26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



August 13. 1828. 



that this is tlie second season of growth since I re- 

 ceived them ; the iiiiit a!i looks well, and I think 

 promises good success. 



I have seen it recommended to graiY some tine 

 varieties of the grape on our native stock of vigo- 

 toiis groivth, but have never seen an account of 

 its ever having been tried. 



I inserted a coupie of grafts of the Isabella 

 grape the last spring, which succeeded very well ; 

 the longest having already attained the length of 

 9 feet, and the shortest, 5 ; they now grow to the 

 length of a foot, or little more, a week. J. B. 



Our correspondent will accept our thanks for 

 his statement ; as the culture of grapes as a fruit 

 for the table is now exciting much attention in 

 New England, articles on this subject are perused 

 with nnich pleasure. The Messrs Wi>ships, of 

 Brighton, had on the first year's growth of wood, 

 of an Isabella vine, one hundred and twenty 

 bunches. This year on the first and second years' 

 growth there are three hundred and sixtj'-four 

 bunches ; two horizontal and one upright branch, 

 each extendin'' twelve feet from the trunk. 



These motives led to the attempt to found a ! tliere remained property on interest to the amoi t 

 botanical garden. That it was so successful in I of 13,000 dollars, besides a note of seven thousand 

 the then existing circumstances of the town of i I'ollars taken for a township of land granted by 

 Boston, and of the state is r.s surprising as it is I the Legislature, which owing to the misfortunes 

 honorable to the contributors. Boston did not at I of the promiser became of no vulue, and tltf Board 

 that time contain a population exceeding a5,000 ! of visiters were glad to receive back the contract 

 soids. Yet a subscription was readily made of j for the land, and to cancel tlic notes. 

 35,000 dollars. The .subscribers, instead of seek- 1 The fund thus diminisi.e.i produced oidy 800 

 ing an act of incorporation, or of gi-anting the ] dollars per aimum, wiiile tlie Board of visiters 

 funds raised, directly to the College, chose to vest i were obliged by law, and by every sentiment of 

 the visitorial power, and the entire management ; honor anil justice to pay to Professor Peck his 

 of the funds in the Trustees of the Massachusetts moderate salary of 1200 dolkirs. No man, i( is 

 Society for Promoting Agricidture, w^ith whom ; presumed, will complain, that the Board of visit- 

 they associated the President of the American 'eis dechned to withheld its support from the first 

 Acailemy of Arts and Sciences, and the President ! naturalist of New England, because in their ser- 

 of the Massachusetts Medical Society for the time ' vice by the act of God he became unable to per- 

 heiiig. The motives, which led to this arrange- • form his duties. This ubhgation reduced the 

 nient will be readily perceived. The duties of i funds still lower. The Garden would long since 

 the Corjioration of Harvard College were very 1 have followed the fate of the Charleston Public- 

 great, and principally devoted to the care and dis- ' Garden, and the New York Garden, founded by 

 cipline of the University. They niigiit bo, and in j D'" Hosack, and purchased by the state, at the 

 all probability woidd be, men, not conversant with l>i"ii^<^' of 35,000 dollars. It would have, like them. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FAIIMER. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS PROFESSORSHIP 



OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND THE 



BOTANICAL GARDEN AT 



CAMBRIDGE. 



The Visiters of this Professorship, and public 

 garden, feel it to be their duty to lay before the 

 public, its actual .situation, and its imi>erioi:s wants. 

 While its critical circumstances impose this obli- 

 gation ou the persons intrusted with its care, and 

 management, they are sensible, that it is their duty 

 to lay before the public, the histdfy of their ad- 

 ministration of its funds, in order that those who 

 have contrihnled to it, and those who may be so- 

 licited to aftbrd their aid to prevent its decline, 

 and possibly ruin, may be enabled to judge how 

 far the trust committed to the Board of Visiters has 

 been faithfidly executed. T le subscri|>tion was 

 commenced in 1801, and coi!ipletcd in the spring 

 of 1804. There was a gen<ual and we may say 

 an universal feeling in this state, that the natural 

 history of the United States had been much to our 

 disgrace, entirely neglected. There wore, at the 

 time when this subscription was opened, but twc 

 persons in New England, who could give a scien- 

 tific description of any tree, shrub or plant, in this 

 portion of our country. The other branches of 

 natural history. Zoology, Entomology and Min- 

 eralogy, were in a state still more miserable. Yet 

 at that moment, the remotest jiarts of Germany 

 and Sweden were familiar with our plants, and 

 when our early botanists began their studies, they 

 were obliged to resort to the works of tliose dis- 

 tant authors written in a foreign or a dead lan- 

 gtiage, in order to know with any accuracy the 

 plants which sjnung up under their feet. It was 

 not, however, a .sense of national infeiiority alone 

 which stinndatcd tlie exertions of the founders of 

 the Botanic Garden at Cambridge. A personal 

 experience of the embarrassments, which attend- 

 ed both useful and ornauiental horticulture in the 

 very limited state of knowledge which then exist- 

 ed, had its share in producing the exertion. Oiu- 

 fruits and ornamental plants \vere known by such 

 an endless variety of names, that no man could 

 feel the least security, when he ordered a tree or 

 a plant, that he should not receive one, which he 

 had before possessed in great abundance. 



untoward circum.stances has not been available to 

 the Institution in any degree. The Board of Vis- 

 iters will now proceed to state the mannei; in 

 which they have disposed of these funds. Tiiere 

 was no competent knowledge, existing in this 

 country, as to what were the wants of a Botanic 

 Garden, or as to the mode of putting one in opera- 

 tion. The Board of Visiters themselves decided 

 that it was expedient to send the first Professor to 

 Europe to acquire this knowledge. This voyage 

 cost the Institution 9,000 dollars, and the Library 

 selected by the Professor 1100 dollars more. — 

 This, it will be at once perceived, made a serious 

 encroachment on their funds. 



The land on which the garden is placed, includ- 

 ing the gardener's house, cost 1800 dollars, and a 

 better location could not have been made within 

 a reasonable distance from the College. The 

 fences cost 1000 dollars. The Green Houses, 

 equal if not superior to any in the state, cost 25,000 

 dollars, and the Professor's house 4,000 dollars. — 

 Tiie whole of the foregoing sums, to wit. 

 For the voyage cf tlie Professor - $9,000 



" Books ..... 1,100 



" Land 1,800 



" Fences 1,000 



" Green Houses . - - - 2,500 



" Professor's House ... 4,000 



Horticulture. The great object of the establish 

 nicnt, being the promotion of knowledge in native 

 and foreign plants, useful in agriculture, horticul- 

 ture and medicine, as well as the encouragement 

 of the sciences of botany and entomology, it was 

 natural and highly expedient, that the care of the 

 Institution should be committed to persons among 

 whose duties were the promotion of agriculture, 

 horticulture, and the knowledge of the materia 

 medica. 



The fiind.i raised by subscription were about 

 35,000 dollars. To this sum was added a grant 

 of a township of eastern lands, which from variousfaud frequently fell short of 500. Even this sinaH 



been converted into a wilderness, had not the Vis- 

 iters aj>|>lied for, and obtained the aid of the Le- 

 gislature — of a very enlightened Legislature, who, 

 not mistaking false maxims of economy ibr true 

 ones, saw in the destruction of a grcKt public 

 work, great public loss, deeming that the riches 

 and pros])erity of a statt> are as much jjromoted, 

 to say nothing of its reputation, by wise and gen^ 

 erous establishments for the promotion of knowl- 

 edge, as by any financial measures. The amount 

 received from the Legislature could not in any 

 one year exceed by the resolve itself 600 dollars. 



The laying out and planting the grounds 

 including draius, banks, fish pond and 

 walks, were cheaply executed for 



$19,400 



6,000 



$25,400 



There was some accumulation of income during 



the erection of the buildings and laying out the 



grounds, so that when the accounts were closed, 



um has not been received during the last three 

 jfears ow ing to the state of the Treasury. Tiic 

 Botanic Garden founded by private mnificciice, 

 and one of the most honorable Institutions of the 

 State must fall, unless a small portion of the pub- 

 lic spirit exhibited b)' our predecessors still re- 

 mains to be called forth in its sujiport. Of this 

 the Visiters can entertain no doubts ; doubts, 

 which w oidd be a reproach to our present state of 

 society — to a much more extended, and a much 

 wealthier population. It is now more than 25 

 years since the last appeal was made on this ac- 

 count to public munificence. Blany persons have 

 accumulated fortunes since that time, and others, 

 who then subscribed have increased their means 

 of doing gooil. 



It only remains now to state the wants of the 

 Institution, and the means proposed of relieving 



them. The fences require an entire renewal 



They have lasted 20 years, which is all that can 

 be expected from wooden materials. They can 

 be replaced for 1000 dollars. The Garden stands 

 in great need of a stove or hot house for tropical 

 plants. The present house is a green house only, 

 and when it is made sufficiently warm for tropical 

 plants, the plants of cooler countries sufii;r. This, 

 too, prevents our raising so many ))lants for sale, 

 as v/e could wish to do, for the true pohcy of the 

 estabhshment is to make it eventually support it. 

 self. At present it produces about 400 dollars 

 a year, and on the proposed plan it is confidently 

 hoped it will yield a thousand. 



The next and a very pressing w ant is an ade- 

 quate support, and at least something approaching 

 to a suitable reward to the Curator. No Botanic 

 Garden in the whole world can be found without 

 one man of science at its head. In the impover- 

 ished state of our finances, we could oflfer to Mr 

 NoTT.\j.L only 500 dollars a year. But he had en- 



