HOTICULTURAL REPORT. 



TO THE MANAGERS OF THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL 

 FAIR OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE, OCTOBER, 1848. 



In opening their report, the undersigned congratulate the friends 

 of the American Institute on the auspicious close of its twenty-first 

 Annual Fair, by far the most satisfactory and interesting exhibition 

 of a like nature ever seen in New- York, and perhaps not surpassed by 

 any similar exhibition ever held in the United States. 



Allusion has elsewhere been made to the fact, that the American 

 Institute has now arrived at man's estate ; and this fact becomes the 

 more interesting from the happy circumstances under which it has 

 been ushered in. Yes, it is even so : after a youth characterized by 

 a manful struggle with many adverse circumstances, and a persevering 

 devotion to the best interests of domestic industry, the American Insti- 

 tute has arrived at that period of existence when it can rightfully assume 

 the toga virilis ; and it may safely be said that the Institute is now 

 more able than ever to take under its protecting care all the various 

 interests of the arts and sciences, as developed by American industry, 

 ingenuity and skill. 



It has been confidently asserted by persons not well disposed to the 

 Institute, that each succeeding exhibition has been a falling off from 

 the last, and this, too, in the face of the most convincing proofs that 

 the fact is far otherwise ; and these same individuals, actuated by 

 feelings of personal animosity, have confidently and perseveringly 

 predicted for a scries of years, that the next exhibition would certainly 

 be the last ! But they have been most egregiously mistaken, as the 



