430 Horticultural Operations for September. 



Art. IV. Ohituai'y. 



Death of A. J. Downing, Esq. — We briefly announced the death of 

 Mr. Downing in our last. He was one of the unfortunate number who 

 came to a sad and untimely end by the burning of the steamboat Henry 

 Clay, on the Hudson River. Mr. Downing was accompanied by his wife, 

 Mrs. De Wint, of Fishkill, and Mrs. Wadsworth, of New Orleans ; and it 

 is supposed he lost his life in his exertions to save those with him, Mrs. 

 Downing, of the four, being the only person saved. 



Mr. Downing was an enthusiastic lover of nature, for the greater portion 

 of his life a zealous and successful cultivator, and, withal, a ready, pleas- 

 ant, polished, and interesting writer. Since 1843, he has published four 

 volumes, viz.. Landscape Gardening, Cottage Residences, Fruits and Fruit 

 Trees of America, and Country Houses. These have each passed to one or 

 more editions, and the Fruits had already reached the twelfth. 



Nearly the earliest writings of Mr. Downing on Horticulture were com- 

 municated in our Magazine. Commencing with the first volume, he con- 

 tinued to give the results of his experience in our pages up to 184G, when 

 he took the editorial charge of the Horticidturist. During that period, up- 

 wards of ten years, every volume contained one or more articles from his 

 pen, in the varied departments of Landscape Gardening, Rural Architec- 

 ture, Horticulture, and the general improvement of Rural Art. Indeed, to 

 his valuable articles, we feel we have been much indebted for a great deal 

 of the interest of our early volumes, when there were but few writers of 

 such general information upon these subjects throughout the country. 



In the death of Mr. Downing, the country has sustained a severe loss : 

 few men, in so short a space of time, have done more to improve and model 

 a taste for Rural art throughout the country. Just in the prime of life, 

 when his labors were likely to become doubly useful, his untimely end has 

 brought a shade of sadness over every friend of Horticultural Science and 

 Landscape Art. 



HORTICULTURAL OPERATIONS 



FOR SEPTEMBER. 

 FRUIT DEPARTMENT. 



Up to the 25th of August, the long and excessive drought of the 

 summer continued : while we now write, (the 26th,) a heavy rain is falling, 

 refreshing the parched earth, and saving the almost famishing crops of fruits 

 and vegetables. Rarely, if ever, within our recollection, has less rain fallen 

 in the months of April, May, June, July and August, than this year. We 

 think we do not underrate the quantity in setting it at not over 3^ inches 

 during the five months. We notice complaints from all quarters of New 

 England, of the long and severe drought. 



The continued dry weather^has not been favorable to the growth of weeds ; 

 but with the present liberal showers, they will soon make a fresh and 



