No. 108.] 31 



sional amateur, who by the rich displays of the beauties oi nature, 

 frequently replenished during the Fair, have rendered the Horticul- 

 tural Room the center of attractions, which is eminently calculated to 

 stimulate our fellow-citizens generally, to pursue that most healthy 

 and enchanting of all recreations, the cultivation of Flowers, an 

 employment which cannot fail to attach man to his home, and thus 

 promote domestic happiness; and it is an indubitable fact, that he 

 who delights in his home, and feels disposed to embellish it, will be 

 likely to hasten to it when he has done his business abroad, instead 

 of wasting his time in the pursuit of transient and dissolute pleasures, 

 which lead too many of our race to disgrace, misery, and an un- 

 timely end. 



THOMAS BRIDGEMAN, Chairman. 



ALEXANDER WALSH, 



NICHOLAS WYCKOFF, 



EDWARD CLARK, 



W. J. TOWNSEND, 



J. C. THOMPSON, 

 Oct. 2\st, 1842. ISAAC M. PHYFE. 



Report on Field Crops. 



The undersigned, appointed by the American Institute, to visit and 

 decide upon the best Field Crops which have been entered for com- 

 petition at its Fifteenth Annual Fair, report: 



That they have performed that duty, and for the best field of corn 

 have awarded the first premium of the American Institute to Frede- 

 rick J. Betts, Esq., of New^burgh, N. Y.; and for the second best 

 field of corn, they have awarded the second premium of the American 

 Institute to Richard F. Carman, Esq., of Fort Washington, in the 

 county of New^-York. 



For the best field of oats they have also awarded the first premium 

 of the Institute to Frederick J. Betts, Esq., aforesaid. 



In arriving at these decisions, in respect to the fields ef corn, the 

 undersigned were governed by a careful inspection of them; and in 

 respect to the field of oats, which had been gathered some time pre- 

 viously to their visit, by the appearance of the soil, the promising 

 crop of turneps which were growing amidst a second crop of oats, 

 from the seed scattered during the harvest of the first crop: and by 

 the statements of Mr. William Hughes, the farmer of Mr. Betts, on 

 which, in respect to the quantity both of corn and oats, they, from 

 the foregoing circumstances, place implicit confidence. 



That the American Institute may, however, be informed of the 

 data by which they have been guided, the undersigned deem it advi- 

 sable to make extracts from the statements of Mr. Hughes, which 

 have been verifiea by him under oath, before P. F. Hunn, Esq., J. P. of 

 Newburgh, and the originals of which are now on file in the archives 

 of the Institute. As these statements refer also to the treatment of 

 the soil and culture of the crops, as w^ell as the yield, they believe 

 the public interests will be greatly subserved by the account of the 



