44 



Smithsonian botanical garden when established, and the public be 

 invited to send specimens to the same at the cost of the Institution. 

 Thus will be gradually established a nursery for that important 

 branch of agriculture, and the liberality of Government and indi- 

 viduals redound to the general advantage and credit of the country. 

 I would suggest that this Government should endeavor to purchase 

 Mount Vernon as a model farm for the Smithsonian Institution. It 

 is within a convenient distance of Washington, is capable of im- 

 provement, and, under the cultivation of the pupils of the agricul- 

 tural school in this city, must pay for itself within a certain time, 

 and will afterwards, most probably, meet the expenses of the estab- 

 lishment. The consideration, also, that the Government thus be- 

 comes proprietor of a spot hallowed in the eyes of every true Amer- 

 ican as having been the residence of the Father of his Country, and 

 will have it in its power to open to the public a place now neces- 

 sarily closed to them, in a great measure, by its being private prop- 

 erty, ought to render Congress well disposed to take the matter 

 into favorable consideration, and the community at large anxious 

 for -the acquisition. How appropriate is it, and how grateful we 

 may fancy it will be to the spirit of that great man, who was a prac- 

 tical tiller of the earth, that the land by him cultivated so long 

 should pass into the hands of the public, for whose good he ever 

 labored, and, through the instrumentality of the bequest of the phi- 

 lanthrophic Smithson, that that branch of knowledge and source of 

 national wealth and prosperity, of which, when living, he was so 

 devoted a follower and ornament, may be yet made to add to the 

 honor, if possible, which has immortalized his memory, and to the 

 advantage of the agricultural interests of the land. 



I merely throw out this suggestion as one which may have some 

 claim to a serious consideration; and, being a mere tyro myself in 

 the subject to which I have devoted these few lines, I make it with 

 all due diffidence and deference to the opinions of others better in- 

 formed than I am. 



I trust, however, that this reference to the memorial in question, 

 and the few reflections which I have hurriedly indulged in on this 

 occasion, may induce some minds to think upon the matter, and 

 aid in effecting something, in the way thus pointed out, for the 

 benefit of (he agricultural interests of this country. 



Yours, respectfully, J. C. B. 



