74 Frederick Law Olmsted 



and Importers, including several copies of Walks and Talks 

 evidently purchased for gifts, are listed also: "i Pencil 

 Sketches,'' "i Smith's Parks and Pleasure Grounds," "i 

 Am. Farmer, " " I Caird's Agriculture, " " I Miniature Fruit 

 Garden, " and " I Agricultural Survey." 



It is a great pity that the library collected by Mr. Olm- 

 sted during his career as a farmer and later as a writer, and 

 during the first years of his work as a landscape architect, 

 was practically all burned in the winter of 1863-64 after his 

 departure for California. Regarding this calamity, he wrote 

 a friend: 



"Since I left New York all my household goods including 

 a library with a number of rare technical books which I got 

 in Europe and can never replace have been destroyed by 

 fire." 



The books were stored at the Staten Island farm in an 

 outbuilding, thought to have been maliciously fired. 



