134 
INTRODUCTION. 
and amono- its most efficient members were Dr. Hosack, De Witt Clinton, Dr. 
Mitchill, and Martin Hoffman; and also Messrs. Wilson, Bridgeman and Hogg, 
who were practical gardeners. Under the fostering care of this society, horti¬ 
culture acquired a rapid growth. The New-York Farmer and Horticultural 
Repository, edited by S. Fleet, one of the first gardening newspapers, was an 
organ of this society. 
The Domestic Horticultural Society was established in western New-York in 
the year 1828. John Greig, of Canandaigua, was its first president; and among 
its earliest and most valuable members was David Thomas, of Cayuga, before 
mentioned as an engineer on the Erie canal. Mr. Thomas is a scientific and 
practical cultivator. A society was established at Newburgh during the same 
year, and another at Albany in 1829. The late Jesse Buel was the first president 
of the latter, and although mainly distinguished as an agriculturist, contributed 
much, both by his writings and by means of a nursery which he established, to 
promote the increase of horticultural knowledge in the northern and western 
portions of the state. 
At the present time the taste for horticulture is very generally diffused, and 
particular departments are assigned to the subject in the annual exhibitions of 
the American Institute in New-York, and the State Agricultural Society. There 
are five societies devoted to its interests, and no less than twenty commercial 
gardens or nurseries; the most extensive general nurseries at present in the 
Union being those of Messrs. Wilcomb & King, (formerly Bloodgood’s), at 
Flushing, L. I., and Messrs. Downing, at Newburgh. 
The “ Economy of the Kitchen Garden,” by William Wilson, the first origi¬ 
nal work on the subject published in the state, appeared in 1828; and “ A Short 
Treatise on Horticulture,” by William Prince, in the same year. Since that 
time, the “Gardeners’ Assistant,” by Thomas Bridgeman, has gone through eight 
editions. “A Treatise on the Vine,” published in 1830, and the “ Pomological 
Manual,” in 1831, by William R. Prince, have been among the most useful and 
interesting works published in the country. Mr. Loudon’s valuable gardening 
