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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



U. S. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Dr. Lee, the Secretary of this society, states that 

 the Executive Committee voted §200 to get out 

 the first number of its Transactions, which 'will 

 contain an account of the doings of the National 

 Agricultural Convention, and such other matter as 

 may be deemed appropriate and useful to the 

 farming community. That this number will con- 

 tain 144 pages, appear in August, and that "the 

 best talent in the States is pledged to aid, hereaf- 

 ter, in making the Journal of the United States So- 

 ciety an honor to the first agricultural nation on 

 the globe." We are glad to notice this prompt- 

 ness on the part of the committee, and have no 

 doubt the secretary will proceed with a corres- 

 ponding zeal, in conducting its pages through the 

 press. 



We hope that for the credit of the " first agri- 

 cultural nation on the globe," and for all in any 

 way concerned or interested in the society, that 

 its printing is not to be executed in the usual 

 style of the art at the Capitol. We had rather 

 the Journal would never appear, than present it- 

 self in such questionable shape. It may be done 

 in Philadelphia, Boston, Rochester, or in many other 

 places, and done well, but we have yet to see the 

 first specimen of elegant printing done at Wash- 

 ington. 



This Journal should afford a sample of the art of 

 printing as well as of sound opinions upon the 

 subjects of which it treats ; commanding the re 

 spect of all other professions, while it reflects credit 

 upon those for whom it is more particularly in- 

 tended. 



All persons who are desirous of promoting the 

 objects of the society may do so by becoming mem- 

 bers, and may participate in the advantages which 

 it offers, by sending two dollars to William Sel- 

 den, Esq., Washington, D. C, Treasurer of the 

 Society, or to Dr. Daniel Lee, its Corresponding 

 Secretary, who will see that all names are duly 

 entered, and that the Journal, seeds, &c, are pro- 

 perly mailed. 



The terms of membership now are the payment 

 of $2 00 annually, but we trust the general gov- 

 ernment will hereafter publish the transactions of 

 the society and pay its other necessary expenses, 

 and not subject the members who are to furnish the 

 materials for its pages to this annual tax. 



(ST We exceedingly regret that Mr. French, of 

 Exeter, who had consented to address the mem- 

 bers of the Hillsborough Co. Agricultural Society, 

 at its approaching Fair, is not able to fulfil his en- 

 gagement. Mr. French is a man of excellent 

 taste, good talent, and withal a practical cultiva- 

 tor, and would have given the Society much plea- 

 sure. — Granite Farmer. 



Remarks. — As we understand it, Mr. French 

 would have promptly fulfilled "his engagement," 



had not the Hillsborough County Society found it 

 necessary to change their time of meeting so as not 

 to come in collision with the State Fair. We re- 

 gret, also, that Mr. French cannot go to Old 

 Hillsborough, because he is able to do them good 

 service there. 



THE LATE A. J. DOWNING. 



[We copy from the Home Journal, the following just 

 tribute to the memory of Mr. Downing, written by our Asso- 

 ciate, Mr. Fuekch.] 



Poor Downing is dead. In the dreadful calam- 

 ity on the Hudson, which brought death to so 

 many, and sorrow to the hearts of thousands more, 

 he, whose name is associated with all that is fresh 

 and beautiful in nature — with the starting grass 

 and fragrant blossoms of spring-time — with rust- 

 ling leaves and waving branches of summer — with 

 the clustering fruits and yellow harvest of autumn 

 — has perished from the glad and beautiful earth ; 

 how much more glad and beautiful because of the 

 life of him who has just passed away. 



He who, as a prophet, inspired with the very 

 genius of The Beautiful, taught us not only the 

 eternal "principles of taste, and thus enabled our 

 judgments to appreciate its true manifestations, 

 but also infused into our hearts a genuine love for 

 what is lovely — giving to the eye a new light in 

 the glancing of the moonlit water, and in the rain- 

 bow-hue of every dew-drop of the morning — giving 

 to the ear new music, as well in the solemn rust- 

 ling of the tempest-stricken forest, as in the gentle 

 murmuring of the zephyr through our latticed bow- 

 er ; he who, by his teachings, thus awakened in 

 us a new life, and so brought us more nearly into 

 harmony with the great Author and Architect of 

 all, has gone out from among us. 



He who, as a wise and gentle brother, has 

 "taken sweet counsel" with us, in arranging the 

 "surroundings" of our pleasant rural homes, in 

 the position of every group of trees and every 

 flowering shrub that ornaments the lawn ; he who 

 kindly sat with us, and carefully "counted the 

 cost" of our dwelling, planning with singular com- 

 bination of. knowledge and taste, the various con- 

 veniences and luxuries of life, showing how far 

 more necessary is a nice perception of fitness and 

 harmony to right enjoyment, than abundant riches; 

 he who has gilded the "refined gold" of the weal- 

 thy, by working it out into what has been expres- 

 sively termed the "frozen music" of architecture, 

 and at the same time has "painted the lily" and 

 thrown "a perfume on the violet" for the poor 

 and lowly, by enlightening their minds and filling 

 them with new perceptions ; he, our master and 

 our friend, suddenly is "blotted from the things 

 that be." 



And yet how little of such a man can die. To 

 his family, to his immediate circle of personal 

 friends, and those who met him in the daily walks 

 of life, it is indeed death, in all its dread reality. 

 With them, "each heart knowing his own bitter- 

 ness," and with their sorrow "the stranger inter- 

 meddleth not." But to us, who chiefly knew him 

 through his written teachings, and have him still 

 with us in the pages of his "Landscape Garden- 

 ing, " "Cottage Residences, " and " Country 

 Houses," in his "Fruits and Fruit Trees," and 

 "The Horticulturist" — to us, to the world, to pos- 

 terity, he still lives. 



