TOL. 6. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



157 



in this country than any one who has but just set 

 foot upon its soil. 



Sincerely yours, 



A. J. DOWNING. 

 Newburgh, N. Y. Sept. 12, 1845. 



REPLY TO MR. DOWNING. 



My friend Mr. Downing need not have been at 

 the trouble to endeavor to " soothe" me. I thank 

 him cordially for his kind intentions ; but I would 

 suggest that he reserve his soothinp; materials for 

 other quarters, where they appear to be more need- 

 ed^ The readers of the Farmer will recollect the 

 remarks in the last No., that called forth the above 

 soother Irom Mr. Downing. I simply stated, (as I 

 had a perfect right to do, and without the remotest 

 feeling of ill will towards the author,) my objections 

 to the title of his book, and the style in which he 

 commenced his preface. The book had become 

 public property, and was fairly liable to whatever 

 criticisms the public might choose to make. Mr. 

 Downing, as an author, we might naturally suppose, 

 would receive such criticisms, in a manner becom- 

 ing his position. But this he has not done. Be- 

 cause I took the liberty to add a little censure to 

 viuch praise, he cries out like a petted, spoiled child, 

 seemingly under the mistaken impression, that I am 

 at war with him and his book ; when the fact is, 

 and I beg of Mr. D. to remember it, that if he pub- 

 lished "Tristram Shandy" and appended to it his 

 entire biography, entitling it, " The Fruits and Fruit 

 Trees of Jlmerica,'" I should not have experienced a 

 single warlike feeling; nor do I think any one else, 

 more than myself, would have been in the least of- 

 fended. The man is very much mistaken who thinks 

 his neighbor at war with him, because he happens to 

 object to his views and notions. Readers ! what 

 think you of such a man 1 



My objection to his title, " Fruits and Fruit Trees 

 of America," was, that it did not represent truly the 

 contents of the work. As, instead of noticing and 

 describing all the fruits of America, and none else, 

 as would be necessary to justify the title, it describes 

 only the cultivated fmits, more than three-fourths 

 of which Mr. Downing himself designates as for- 

 eign. 



This objection can be shown to be valid, by the 

 plainest reasoning : for instance. 



If we should hear of a work being published, en- 

 titled, " The Forest Trees of America ;" would we 

 not naturally expect that work to treat exclusivel}" 

 of the native trees of our forests, instead of con- 

 taining a notice of a few of them only that might 

 ^lappen to be cultivated in our gardens and being 

 more than seven-eighths occupied with descriptions 

 of the forest trees of other parts of the world, mere- 

 ly because they were cultivated in our gardens, 

 pleasure grounds or green houses ? Who would 

 say that such a work was true to its title ? 



Again, supposing a work to be published, enti- 

 tled the "Herbaceous Plants of America," would 

 any sensible man expect to find in that book only 

 such species as had been subjected to garden cul- 

 ture, and all the rest left out, and in their stead such 

 foreign plants as were cultivated in our gardens? 

 would any man say that such a book was true to its 

 title? If it would be, then is Mr, Downings — if not, 

 neither is his. The thing is self evident. 



Nor can Lindley's three beautiful volumes of de- 

 scriptions of the fruits of Flanders, France and Ger- 

 many, entitled, " Brilith Fruits !" alter the case 



in the least. It only shows, what we well knew be- 

 fore, that Mr. Downing is not the only author who 

 has given his book a title at varience with the 

 real character of the contents. 



With regard to the remark I made respecting 

 what I considered bad taste in Mr. Downing, in intro- 

 ducing the circumstance of his birth on the banks 

 of the Hudson, in a large garden, ik.c., in the very 

 first lines of his preface: I can only say, that I 

 have not seen a person open that part of the book 

 without being provoked to a hearty laugh ; and I 

 have heard several of Mr. D's. personal friends ex- 

 press a regret on account of that, as well as other 

 matters, unbecoming in such a work. Mr. D. jus- 

 tifies the paragraph by saying, that thousands of cul- 

 tivators to whom he is personally unknown, would be 

 glad to hear it, as it would be a guarantee that he had 

 come to his task prepared. That he was in fact 

 ''born a gardener.'" Well, now, I put ihe ques- 

 tion to every individual who has seen the paragraph 

 alluded to, if it could possibly convey to any mind a 

 knowledge of the fact that Mr, Downing was well 

 prepared to execute his task, or that he was even 

 "born a gardener ?" no such thing. It simply pro- 

 claims the fact of his birth on the banks of the Hud- 

 son. There were other ways enough, to convince 

 his readers of his qualifications. 



Mr. Downing's readers, will have seen by this 

 time, what importance he places on this thing 

 of birth. I freely concede to him all the ad- 

 vantages, (and I admit that they are many and 

 valuable,) that it may have conferred upon him, and 

 acknowledge that he has just reason to be proud of 

 it; but 1 must insist upon it, that if it had been so 

 ordained, that Mr, D. had been born on the banks of 

 the Nile, or even in the " Deserts of Zahara," v.nich 

 he chooses to speak of, he might to day have 

 been just as great and as good a man as he is— 

 and been equally skilled in the science of Pomo- 

 logy and had as great a 'i natural right to talk 

 about Fntit Trees.'^ 



" Born a gardener," indeed ! There is not anoth- 

 er man on this continent who could say such a thing. 

 We have heard of men being born poets; but who 

 ever heard of men being born a. gardener ? Mr. D. 

 has great reason to be thankful for this great natu- 

 ral advantage over every body else, I have been 

 laboring and studying hard all the day and a great 

 portion of the night, for 10 long years to acquire 

 what little knowledge I possess. Had I been " born 

 a gardener," this trouble would have been avoided, 

 such however was not my fortune. 



I rejoice heartily to hear of the " numberless" 

 letters of thanks received by Mr. D.; even if they 

 be as "nuniberless" as the stars. Not an indi- 

 vidual in this country looked more anxiously 

 for that book than I did. I sent to New- York 

 for it, full a month before it was published : and 

 when received, I gave it a lengthy notice, and 

 recommended it to the attention of every cultiva- 

 tor: and I think I may flatter myself, that I aided a 

 little in creating that " popularity" of which Mr. D. 

 boasts. I appreciate fully the value of the work, 

 and thank Mr. D. for it ; but nevertheless I shall 

 not hesitate to speak, when I think proper, of its 

 faults or failures. P. BARRY. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



The season is now at hand for transplanting. Let 

 it be remembered that the fall — we mean early in 

 the fall, as soon as the leaf begins to color and drop, 



