298 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
Sept. 
cate appreciation of, and full acquaintance with the plea¬ 
sures of a scholarly and cultivated mind, or the plain 
sayings and wholesome counsel of “ Old Digger,” we re¬ 
cognize the same sterling sense and discriminating judg¬ 
ment. Mr. Downing was not by eminence a theorist. 
It w T as not his aim to build castles too grand and lofty 
for human realization, or to show the power of his intel¬ 
lect by forming conceptions, which imagination only 
could give being to. The great question with him, was, 
how much of the really beautiful can be made subservi¬ 
ent to the public good? how far can elegance and utility 
be combined? how much of the spirit of the amateur 
can be infused into the mass of the rural population? He 
has answered these questions by his deeds. 
Mr. Downing was an American, and all his thinking 
and acting tended toward the welfare and elevation of 
his country. Yery much of his deserved popularity is 
owing to his ability to popularise whatever he wrote up¬ 
on. He seized upon what was most needed, and upon 
that alone, and with strking point and directness, pre¬ 
sented it in such form, that his conclusions were irresis¬ 
tible. 
His style of writing is unaffected and flowing, and his 
diction, though elegant and ornate, is never verbose or 
tiresome. Such a style grew naturally out of his cha¬ 
racteristics of mind and habits of thought. His mind 
was furnished and cultivated, and his impulsiveness bore 
his thoughts by the nearest way to the desired end. 
This brings to notice that peculiar earnestness and sin¬ 
cerity which everywhere is visible in his writings. Nei¬ 
ther a philosopher or an enthusiast, he combined the ex¬ 
cellencies of both in his individuality. Above all others, 
he was the man best fitted to mould the architectural 
and rural taste of the country to a correct model, to 
guide public sentiment to whatever is highest in Nature 
and purest in Art, and to aid in making America what 
Heaven designed it should be, the garden of the whole 
earth. 
Mr. Downing has closed his labors too early to have 
shown the full maturity of his power. If his youth has 
been thus productive, what results might have crowned 
a longer life! what beauty might have sprung from a 
riper experience and an enlarging capacity! 
About two years since, Mr. Downing received an in¬ 
vitation to visit Washington, for the purpose of confer¬ 
ring with the President with reference to the laying out 
the public grounds in the vicinity of the Capitol. For 
the last year and a half he has been engaged in design¬ 
ing and perfecting his plans, and in accordance with 
them, a park of some 160 acres is being constructed. It 
will afford the only example of grounds to such extent, 
laid out by the rules of art, in this country, and will un¬ 
doubtedly be a most perfect work of its kind. 
In his private character, Mr. Downing was upright, 
manly, and enthusiastic, and he entered with zeal and 
energy into every subject which promised to elevate and 
refine his fellow men. In his social relations he was a 
gentleman in the best acceptation of the term. Cour¬ 
teous, affable and polite to the stranger; generous, warm¬ 
hearted, and confiding to his friends, he was universally 
respected and loved. 
The sad circumstances of his death make us less re¬ 
conciled to his loss. Mr. Downing, in company with his 
wife, and her mother,sister, and younger brother,together 
with a lady friend, Mrs. Wadsworth, embarked on the 
Henry Clay, full of buoyancy and joyous expectation, 
on their way to Newport Scarce two hours have passed, 
and that circle is broken. Some are sleeping beneath 
the wave,—others are weeping on the shore this wreck 
of hope and happiness. Mr. Downing, his wife’s moth¬ 
er, Mrs. De Wint of Fishkill, and Mrs. Wadsw T orth, 
were lost—the remaining members of the party were 
saved,—Mrs. Downing almost miraculously. As Mr. 
Downing was an excellent swimmer, he must have been 
borne down by the crowd, or perished in the attempt to 
save another’s life. 
We unite with his personal friends and the many who 
are endeared to him by that charm which his writings 
breathed, in tendering our heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. 
Downing. We too can mourn that a great mind has 
been removed from our companionship,—that a noble 
heart has ceased to beat,-—that a life, rejoicing in such 
beauty and promise, has gone out thus early. 
The Potato Crop. 
Eds. Cultivator —The aspect of the potato crop here 
is unusually promising. The opening spring was unusu¬ 
ally backward, so that ordinary field potatoes were not 
generally visible until about the 10th of June, which was 
ten days later than is usual. The season has been quite 
dry, but less so than 1849, vrhen there was scarcely a 
drop of rain from June 29th, to August 9th. 
During the present season, the rains atUtica have been 
as follows: May 12th, 1£ inches; 29th, f of an inch; 
June 9th, 1$ inches; July 9th, 1! inches, and July 29th 
and 80th, 2§ inches. Between these rains we enjoyed a 
few very light showers, but not enough fell at any one 
time from May 12th to July 29th, to wet through the 
hills of potatoes and corn. Hence, superficially planted, 
and carelessly cultivated potatoes, were, in many cases, 
hopelessly dwarfed by drouth; but in other cases they 
have been mostly revived by our late abundant rains. 
From July 4th to 18th, inclusive of each, the weather 
was warmer on the whole, it is probable, than it has been 
for the same length of time for some years. Particular, 
ly on the 9th, the temperature arose at nearly 3 o’clock, 
P. M., to 99°, and was but little below that point for the 
most of the six preceding hours. I have never known 
the same elevation but once before, in my recorded ex¬ 
perience, the measurement of which, for the last 10 years 
nearly,has been by a thermometer standing in one uniform 
position. That occasion was July 20th, 1849, at 11 
o’clock, A. M., when it stood also at 99°, for a short time 
only. 
The aspect of the season has been, on the whole, more 
favorable to the potato than any during the last nine 
years. For, 1st. Though our weather has been very dry, 
yet I have never known dry and hot weather the imme¬ 
diate occasion of potato disease, however much it may 
dwarf the plant. 
2. We have had no hot rains, with intervening hot, 
close, cloudy weather, or scalding sunshine, as in the- 
years 1850 and 1851. In these years, this sort of wea¬ 
ther was most obviously the occasion of a universal mil¬ 
dew, not only on the potato, but also on many hardy 
