CLOSING ADDRESS 



At the 20th Annual Fair of the American Institute, Octo- 

 ber 23, 1847. 



BY GEN. JAMES TALLMADGE. 



Fellow-Citizens: — T meet you with great pleasure on the pre- 

 sent occasion — the close of the Twentieth Fair of the American 

 Institute. I am delighted to inform you that this Anniversary has 

 been attended by more persons than have, on any former occasion, 

 visited the Institute. The Judges announce a great improvement 

 in Manufactures and the Mechanic Arts. The List of Premiums 

 awarded, are: Gold Medals, 28: Silver Cups, 44j Silver Medals, 

 244; Books (volumes,) 125 ; Special Premiums, 11; Diplomas, 

 402. 



There we have the Hoilicultural Department — with, amono^ other 

 things, 20,000 Dahlias, demanding and deserving attention, illustra- 

 ting in a beautiful manner the character and utility of the delightful 

 study of Botany. At and before the Christian Era, the Romans 

 could only exhibit 500 varieties of trees and flowers in their botan- 

 ical list. In the 79th year of our Lord, the whole catalogue was 

 1,000, as the product of the whole then known world. In 1762, in 

 the days of Linnseus, the catalogue stood at 8,800; showing a vast 

 increase. In 1820, it stood at 56,000 — now look abroad and see 

 the advance of intelligence ; the same department of Industry is 

 swelled to the extent, that the catalogues of our day contain the 

 names of 100,000 varieties! 



At the conquest by the Romans, the native Britons possessed no 

 other fruits than the crab, the sloe, the hazel nut, and the acorn. 



Cultivation exercises a marked influence on trees and plants; 

 creating new varieties of flowers and fruit, and altering the proper- 



