152 
PRESIDENTIAL MANSIONS, ETC. 
vention, at its meeting in Buffalo last September, to 
devise such plans as they might deem best calcu- 
lated to carry out successfully the objects designed 
by the members thereof, have concluded, as part of 
their plan, to appoint other committees for each 
state, territory, and the Canadas, whose duty it 
shall be to collect information as to the value of 
the various varieties of fruits now under cultiva- 
tion, the value of new seedling varieties, and such 
other matter appertaining to the subject, as may be 
of importance, in their opinion, to the fruit-grow- 
ing interests of the country, or to the community 
at large, and report the results of their inquiries and 
observations to the convention on its assemblage in 
Syracuse on the 14th day of September next. 
The following gentlemen compose the committee 
for the state of New York, viz. : — Herman Wen- 
dell, M. D., of Albany County, Chairman ; David 
Thomas, Aurora, Cayuga Co.; Alexander H. 
Stevens, M. D., Flushing, Queen's Co. ; J. W. 
Knevels, Fishkill, Dutchess Co. : John R. Rhine- 
lander, M. D., Huntington, Suffolk Co. ; N. Good- 
Bel], Greece, Monroe Co. ; D. Jay Browne, City 
and County of New York ; J. W. Bayley, Pitts- 
burgh, Clinton Co. ; \V. R. Coppock, Buffalo, 
Erie Co. 
Growers of either old or new varieties of fruit 
are requested to communicate information of im- 
portance in relation thereto, which they may be in 
possession of, to any of the above-named gentle- 
men: and originators of new varieties of merit are 
requested to send specimens to the member of the 
committee who may reside nearest their vicinity. 
As the object for which the above committee 
has been appointed is one of great importance to 
the community at large, editors of newspapers 
throughout the state, and also editors of horticul- 
tural or agricultural journals are requested to give 
the above an insertion in their editorial columns. 
Herman Wendell, M. D., 
Chairman of Committee. 
Albany. March, 1st, 1849. 
A CHEAP COMPOST— APPLICATION OF LIME, 
GREEN CROPS, ETC. 
You ask me how I manure my grounds. First, 
I have a large cart that will carry 36 bushels of 
night soil. I now give certain persons 371 cents 
a load for it, and furnish them with a pair of oxen 
and driver. My night soil, then, costs me one and 
a half cents per bushel. To this, I add half a 
bushel of plaster of Paris, at a cost of half a cent 
per bushel : 36 bushels of locomotive cinders, at a 
quarter of a cent per bushel ; and 36 bushels of 
marsh mud from my own farm, at a cost of half a 
cent per bushel. Here, then, we have 1081 bush- 
els of the richest compost, without weeds, for 99 
cents, say, in round numbers, one cent per bushel. 
My lands generally consist of decomposed red 
sandstone, on which lime acts most favorably. I 
lime all my fields, and prefer small doses, say, 30 
or 40 bushels per acre, to be repeated every three 
or four years. I am satisfied that plowing in a 
crop of green corn, buckwheat, or oats, and then 
liming with 30 to 40 bushels to the acre, will soon 
bring round all worn-out land. R. L. Colt. 
Paterson, N. /., March, 1849. 
PRESIDENTIAL MANSIONS. 
As a matter of interest to our readers, we insert 
a view of the private houses of some of the for- 
mer chief magistrates, and of the existing President 
of the United States, none of which present the 
imposing character of the aristocratic mansions of 
Europe, especially of those who have held so pro- 
minent and conspicuous stations as the owners and 
occupants of the buildings subjoined. Two reasons 
Fig. 37. Residence of Adams, Quincy, Mass. 
exist for this difference. With the exception of 
Washington and the younger Adams, all of our 
chief magistrates have been comparatively poor, 
or possessed of only a moderate competence ; and 
consequently, they had not the means for extrava- 
gant outlays on their domicils. But another and a 
more powerful cause withheld pretension and 
Fig. 38. Monticello — Residence of Jefferson. 
show, which is to be found in the severer taste 
and greater simplicity predominant in our new Re- 
public, and which would have prevented any de- 
sire for unnecessary display in the exalted minds 
of most of those who have been called upon to 
exercise the highest functions of our government. 
They sought distinction by bold deeds, and the ex- 
hibition of those high moral and intellectual quali- 
ties, which secure a fame more enviable and endur- 
