conferred, and 

 of his desire in the future to render all the aid in his power for 

 the advancement of the vicAvs of the Institution. 



A brief description of this renowned nursery of M. Andre Le- 

 roy may not be uninteresting to the members, as it occupied me 

 nearly two days to compass it and its management. 



In a large work published in Paris in 1863, called "Les 

 Grandes Usines de France," or the great workshops of France, 

 the Nursery of M. Leroy is given a conspicuous notice, as one of 

 the great workshops of Franco, and it truly is a " manufactory of 

 trees," etc. 



Angers is situated in about Lat. 47 deg. N. and Long. 1 deg. 

 W. from Greenwich, in the N. W. of France, near the River Loire, 

 and reached by rail in aliout eight hours from Paris. Being 

 about eighty miles from the Bay of Biscay, the eifects of the 

 Gulf Stream which impinges on the west coast of France, so modi- 

 fies and tempers the atmosphere, that severe frosts are unknown, 

 and the almost constant canopy of clouds in the fall and winter 

 months preventing the radiation of heat, the result is a climate 

 resembling that of Florida, giving a wonderful facility in propaga- 

 tion of stock. 



