of Horticulture in the United States. 5 



is probably the best cultivator of exotics now in New York. 

 The most distinguished amateur and patron of gardening, in ev- 

 ery sense of the word, in this state, was the late Dr. Hosack. 

 Hyde Park, on the Hudson, the seat of this gentleman, has been 

 probably the best specimen of a highly improved residence in 

 the United States. Situated on the margin of the river, with 

 one of the noblest of prospects, smooth gravelled drives and 

 walks leading to every desirable point of sight, over an estate of 

 eight hundred acres — the park large, well wooded, and intersect- 

 ed by a fine stream — a handsome and well filled range of hot- 

 houses, extensive shrubberies, and a separate and very complete 

 kitchen garden, the whole in the highest order — all rendered it a 

 first-rate residence. Dr. Hosack's acquaintance abroad enabled 

 him to introduce many new fruits and plants, and some of our 

 most celebrated native fruits were placed in the hands of horti- 

 culturists in Europe through his means. David Thomas, of 

 Cayuga, and Judge Buel, of Albany, have also contributed 

 largely to the propagation of a taste for horticulture in the north- 

 ern and western parts of the state. The latter gentleman, whose 

 laudable zeal in the diffusion of science and sound practical 

 knowledge among the agriculturists of every part of the Union is 

 well known to all, has also been one of the most unwearied of 

 horticulturists, and has introduced into, and distributed from, his 

 nursery grounds at Albany, within a few years, a great variety of 

 fruits and plants, and has given freely to the public the results of 

 his experiments in culture, not a httle valuable to those, who, in 

 following the directions of foreign authors, find it necessary to 

 make so many deviations to suit the difference of cHmate in the 

 same parallels of both hemispheres. There are, besides the 

 New York Horticultural Society, three provincial or county so- 

 cieties in this state; and the great number of handsome villa resi- 

 dences, with neat grounds springing up in every section, espe- 

 cially on the banks of the Hudson and on the shores of the lakes, 

 afford most satisfactory proof of the progress of general taste in 

 rural pursuits throughout the whole state of New York. 



In Boston, horticulture is of late making rapid strides. In a 

 higher latitude than Philadelphia or New York, many of the 

 more delicate fruits, as the peach, apricot, nectarine, and grape, 

 which ripen abundant crops in the middle states, rarely attain 

 full maturity in the open air here. This is of course favorable 

 to gardening as an art, and Boston and its vicinity, in its forced 

 fruits, and fruits ripened under glass, is far before any city in the 

 Union. Delicious stone fruits are raised with but little care, un- 

 der sheher and upon walls, and the vineries, at the different gen- 

 tlemens' seats in the neighborhood of the city, produce annually 

 tons of the finest foreign grapes. Pomology has many enthusi- 

 astic votaries here, at the head of which it gives us pleasure to 



