ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 79 



CINCINNATI, THE QUEEN CITY. 



WHATEVER may have been the squealing celebrity of 

 Forkopolis, Cincinnati seems destined to merge the glory 

 of that name in the more agreeable title, City of.Vineyards. 

 That she is the Queen City none denies. But on account 

 of what single excellence, it might be difficult, for some, to 

 say. A queen of slaughter-pens might be a hearty buxom 

 lass, but, withal, not exactly the personage for which 

 knights (Sancho always excepted) love to break lances. A 

 queen of foundries and stithies, she might be, and not neces- 

 sarily, on that account, a ruddy brunette ; inasmuch as Sir 

 Vulcan was, once before, the husband of Venus queen of 

 beauty. A blushing queen of strawberry beds would be 

 quite romantic; but yet more appropriate if her jurisdic- 

 tion were extended over vines and purple clusters and vine- 

 yards and orchards. But whether it be pork, or iron, or 

 pinions, or vineyards, or observatories, Cincinnati is acknow- 

 ledged on all hands to be the Queen City. 



Leaving her commercial glories out of view, we think 

 Cincinnati has done more for horticulture than any Ameri- 

 can city, taking into the account her recent origin and her 

 means. In all other cities horticulture has been the child 

 of wealth and leisure. It has followed commercial or manu- 

 facturing prosperity. But in this city, it began with them 

 and kept pace with them ; so that one wonders which most 

 to admire, the thrift of industry and skill, or the elegant 

 taste which is so generally evinced in the cultivation of 

 fruit, and shrub and flower. 



The first volume of the Transactions of the Cincinnati 

 Horticultural Society, is eminently worthy of that enter- 

 prising corporation. 



The thoughts of several principal friends of horticulture 

 seem much directed to the subject of vine culture, and the 

 manufacture of wine. There are more than eighty-three vine- 

 yards in the vicinity of the city containing not far from 400 



