8o Frederick Law Olmsted 



Vanderbilt who was at the time a farmer at New Dorp 

 Lane. 



"Frederick had a very pretty talent for caricatures, not 

 of a grotesque kind but full of quiet humor. . . . He was 

 fond of long discussions on moral points as when, if ever, it is 

 allowable to depart from a direct statement of fact, etc., etc. 

 He was perhaps over fond of arguments to be pleasing to 

 women. Whimsies had no charm for him. Sartor Resartus 

 and Modern Painters were our text books. 



"Aunt Maria was a dear kind devoted woman of fifty, 

 plain as a pikestaff and devoid of vanity. 



"Mr. Olmsted, the father, had just retired from business 

 with a modest competence. He was the kindest and most 

 indulgent of fathers, a man with a strict sense of justice 

 and of duty, exacting toward himself rather than toward 

 others. His wife was a Puritan, a model of order and system, 

 most efficient as an organizer and full of interest in Nature 

 and Man. 



"The family continued to make its summer home at the 

 farm until the end of the summer of 1853, six years. " 



It was in 1849-1850 that Frederick considered going into 

 the nursery business on a small scale. He wrote to his father 

 on March 14: 



I have been to Flushing and got the trees. Parsons' bill 

 is $258. and he desires especially if it cannot be paid before 

 the ist of May that he may have paper that he can use your 

 note. I have been so unfortunate in my sales that I con- 

 cluded not to take so many by 300 trees as I had intended. 

 Parsons being very willing, he will probably sell the trees 

 from 5 to I o per cent more than my price . Mr. Field strongly 

 recommends me to purchase for myself in France. Thinks I 

 might find ready sale for some thousand on Staten Island 

 within a few years, at 100 per cent over cost of importing 

 them. I called at the Packet offices this morning but could 

 not get anything reliable as to freight. As near as I can guess 

 the bulk of 100 trees (small dwarf pear) of ordinary goods 

 would not be over $1.00. S gave me to understand it 

 would be near $10. I think he lied. But even at that I could 



