TRANSACTIONS, &c. 37 



of which, they will be enabled to compete with the world. Even 

 the learned and dignified English Quarterlies, which are generally 

 supposed to be devoted to more literary investigations, are accus- 

 tomed to discuss these matters. Of these periodicals, we would 

 only refer to the London and Edinburgh Journals, and for illustra- 

 tion, merely to volumes 14, 32, and 55, of the London Quarterly 

 Review. Of our American publications, the names and character 

 of the best works are familiar to your Society, but^^we may be per- 

 mitted to allude to one publication, which in our opinion should be 

 more extensively circulated, aud better known to the public. It is 

 the "Agricultural" part of the "Patent Office Report," published by 

 order of Congress. This work contains a large amount of informa- 

 tion, derived from all parts of the country, and is particularly valua- 

 ble, in giving the experience and investigations of many individuals, 

 in the cultivation and improvement of our principal vegetables. 



From these sources, and from the addresses which are delivered 

 on the Agricultural Anniversaries, as well as from the valuable 

 "Abstracts" and statistics, which are annually compiled by our Sec- 

 retary of State, much useful information may often be obtained. No 

 one, for an example, who chanced to hear the exceedingly able and 

 interesting address of Professor Mapes, at the late " Farmer's Festi- 

 tival," could have failed to receive great benefit and instruction 

 from his highly practical suggestions. It is by attending to these 

 sources of Agricultural and Horticultural Science, and by a lauda- 

 ble competition with one another, in exhibitions like the present, 

 that our farmers may expect to learn the best modes of assisting 

 Nature, in the various combinations of her soil, and may hope to ex- 

 cel in the cultivation of the most important and indispensible pro- 

 ducts of the Vegetable Kingdom. 



In regard to the origin of most of our vegetables, now in use, we 

 may be permitted to add a word. From the interesting pages of 

 Hume's History, we learn that it was not until the end of the reign 

 of Henry VIII, that any Salads, Carrots, Turnips or other edible 

 roots were produced in England, and that the little of those vegeta- 

 bles that was used, was imported from Holland and Flanders. As 

 an interesting piece of Royal household history, we are told that 

 "dueen Catharine, when she wanted a salad, was obliged to des- 

 patch a messenger to the Continent on purpose." Artichokes were 

 also in common use in the time of Henry VIII ; while the Cauli- 

 flower of the Levant, was introduced from Italy to the Netherlands, 



