230 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
selas. The clusters were very large of some 
of the first named, the Cannon Hall Muscat 
especially, were the finest clusters we have 
ever seen. We were sorry Mr. Chorlton 
did not have the expected opportunity of 
competing with several grape cultivators 
from Massachusetts and elsewhere. 
Cauliflowers were represented by several 
large, well developed heads. We noticed 
two full plates of large gooseberries, one of 
cherries, &c. But we have not space for 
further particulars. The exhibition was 
well attended, especially in the evening, by 
an admiring and appreciative crowd of vis¬ 
itors. Such shows, occurring monthly, can 
not fail to develop and foster a taste for the 
pure and beautiful among all classes ; and, 
when the Hunt Botanical Garden shall have 
got well under way, Brooklyn will stand, at 
the head of the Horticultural cities on this 
continent. 
PREMIUMS. 
Plants in Pnts. —Best seven hot and green¬ 
house plants in bloom, (aspecial premiumby 
Thomas Hunt,) $10; to Alexander Gordon, 
gardener to E. Hoyt. Second best seven, $5; 
to Martin Collopy, gardener to J. H. Pren¬ 
tice. Best three Fuchsias $3 ; to Alexander 
Frazer, gardener to D. Perkins and A. Large. 
Best four Calceolarias—a special premium 
by Mr. J. E. Rauch—$3 ; to George Hamlin, 
gardener to W. C. Langley. Second best, 
$2 ; to the same. 
Fruits. —Best two bunches of hot-house 
Grapes, (white,) a special premium by M. 
Brandegee, $3 ; to Wm. Charlton, gardener 
to J. C. Greene. Best two bunches of hot¬ 
house grapes, (black,) a special premium by 
H. J. Brandegee $3; tothesame. Best dish 
of Strawberries, $2; to E. Decker, gardener 
to J. Q. Jones. Best Cherries, one pound, 
$1; Mrs. Devin. A special premium for the 
best Currants was awarded to E. Decker. 
Vegetables. —Best display of Vegetables, 
E. Decker. Special premiums to Alexander 
Gordon and Martin Collopy. 
Cut Flowers. —Best display of Cut Roses 
—a special premium—by Thos. Hunt, $5, M. 
Donadi, florist, Astoria. Second best dis¬ 
play of Cut Roses, $3, Daniel Ball, florist, 
New-York. Best 12 varieties Perpetual 
Roses, $5, Donadi. Second best do. do.,$2, 
Henry Hudson, gardener to Fred. Griffin. 
Best 12 varieties Bengal, Bourbon, Tea and 
Noisette Roses, $3, Donadi. Second best 
do. do. do. do., $2, Geo. Hamlyn. Best 12 
varieties Moss and other Hardy Roses, not 
named, $3, .Tames Weir, florist, Bay Ridge. 
Second best do. do. do., $2, Donadi. Best 
basket of Flowers, a special premium by A. 
J. S. Degrauw, $5, Richard Renton, florist, 
Brooklyn. Second best do., $3, Wm. Poin¬ 
ter, florist, Brooklyn. Best pair Hand Bou¬ 
quets, a special premium by W. S. Dunham, 
$5, Miss Maggie Dunham, daughter of W. S. 
Dunham. Best Parlor Bouquet, $3, James 
Weir. Second best do., $2, D. Murphy, gar¬ 
dener to J. L. T. Stranahan. 
We did not obtain the list of special pre¬ 
miums of which there were several we be¬ 
lieve. 
Jeremiah Mason said, “ Unless a man oc¬ 
casionally tax his faculties to the utmost, 
they will soon begin to fail.” President 
John Adams said to Mr. Quincy, who found 
him reading Cicero, “ It is with an old man 
as with and old horse ; if you wish to get 
any work out of him, you must work him all 
the time.” These two rules, so far as intel¬ 
lect is concerned, contain the secret of a 
green and vigorous old age. 
PARKS IN THE CITIES OF NEW-YORK, 
THE GREAT CFNTRAL PARK. 
When the time shall come that enterpris¬ 
ing men on the desert shall inclose one of the 
oases for a pleasure ground, there will be a 
propriety in designating it as—Mungo Park. 
Before adventure and enterprise shall have 
gone thus far, the labors of our commission¬ 
ers will have been completed, and this city 
will possess a park, one that will realize all 
that its friends have uttered in favor of the 
project, and one at which howsoever hearti¬ 
ly this generation may scold, the New-York 
of the next century will prize beyond any 
other remembrance of our day. The emi¬ 
nent and honorable gentlemen who are now 
engaged in the labor of averaging the titles 
and conveyances necessary for adjustment, 
before the people shall possess their own, 
are of those whose highest object it is to do 
that important work so well that their names 
shall be identified with its complete success. 
Gov. Bradish, to whom all the pleasure 
grounds of European cities are familiar, 
means that this emerald, in rock-settling, shall 
be worthy of admiration even from those to 
whom the great parks of London and Vienna 
are familiar. 
And strange it is, that only in New-York, 
in the great Metropolis, where land has 
value, so that a ward could almost be suita¬ 
ble barter for a western State sovereignty as 
it is, only in this costly latitude has there 
been any effort to form a park. It is a truth 
which is sadly proved by looking over our 
sister cities. Brooklyn is not enumerated, 
because that is so soon to be a section of 
New-York as to be included in it; and even 
Brooklyn, or its latest annexation, Williams- 
burgh, has but scanty thought of furnishing 
the future. There was commotion enough 
made concerning Washington park, in its in¬ 
ception, to frighten from further effort for a 
century. The dead in Brooklyn offer amid 
their marble record the scenes that soothe 
even while they sadden. 
Albany took a clay hill, tough, dark, blue 
clay, and by coaxing the State, which in 
those days was as penurious as upon similar 
requests it would now be princely, and by 
teazing the owners of adjacent lots, who 
were incredulous as to future value—by all 
this, by bringing soil thither, sand and loam, 
even as the earth was brought to the vine¬ 
yards of Metternich, in panniers on the backs 
of men and women—in this way, what are 
called the Capitol park and the Academy 
park have been formed. 
Admirable success has attended the effort 
at foliage, and in mid-summer even the Capi¬ 
tol itself is secluded behind the luxuriant 
trees. No park work has been done under 
greater disadvantages, for a more black plain 
of clay than was this in the commencement, 
could not be found. It was the favorite 
place for the summary hangings of Collonial 
and Revolutionary days. Political strangu¬ 
lation now takes place within the walls ofthe 
Capitol. 
But in truth, Albany has no park, for the 
whole area of its open grounds would not be 
thought excessive for the lawn of a gentle¬ 
man’s country house ; nor is its energetic 
neighbor, Troy, more favored. 
And as for Schenectady, unless the do¬ 
main of Dr. Nott be so designated, it has 
nothing but its streets—one or two of them 
rural and quiet enough for a meditative man’s 
musings. There is, it is true, a noble prom¬ 
enade near the College, and beneath the 
grove adjacant I have heard, while a superb 
sunset was kindling the wmstern sky with 
peculiar splendor, the words of eloquence 
from Wright, and Doane, and Potter, and 
Spencer, such as Oxford might have aroused 
itself to hear. 
Has Utica a Park! It has fine broad ave¬ 
nues, and there is space and verge enough 
for the pure rushing of the life-breathing 
winds; but since the day of Fort Schuyler 
even until now, when so many prosperous 
thousands gather around the old Fort’s site, 
I can not find that there have been spared 
from the builder any extent of pleasure 
grounds. 
And it is even thus of Auburn—more ex¬ 
cusable here, however, as so much of pleas¬ 
ant gardens surround these pleasant homes, 
so that in visiting the elegant dwellings of 
Governor Seward, and Mr. Christopher Mor¬ 
gan, and others, the transition is easy from 
the ornament of the house to the luxuriance 
of the field. 
Rochester has near to its Cemetery with 
such admirable judgement placed in such 
ease of approach as that it may find the step 
of the wanderer easy of access, even from 
the town’s busy center—and here there is 
beauty of rural form, and space abundant; 
but yet it is among the tombs. In and about 
its dwellings ofthe living, Rochester has re¬ 
served but little, if any, of open area. 
That city of Inland Seas—Buffalo—most 
like New-York in all its commercial move¬ 
ments, has been so accustomed to consider 
every foot of ground precious, that it has 
forgotten that there is a time to breathe and 
rest, as well as to labor. It has noble op¬ 
portunity for pleasure ground and park upon 
the water side, so that the whole panorama 
of the lake and its commerce would be in 
view. Nor is it yet too late for such good 
work to be done, and taste, and opulence and 
enterprise are finding permanent home in 
this great Western City. 
London has held its great parks since the 
days of that termagant old king—Harry the 
VIII—a monarch who scolded out more good 
than other sovereigns now by persuasion. 
When Hyde belonged to the Abbot ot St. 
Peter, it may have rejoiced the demure 
dwellers of his monastery at Westminister, 
but it did not promise much for the people. 
It was fortunate for the citizens of the 
World’s Metropolis that this Eighth Harry 
was not so intently occupied with brief love 
and quicker anger ofthe Katherines, but that 
he liked the chase of partridge, and pheas¬ 
ant, and heron, so well, that he preserved for 
his hunt, the parks. 
A simple taste, and a less royal lineage, 
must secure our own great park. It shall be 
the giftof this century of New-Yorkers to the 
next, for it will be by the long and slow, but 
inevitable process of many years, that hill¬ 
side, and vale, and plain, an terrace, and 
mound, shall be shadowed by the huge and 
brave trees. When it shall have been de¬ 
clared officially, the park, then comes its 
severe trial, for then shall issue out upon it 
all manner of experimenters and essayists in 
landscape. 
I have already heard it declared that there 
must be a general leveling of all the rocks ! 
Doubtless the crags must be crushed, after¬ 
wards to be rebuilt, as did our romantic 
neighbor ofthe Bowling Green, piles of very 
ludicrous shelvings. Perhaps there may be 
good sense to save this great area of surface 
from invasions of men, who, not being able 
to see what is really beautiful, go to work to 
create it. Let not our new park be included 
among the spoils. 
With due humility towards our associate, 
venturing on a field he has won so well, I 
would ask our Honorable Commissioners 
Bradish, Kent, and their worthy associates, to 
let us remember them as Anthony uttered of 
Ceesar : 
“-all his walks, 
His private arbors, and new planted orchards, 
On that side Tiber, he hath left them you 
And to your heirs forever, common pleasures 
To walk abroad and recreate youiselves ” 
[Sentinel, in N. Y. Courie .$•. Enquirer. 
