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2234 
 
AN
INAUGURAL DISCOURSE,
delivered before the
NEW-YORK  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY
AT
THEIR ANNIVERSARY MEETING.
31st OF AUGUST, 1824.
\ * •

      By DAVID  HO^ACK,  M.D.  F.t.S.
                    •a*
              president of the society ;

Member of the Horticultural Society of London, of the Agricultural Societies
         of Ghent, Florence, Philadelphia, .New-York, &c.
Ciirasit, ac patrios cultu.ique habitusque locorum;
Et quid quaeque ferat regio, et quid quaeque recuset.
Hie segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvae:
Arborei fetus alibi, atque injussa virescunt
Gramina.  Nonne vides, croceOs ut Tmolusodores
■     --------Mollessua thura Sabaei?
                   Viro. Georgica, lib. i.
9.
<4«
O
         NEW-YORK :

PRINTED BY J. SEYMOUR, JOHN-STREET.

             1824. 
♦
\T
SB
IV-4 
               OFFICERS
                    OF
Efte .®eto=^orfc Utorticulttttal Soctrtg,

         Elected on the 3lst August, 1824.
David Hosack, LL. D. President.
The Hon. W. P. Van Ness, ^
John R. Murray,        / Vice Presidents.
Jacob Lorii.lard,        s
Samuel L. Mitchill
t t  tj J Lecturer on Botany and
                           Vegetable Physiology.
Peter Hattrick, Treasurer.
N. H. Carter, Corresponding Secretary.
Levi H. Clark, Recording Secretary.
COUNCIL.
Martin Hoffman,
Michael Floy,
William Phelan.
William Curr,
James Dick,
Israel Dean,
Col. George Gibbs,
James Minal,
S. J. Tobias,
Edward Probyn,
Robert Gracie,
J. W. Francis, M. D.
William Neal,
Thomas Pringle,
William Fairs nav,
Gen. Morton,
William Wilson.
Thomas Hogg,
James M'Brair,
John M'Intyre,
Charles Oakley.
Andrew Clark,
David S. Lyon,
Philip Rhinelander,
Clement C. Moore,
William Neilson,
Francis Baretto,
J. W. Schmidt,
John Groshox,
John M'Nab,
William Wilson.
Wright Post, M. D. 
 
At the anniversary meeting of the New-York Horticultural
     Society, held on the 31st day of August, it was

 UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED,
              That a Committee be appointed to wait
on the President, and solicit a copy of the learned and
eloquent  Discourse this day delivered  before the  New-
York Horticultural  Society: whereupon the following
gentlemen were appointed:
        The Hon. William P. Van Ness,
        Martin Hoffman, Esq.
        James Buchanan, British Consul,
        John  R. Murray, Esq.
        Professor Wright Post, M. D.
        David S. Lyon,  Esq.

                      LEVI  H. CLARKE,
                              Recording Secretary. 
 
To David Hosack, M. D. President of the New-York Horticultural
                            Society.

                              New-York, September 7,1824.
Dear Sir,
         With great pleasure we comply with the unanimous wishes
of the New-York Horticultural Society, in presenting to you the en-
closed resolution, requesting a copy of your Discourse, delivered be-
fore them on the  31st ult.  We cordially concur with them  in the
desire expressed for its publication, as well on account of its interest
and elegance as a composition, as from a wish to have more conve-
nient access to the  judicious propositions and valuable advice it sub-
mits to their consideration.
           With sentiments of the highest esteem and respect,
                                WILLIAM  P. VAN  NESS.
                               MARTIN HOFFMAN,
                               JAMES BUCHANAN,
                                JOHN R. MURRAY,
                                WRIGHT POST,
                                DAVID  S. LYON.
 To the Hon. William P. Van Ness, Martin Hoffman, Esq. James
   Buchanan, British Consul,  John R. Murray, Esq. Professor
   Wright Post, M. D. and David S. Lyon, Esq. Committee of the
   New-York Horticultural Society.
                               New-York, September 8, 1824.
 Gentlemen,
         The Resolution  of the New-York Horticultural Society
 affords a high gratification to my feelings; but the  very  flattering
 manner in which you have communicated it, and the character you
 have attached to the Discourse itself,  I confess create in my mind
 the apprehension that you have excited expectations that cannot fail
 to be disappointed.   I nevertheless commit it to your care, with the
 hope that the reader will recollect, that the laborious duties of the
medical profession are to  a certain extent incompatible with that
 attention to style  and composition that are usually looked for in ex-
 ercises of this nature.
                       I am, Gentlemen,
                With sentiments of great regard and respect,
                             Your humble servant,
                                         DAVID HOSACK. 
 
INAUGURAL  DISCOURSE.
  Gentlemen,
Members of the New-York Horticultural Society,
     When I lately withdrew from the situations
I held  in some of the  literary and benevolent
institutions of this city, it was my intention to
have retained none, nor to have accepted of any
other, saving those immediately connected with
my profession.  But the strong attachment, which
from my youth I have  cherished for botanical
and horticultural pursuits, in connexion with an
ardent  desire to advance the interests  of this
excellent institution, will  not permit me to de-
cline  the honour you have this  day conferred
upon me.  Indeed, Gentlemen, I should do injus-
tice to my own feelings, and be wanting in re-
spect for the active exertions and abilities that
already have signalized the members and officers
of this Society, not to express the  high  gratifi-
                       R 
                      10
 cation 1 feel in being selected to the station that
 has  hitherto been  so  honourably and usefully
 occupied.
  Horticulture embraces three objects. 1st. The
 cultivation of the plants of the  table, including
 culinary vegetables  and fruits.  2d. Those plants
 which are considered  as ornamental.  And 3d.
 Landscape gardening; or, the art of laying out
grounds in such  manner as may render them
most conducive to utility and beauty.
  In as far therefore as horticulture is not only
subservient to utility, but, like the art of painting,
addresses itself to the taste and to the imagina-
tion, it has very properly been enumerated among
the liberal or the fine arts; and accordingly ranks
among the most delightful  and important of hu-
man pursuits.  By Cicero  it is with great pro-
priety enumerated  among  the  most  pleasing
occupations of the  mind,  peculiarly so  in  ad-
vanced life; at the same time that it is beneficial
to health, by the agreeable exercise it affords to
the body and the mental faculties.
  In the observations  I propose to make upon
this occasion, I will not intrude, Gentlemen, by
any detailed allusions to the history of this art. 
                     11
I might otherwise, perhaps, amuse you with the
interesting accounts given of the gardens of an-
tiquity, as well as of those of modern times; for
poets have ever derived their greatest beauties,
and  philosophers some of their most interesting
disquisitions, from this exhaustless store of hu-
man happiness.  The works of Homer, Juvenal,
Virgil, Milton, Shenstone,  Thomson, Cowper,
Mason, and the Abbe Delile, owe much  of their
interest to this delightful theme.
  But even the charms that Milton has attached
to the blissful abode of the  first happy  pair, or
with  which Homer, in his Odyssey, has embel-
lished the gardens of Alcinous, or of Laertes, shall
not  divert me from  my present purpose.   Nor
shall I attempt to ascertain the horticultural skill
that was  bestowed upon the  garden of Cyrus,
that of Attalus, the celebrated groves of the Hes-
perides,  or the Hanging  Terraces  of Babylon.
Nor  shall I descant  upon the beauties of the
Academus; of the retirement in which Epicurus
taught his philosophy; or that selected by Plato
on the banks  of the  Ilyssus, celebrated as the
scene of his Dialogue on Beauty.  Nor shall the
magnificence  of the  gardens  of Lucullus, the 
                      12
 Tusculan villa of the Roman orator, or Pliny's
 celebrated  retreat  in the  Appennines,  when
 Rome was at  the summit of her glory,  and the
 mistress of the world in arts and arms, detain me.
   But  referring to  Xenophon,  to Justin,  to
 Virgil,  to Pausanias, to Pliny,  and  to the wri-
 ters of later days, Walpole,* Sir William Tem-
 ple, Wheatly,f  and  to  Dr.  Falconer's  His-
 torical  View  of the  Gardens of  Antiquity, I
 pass  on to remark, that  very little has been
 effected in the science of gardening, until the last
fifty years.   Within that period, a number of
individuals,  distinguished for their taste and edu-
cation, have given their attention to the study of
this interesting subject, and especially in France
and in  Great  Britain,  have produced important
changes in every department of horticulture, in-
cluding that branch of it more especially, deno-
minated landscape  gardening.  In this list, the
names of Miller, Marshall, Abercrombie, Brown,
Nicol, Repton, Knight, and  LoudonJ as well as
 others, whose  taste  and  opportunities led them

  * History of Modern Gardening, subjoined to his fourth volume of
the Art of Painting.
  f Observations on Modern Gardening.
  \ Encyclopaedia of Gardening. 
                      13
to the cultivation of this art, hold a distinguish-
ed place.
  But passing over the long and justly celebrated
national  establishment of France, which, under
the auspices of Desfontaines, Jussieu, and Thouin,
embraces every thing directly and remotely con-
nected with  this department of knowledge,* it
is to be observed that it was not until 1804  that
the first association of this nature was formed in
Great Britain.  In that year, under the patronage
of the late Sir Joseph Banks, the Mecaenas of his
age, the Earls Dartmouth and Powis, Sir James
Edward  Smith, Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight, Mr.
R. A. Salisbury, and Mr. Joseph Sabine, the Hor-
ticultural Society of London was instituted; and
in 1809,  by the exertions of Dr. Andrew Duncan,
the able and learned  professor of the institutes of
Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, the Ca-
ledonian Horticultural Society was formed in that
city.  The enterprise and abilities of that vene-
rable character, who, like Celsus of old, united
great horticultural knowledge with his profession-
  * Histoire et Description du Museum Royal d'Histoire NatureJle,
pnr M. Deleuze. 
                     14
al attainments, aided by the Duke of Buccleuch.
the Earl of Wemyss and March, the Honourable
SirJohn Sinclair,Sir JamesHall, Sir George Stew-
art Mackenzie, and others of the Scottish nobility
and gentry, have done much in  directing their
countrymen to the cultivation of this art.
  By the friendly intercourse of the members of
those  institutions,  and the emulation that has
been  excited  among those numerous  bodies,
each consisting of many hundred members, hor-
ticultural knowledge has  rapidly increased, and
the most  beneficial  results have  been expe-
rienced throughout the kingdom of Great Bri-
tain.
   Each of these institutions has published many
volumes  of  communications,  and  much  has
thereby been  effected by diffusing a knowledge
of the principles and practice of gardening,  not
only inviting the attention of gentlemen of  lei-
sure to subjects so immediately conducive to
the support and happiness of man, but  exciting
among  the  cultivators of the garden and  the
field a spirit  of emulation that has been imme-
 diately profitable  by the addition it  has made 
                     15
in the quantity, and the improvements it has ef-
fected in the quality, of the products of the soil.
  The London Horticultural Society has already
published  several quarto  volumes, embracing
many important  subjects in all the departments
of culinary, fruit, and ornamental gardening, and
those too  illustrated  by coloured  engravings,
executed in a style of magnificence highly cre-
ditable to the skill of the artists, and alike ho-
nourable to the  institution and the nation.
   The Scottish  Society has also published some
volumes of great  merit, and although executed
with less attention to  the type and elegance  of
manner, have been the means of spreading very
extensively the knowledge both of the  principles
and the  practice of horticulture.
   But a very few years  have elapsed since the
Society  now assembled, was  first instituted.   In
September 1818, a small number of the more
enterprising and intelligent of the practical gar-
deners and nurserymen  in  the vicinity of this
city, convened  for the  purpose of introducing
such improvements in the cultivation  of our ve-
getable  productions,  as they conceived were
called  for, and which,  by their education and 
                      16
 abilities, they felt themselves competent to effect.
 This association was in the first instance entered
 into without the most  distant view of attracting
 public notice.  Rut as these improvements pro-
 ceeded, they acquired notoriety,  arid the views
 of their  authors expanded with  their success.
 They consequently became  desirous  that  the
 knowledge of the improvements they had effect-
 ed  might be preserved and  extended  for  the
 good of the community.   Many of the most
 respectable gentlemen of our city, who are in
 the habit of passing a portion of their time, dur-
ing the warm season  of the year, at their villas
in the neighbouring country, and who are attach-
 ed to horticulture, also joined in this association;
 and, that their labours might become still more
 extensively useful, as well as for the purpose of
securing  to every individual the  reward due to
him for his active  and successful exertions, it
 was now proposed, that they should form them-
selves  into a regularly  organized  institution.
 This was accordingly effected.
  Such, gentlemen, were the humble and unos-
 tentatious beginnings of the New-York Horticul-
 tural Society, which, within a  very short space 
                      17
of time, has been the means of increasing the
variety, and of improving the quality of the vege-
tables of our table;  of totally changing the face
of our markets; of introducing a great number
of valuable fruits;  of augmenting the number and
variety of ornamental plants, both indigenous and
exotic, and thereby of spreading a  taste for this
innocent, yet instructive  and delightful source of
enjoyment.
  In  the year 1822 this Society made an ap-
plication to the state  legislature for an act of
incorporation.
  The legislature, perceiving the beneficial results
that had been produced, and were to be expected
to the community, from an institution of this na-
ture, and as it was the first thafr had  been esta-
blished  in the United States, they with great
unanimity granted an act of incorporation,  em-
bracing  all the provisions  that  had been so-
licited, and  were deemed  necessary to carry
such institution into successful operation.
  In conformity with this instrument, the gentle-
men composing the association immediately con-
vened, and  appointed a  committee  to prepare a
constitution and code of  by-laws for the govern-
                        c 
                      18
 ment of the same.  These have recently beea
 completed under  the direction  of the Society;
 printed for the use of the members; and are now
 ready for distribution.
   While these measures were in progress, owing
 to a train of unpleasant circumstances,  the  re-
 collection of which we hope may never be  re-
 vived, a few gentlemen thought it expedient to
 form a new establishment, under the title  of  the
 New-York State Horticultural Society, and pre-
 cisely, as they themselves set forth, for similar
 purposes in all respects with those of the original
 institution now in successful operation, and under
 which we are happily assembled.  I well know
 that the greater number  of  those who entered
 into the new association were, at the time they
 expressed their willingness to concur in its  es-
 tablishment, altogether uninformed of the ulterior
 views and proceedings of the  already existing so-
 ciety, and have since expressed their desire that
 the two  associations may be  consolidated and
 their entire willingness to lend their aid in effect-
ing such union.  This event is still to be desired •
and  on  our  part  I feel authorized to say, as
expressed in our proceedings, will be cheerfully 
                     19
acceded to upon terms  of reciprocity.   The
views and objects of the two institutions being,
in all respects,  similar, one is certainly super-
fluous, and creates a very unnecessary call  upon
the contributions of a generous public.  I cannot
therefore  but indulge  the belief, that the mem-
bers of both institutions will make the sacrifice
of any  personal or interested  considerations,
and combine their  efforts for  the purpose  of
effecting an union so desirable, which promises
to be productive of great good to the community,
and an honour to our city and state.  After these
preliminary remarks, I solicit your  attention  to
the consideration of a few of the most prominent
subjects which appear to me to claim the notice
of this Society.
  In the first place, as this Institution is altoge-
ther of a practical nature, and has for its objects
practical improvements in the culture of plants,
it is obvious that a gardenshould be established
in the vicinity of this city, as a repository for the
vegetable productions that maybe received by the
Society, whether derived fromforeign countries,or
the growth of our own soil.  As subservient to the
o-reat purposes  for which this Society has been 
                      20
 instituted, and as already stated, these objects are
 numerous, a piece of ground should  be select-
 ed, which, from its extent, variety, and situation,
 would be capable of affording all the advantages
 that can be contemplated in an establishment of
 this nature.
   1st.  It should be sufficiently extensive to con-
 tain all the variety of fruit-trees and shrubs, not
 only that they may have all the  advantages of
 space  necessary to their growth, but that they
 may be exhibited to the visitor or cultivator under
 the most advantageous circumstances.  And upon
 this subject let me remark, that it becomes high-
ly important, in an institution of this nature, to
 ascertain by a regular series of observations the
characters of the different fruits  that are culti-
vated,  and to determine what are the different
species and varieties  well established as such:
for in  horticulture, as in medicine, empiricism
 exists,  which can only be controlled by an asso-
 ciation of men, well instructed in their profes-
 sion, and who by long observation and experience
 have become familiarly conversant with the sub-
 ject.   It is owing to the want of a proper exami-
 nation of fruits by competent men, that we find. 
                      21
instead of a  standard nomenclature, our cata-
logues of fruits filled with an almost infinite num-
ber of supposed varieties, that have no existence
but in the whim of the cultivator, or which has
originated in sinister or sordid designs.
  2d.  Compartments should  be provided for all
the esculent vegetables of the table, in whatever
form they may exist, whether gramineous or her-
baceous.
  3d.  Provision should be made for the culture
of those  plants that are most useful in medicine,
or are subservient to the arts, or are employed in
manufactures.
  4th. To these should be  added, for the pur-
pose of  diffusing a taste for the productions of
nature, and of exciting the attention of our youth
of both sexes to botanical inquiries, and of con-
tributing to the beauty and elegance of the esta-
blishment, a collection of the most rare and orna-
mental plants that can be procured, both indige-
 nous and exotic.   While therefore we shall thus
have it in  our power to bring into one view, for
 the information  of the stranger or for the pur-
 poses of exchange with foreign correspondents
 of the Institution, the native productions of our 
                     22
varied climate and country, we should also be
provided  with suitable conservatories for those
plants which  may be introduced  from abroad.
And I may add, that the buildings thus erected
should be constructed agreeably to the most cor-
rect principles of architecture; for every such
edifice, in a place  of great public  resort,  will
necessarily have its influence in forming and di-
recting the general taste of the country.
  5th. The  whole of this Institution should be
surrounded with a belt of forest trees and shrubs,
foreign and domestic.
  6lh. Connected also  with these means  of in-
struction, a building  should be set apart, appro-
priated as a Lecturing Room, and supplied with a
Library, where access may be had to every work
of importance, in any of the branches appertain-
ing to the subjects of botany, horticulture, vege-
table physiology, the philosophy of vegetation, or
the principles of agriculture; and in forming such
library, you will not omit to place upon its shelves
the Memoirs and Transactions of the London and
Edinburgh Horticultural Societies,  as well as
those of France and other establishments of the
like nature  on  the  continent  of  Europe;  the 
                      23
transactions of the agricultural institutions of this
country—of  the  states  of Pennsylvania, New-
York, Massachusetts; and the writings of Skin-
ner, Southwick,  Thacher, Coxe, Dean, Taylor,
Elliott, Nicholson, and others, should be included
in such collection.
   7th. Attached to this library, should be a cabi-
net set apart for an Hortus Siccus, or Herbarium,
and containing our most  valuable plants, pre-
served, arranged, and designated, in the manner
that has been adopted by professor Desfontaines,
at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris.* The remark I
have heard made by that  distinguished practical
botanist, the late Sir Joseph Banks, that even an
imperfect  dried specimen is preferable  to  the
best painting, is a striking evidence of the  im-
portance of such collection.  Nevertheless, the
productions of the pencil,  in delineating the most
rare and valuable plants  of the garden,  should
be also carefully collected, as preparatory to the
publications which may hereafter issue from this
establishment.

  * See Journal of the Horticultural Tour in Flanders, Holland, and
the North of France, by a deputation of the Caledoniau Horticultu-
ral Society. 1820. 
                      24
   V'ou have  wisely  provided a  lectureship on
botany and vegetable physiology.   A  new  sub-
ject of inquiry here  opens to our view,  and
merits the particular notice of this Society.   I
refer to the philosophy  of  vegetation,  the  doc-
trines and principles of agricultural chemistry, the
composition of soils, and the  operation of manures,
all  which have recently engaged the  power-
ful  mind  of Sir Humphrey  Davy  and other
distinguished men.   These  are subjects, which?
in addition to the technical  arrangements enter-
ed into by the Lecturer,  will also be embraced
in his course of instruction, and cannot fail to be
productive of important results.
  8th. Another advantage which such an esta-
blishment should possess, is  that of exemplifying
the principles of Ornamental Planting,  or Land-
scape Gardening.  The ground  should be select-
ed of such form and variety as will admit of such
decoration.   And in the cultivation of the various
plants of the collection,  their distribution may
ever be rendered subservient to this great object,
and thereby become the  means of spreading ex-
tensively among our citizens a taste for one of the
highest  recreations  that  the human heart  can 
25
receive,  and  one which will go far  in the im-
provement of the moral principle, and in divert-
ing the. mind from pursuits of a less  worthy na-
ture ; for (lie mind that is not actively engaged
in virtuous pursuits will most probably be occu-
pied with those of a contrary character.
   9th. In  this Institution,  doubtless,  attention
will be given  in forming a  system of instruction
necessary in the education of the complete gar-
dener, in the manner that has been constantly
practised in some of the institutions  of Europe.
For this purpose, apprentices should be received
for a certain period of time, affording them the
advantages  not only of being instructed in the
cultivation of all sorts of culinary and  ornamental
plants, but of being made practically acquainted
with the  different  operations of pruning, training,
budding,  grafting, layering,  and  transplanting,  as
well as the general principles of ornamental gar-
dening.
   A professor of drawing should be attached to
the establishment, whose duties should be, not
only to make delineations ef any plants of great
value or  beauty that may be  introduced into the
collection, but who would  also deliver a course
                      n   - 
                     26
of lectures upon his art, to the pupils who might
resort to this establishment for instruction.
  Instead then of looking to Europe for garden-
ers, which has  hitherto  been the  custom of our
country, we  should at  such school educate  a
sufficient number of our own citizens  to supply
all the wants that may be created.  Another ad-
vantage that  must  obviously flow from  such an
organization, is, that the natives of our soil, being
necessarily better acquainted with the climate
and the vicissitudes of our seasons, are conse-
quently, with the same  opportunities  of educa-
tion, better qualified for the duties of their occu-
pation than the foreign  gardener, who  requires
the residence of years to instruct  him  in this im-
portant part of his profession.
  II. Another, among the most important subjects
which will invite our attention, is the cultivation of
our native fruits.
  When we recollect, to use the language of Mr.
Knight, that the golden pippin was derived from
the austere crab of the woods, and that the nu-
merous varieties of* the plum are the produce of
the native sloe, we are taught the importance of
giving our attention to the numerous and hitherto 
                      27
unexplored productions of our native wilds, and
are encouraged to  believe that many important
additions may be made to the table by the en-
terprise of our members in changing, by culture,
the character of our domestic fruits.  When, too,
we see  that  many trees  have  been rendered
capable of ripening their fruits in climates colder
than their native country, and that many have
been  assimilated in their habits  to  their newly
adopted  climate, and  as the horticulture of one
country  must  essentially  differ  from  that of
another,  and must vary in its nature and objects,
depending upon climate, soil, and  other  local
circumstances, it is  important for us to institute
a series  of observations and experiments, with
the view  to ascertain how far many plants, which
are now the staple productions of the south, may
be  acclimated  to  higher  degrees of latitude.
The successful experiments of Du Hamel, in
France,  are  very instructive upon this subject,
and will admit of  extensive application in the
United States.
  The cultivation of the vine, in a peculiar man-
ner, merits the notice of this Society. 
                      2«
   This subject has been frequently recommend-
 ed by many eminent horticulturists, aiui in several
 instances attempted, but  in some without the
 success which had  been  anticipated, and  this
 probably owing to the measures not being adopt-
 ed or  understood that  are  necessary to its ac-
 complishment.    Great praise  is  due to  Mr.
 Adlum, a distinguished  culiivator of the vine at
 Georgetown, District of Columbia, to Mr. Eichel-
 berger, of Pennsylvania,* to Mr.  Divers, of Char-
 lottesville, Virginia,  to  Dr. Wilson of Clermont,
 and to Colonel Gibbes, an  agriculturist in the vi-
 cinity of this city, as well  as some other of the
 members of  this  Society,  for the attention  they
 have given to the cultivation of the grape.
   Among the wants in our domestic economy,
 none are more conspicuous or lamentable  than
 that  of some agreeable beverage which  may
 supersede the use of ardent spirits, the inordi-
nate and extensive use of  which  has lono- been
 among the opprobria of our countrymen.   It is
a common remark,  and  is  fully justified by the
 experience of European nations, and the  high
■* American Fanner, vol. V. p. 251. 
                     29
authority of that illustriousVriter upon political
economy, Dr.-Adam Smith,* that the inhabitants
of countries where the vine is cultivated and the
juice of the grape  the common beverage of the
people, are free from the vice  of intemperance.
It is remarked by that acute observer, " that the
inhabitants of wine countries are, in general, the
soberest people in  Europe.   Witness  the Spa-
niards, the Italians, and  the inhabitants  of the
southern  provinces  of France."  "On the con-
trary ,v he  observes,  " that  in  the  countries
which, either from  excessive heat or cold, pro-
duce no grapes, and  where wine  consequently
is dear and a rarity, drunkenness is a common
vice;  as  among the northern nations, and  all
those who live between the tropics, the negroes,
for  example, on  the coast  of Guinea."  The
cheapness of wine, he  adds,  seems, therefore,
to be a cause, not of drunkenness, but of sobriety.
I was told by the late Dr. Hugh Williamson, that
Mr. Jefferson assured him that, during his resi-
dence, as American  minister, in France,  he
never met with  but one instance of intoxication.
* Wealth of Nations, vol. II. jp. 296. 
                      30
   An English gentleman* of great intelligence,
who  has  recently  travelled  through  Spain,
within a few days informed me,  that, with the
exception of those who held intercourse with
British  or American  seamen, who are in the
constant use of spirituous liquors, he never met
with a drunken Spaniard.
   It seems, therefore, to be equally the  dictate
of patriotism and humanity, to eradicate from
our  country so  grievous a  reproach.   This
Society,  gentlemen,  by  their attention  to this
subject, may be the means by which thousands
of our fellow-men may be reclaimed from a most
pernicious and disgraceful vice, alike ruinous to
domestic happiness, and destructive of the moral
character of the nation.
   The  question  then presents  itself,  is  our
climate  capable of affording the grape in suffi-
cient quantities to  furnish  wine  as the daily
beverage of the inhabitants of the United States?
or do we  possess resources for this purpose in
the native fruits of our country ?
* Charles Waterton, Esq. of Walton Hall. 
                     31
  From the experiments  already made  in  dif-
ferent parts of this country, this question may,
I believe, be answered in the affirmative.
  The experiments made  in the  southern  and
western  states, as we are informed  by  Mr.
James G. Hicks, a writer in the American Far-
mer,* show that wines of most excellent quality,
both Claret and  Madeira  have been produced.
" I  am well convinced," says the  writer,  " from
my experience in the business, that a vineyard,
in  an  eligible situation,  well  cultivated,  will
yield from three to five hundred gallons to the
acre; and  one hand can with ease cultivate five
 acres, except gathering;  and  I have no doubt
but the wine would be equally as good  as  that
which is imported at  the same age.  I have  sold
my wine, when only two years  old,  for two and
 a half, and three dollars per gallon."
  "Should the people of Kentucky and Ten-
 nessee turn their attention to this business, they
 will not only be enabled to stop the  importation
 of  wines,  but will be enabled to  furnish  the
 eastern and  northern  states with  this  article
* V«l. II. p. 40R. 
                     32
cheaper than they can import it."  Further and
more recent  observations made by Mr. Adlum,
already referred  to, by  the  late Mr.  Thomas
Roach of Hartford, by the sect of Harmonists
from  Suabia, now cultivating the vine to a great
extent in  Indiana, and the extensive establish-
ment at Cacahokia,  now Illinois, also abundantly
evince the capacity of our soil  and climate in
the production of wines of the best  quality from
various grapes, both foreign and  domestic.
  It is remarked by Mr. Madison,* whose observa-
tions on the subject of agriculture, to which he now
devotes his retirement, are  no less profound and
deserving  public attention than were those which
occupied his  mind during his  public life,  when
engaged in the  weightier concerns of the nation,
" That the practicability and national economy
of substituting, to a great  extent at least, for  the
foreign wines, on which so large a sum is expend-
ed, those which can be produced at  home, with-
out withdrawing  labour  from objects better re-
warding it, is strongly illustrated by the experi-
ments and statements  made  upon this subject.
* American Farmer, vol. V. p. 63. 
                      33
The introduction of a native wine is  not a little
recommended, moreover, by its tendency to sub-
stitute a beverage favourable to temperate habits,
for the  ardent liquors so  destructive  to the
morals, the health, and the  social happiness of
the  American  people; and it  may  be added,
which is so expensive  to them also: for, be-
sides the actual cost of the intoxicating draughts,
the value of the time and strength consumed by
them is of not less  amount."
   It has also been proposed by many of our far-
mers, and numerous experiments in various parts
of the United  States show the  propriety of the
suggestion, to  furnish a substitute for spirituous
liquors by  obtaining, from  the fermentation of
some  of the  native  fruits of our soil, as  from
those  which are  now extensively cultivated in
our fields  and  our gardens, wines which might
take the place of the more expensive produce
of the grape.
   The apple* the pear, the blackberry, the currant,
the  raspberry,  the  gooseberry,  and the elderberry
  * See an important communication on the subject of domestic
wines, by Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill; and observations on the sarae
subject, by Dr. Rush, in the appendix to this discourse. 
                     34
have all been successfully made  use of for this
purpose  in various parts of this country, and
wines highly agreeable, obtained  from  these
fruits, are now prepared in considerable  quan-
tities, offered  for sale in our cities, and  when
fashion, and the  patronage of influential  indi-
viduals, and of public institutions shall recom-
mend them to our citizens, I have no doubt that,
with the improvements they will receive in their
preparation, and which will be proportioned
to the  demand, our  country will  be abundantly
supplied with domestic wines calculated to pro-
duce all the cordial and salutary effects of, with-
out the  evils arising  from, the stronger wines of
Madeira or France, or the use of ardent spirits.
  My time will not permit me  to enlarge  upon
this interesting topic.
  In conclusion, Gentlemen, allow  me  here to
remark,  that the  city of New-York possesses
advantages and  facilities for the various objects
of our  Institution, greater than can  be obtained
in any other part of the union.  By our  com-
merce  and our navy, we have continued inter-
course  with  every  part of the globe.   The
gentlemen employed in the public  service of 
                      35
their country, and in the recently established
communications with the different parts  of the
world,  are, for the most part too, men  of ex-
cellent education and inquiring  minds, and not
wanting in patriotism, whether employed in the
battles  of their country, or in cultivating the arts
of peace.
  Circulars prepared under the direction  of this
institution, and placed in their hands when they
depart  from our shores, would secure to us, in a
very  few years,  the vegetable productions of
every part of the  habitable globe, and  in the
intercourse between  this city and the other
parts of the union, so unceasing is the communi-
cation,  and at all seasons of the  year, that the
benefits we may through these  channels receive
in this city and state will immediately be diffused
through our common country.
  But this is  not all.    Science, which  in one
shape or  another, grasps all  human  improve-
ments,  and presses them into  the  service of a
common cause, will in return receive direct aid
from the stupendous artificial works now nearly
completed in  this  state for the  promotion  of
trade and intercourse.  I cannot be  mistaken 
                     36
in  my allusion.   I  speak,  Gentlemen,  of  the
great Western Canal, and the minor communi-
cations which are connected with it.  The vast
and fertile regions of the west are yet to be ex-
plored by the sons of genius and research.  The
secrets of nature are yet  to be unfolded.  Her
hidden treasures,  her countless varieties, and
her  unnumbered beauties  are yet to be pre-
sented.
  The territory of the  great lakes and  of  the
western rivers is a world of itself. How important,
then, that we are thus approximated by  the gi-
gantic work  which  I have  mentioned.   Our
course is  now open to the depths of the wilder-
ness.   In peace and in comfort we  can not only
visit the  walks  of civilization and refinement,
the towns, the villages, and the cities which have
recently appeared in the  west as if they were
called forth by the potent hand of enchantment;
but we can  also gratify our curiosity and  our
love of science, by examining regions where  the
footstep of the  naturalist has never left  an  im-
pression, or  science  gleaned a treasure.   I  say
then that the magnificent internal improvements
of the state of New-York  are tributary  to  our 
                     37
objects.  They facilitate the execution of  our
laudable designs.  They multiply, on a stupen-
dous scale, the means of intercourse, and literally
annihilate distance and expansion of territory.
  And while on this subject, and removed, as I
am, by my professional pursuits, from the sphere
of politics and the vortex of party collision, can
I justly refrain from indulging  in a passing ex-
pression of my respect for the  statesman whose
profound reflections, deep penetration, and ener-
gy  of character  have been subservient to the
commencement, the prosecution, and the  near
completion of these unparalelled projects?
   The name of Clinton is not  only endeared  to
the votaries of science by his  devotions at her
shrine, but rendered doubly so by the indirect
 aid which he affords to her interests by his splen-
did plans of public  policy; plans at once great,
practicable, and unrivalled in the age which has
 produced them. 
 
APPENDIX.
Letter from Samuel  L. Mitchill,  M. D. to David
  Hosack, M. D. on the improvement  of Orchards, Ap-
  ples,  and Cider.

                         New-York, September 3d, 1824.
   My dear Sir,
            Since the apple, as an article for furnishing
a vinous liquor, has been referred to me for consideration,
I give you with pleasure my opinion, as lecturer on bota-
ny and vegetable physiology to the Horticultural Society.
The  tree affording this fruit, and the agreeable drink the
latter yields  by fermentation, have long exercised the
industry and  skill of man.   And in the  convenient soils
of the middle latitudes, many proprietors have considered
their culture as matters of high moment.
    Nor is this an object of surprise.   The apple-tree,  in
 my judgment,  produces some of the best  fruit  in the
 world.  Many varieties  gratify the sight by their diver-
 sity of figure, size, and colour;  others satisfy the smell,
 by their fragrance, of a delicious quality; while yet others
 again  recreate  the palate with  their exquisite flavour. 
40
 The expressed juice is well known in one of its ferment-
 ing stages as cider, and in another as vinegar.
   If there is any room for wonder in the case, it is that
 more stress has not been laid upon the cultivation of the
 apple, especially in  our parts of North  America.   It
 seems to me that the  region  between James River and
the Kaatskill Mountains, including New-Jersey  and all
the southern district of New-York, is peculiarly favoura-
ble to orchards of this kind.  The trees thrive well; are
long-lived; bear the heat,  cold,  and vicissitudes of the
weather;  run into endless varieties, which varieties are
 perpetually on the increase;  and they bear grafting
 and inoculation to admiration.
   And still, with so many  good qualities, the apple has
not risen  so  high  in public estimation as it  deserves.
There are two obvious reasons for the neglect  it  has ex-
perienced.
   One cause, at least among those who  speak the  Eng-
lish language, is connected  with the name it bears.   The
word cider does not  convey to the  mind the idea of a
wine, or vinous  liquor.  However excellent it may be, it
is consumed simply as cider; and is not  exalted to the
rank and dignity of wine.   The German tongue is more
happy in this respect; for  it denominates  cider by the
name of Apfel wein,  or apple wine.  And if  we  could
establish,  from  " malus," the Latin  name  for the apple-
 tree, or " malum," an apple, such a title  as malic wine,
 instead of cider, I am confident its  character and credit
 would be  increased. 
                         41
   The other cause is  the preference given to the grape,
and its produce. The vine, which produces this fruit, has,
"ke the apple, branched into  numberless varieties, and
proved itself capable of cultivation over most countries of
Southern, and  some of middle Europe.   The vine has
steadily there kept pace with improvement and civilization.
The more common forms of the fermented drink procur-
ed from its fruit have been deemed necessary to life;
while the more exquisite modifications are classed among
the most precious luxuries.  It has also gained, and  de-
servedly, the consideration due to a valuable and impor-
tant medicine.   In addition to the intrinsic worth of this
product, which may  be called " grape wine," or  " wine
of the grape," our manners, habits, and customs, so much
resemble those of the people from whom we have  de-
scended, that we can  hardly be friendly or sociable with-
out it.
   Attempts were, soon after the settlement of certain co-
lonies, made to render this country independent  of all
others, by rearing and dressing the vine.   Yet the pro-
ject, though urged by its advocates early in the seven-
teenth century, at  least  two hundred years ago,  has
hitherto been carried but partially into execution.   This
has probably arisen from the great ease with which wine
has been imported  from foreign ports and places; and
from the readiness with which our bread-stuffs,  fish, and
other kinds of food,  are  exchanged  for this sort of
drink.
   I am satisfied, from  long and extensive observation,
that our country, south of the latitude of about forty-one 
42
 degrees, or perhaps a little more, will sustain the grape-
 vine.   The  fruit produced  in the county of New-York
 and its vicinity, is  abundant and delicious.  The liquor
 prepared by Mr. Legaux, from his vineyard near Phila-
 delphia, proves the vine to afford good fruit.  The like
 favourable report has been made of the Swiss settlement
 at Vcvay, under John James Dufour and his associates.
 And more recently, Thomas Worthington, Esq. has pro-
 duced for our tasting an  elegant wine, partaking of the
 qualities  uniting claret  to burgundy, from his own
 plantation in the state of Ohio.  The publication pro-
 mised by William Lee, Esq. a gentleman well acquaint-
 ed with the cultivation of the vine, and especially in the
 tracts watered by the river Garonne in France, may be
 expected to  contain the most correct and recent informa-
 tion on the subject.
  But it is not to exotic vines only that we may look.
 Our indigenous species and varieties promise something
 valuable by  culture.  The scuppernong of North Caro-
 lina,  from the place where the  river Roanoake empties
into the Sound,  is  already known and  approved.  The
luxuriance of the plants in Alabama, may be understood
by Mr. N. Bicknell's letter, of a late date, from Clarkes-
ville.   " The grape-vines grow to an enormous size, and
 rise to the tops of the tallest pines.  I have seen them as
 large as my thigh,  ten feet from the ground.  In an ac-
count I read a few days since of the progress of the vine-
 cultivation in Pennsylvania, it is stated that cuttings are
 planted, which bear a few  grapes the third  year.   I was
 conversing with a gentleman here on the subject, who 
43
informed  me, that learning a  graft would take on  the
vine, he dug up some vines in the woods, set them out,
and  grafted them; and that one of them produced two
bunches the first year, and bore abundantly the second.
There is a native kind here, of delicious flavour, having
tartness enough to  prevent cloying the appetite.   The
bunches are very long, and three hundred and sixty-four
grapes of a large size were counted upon one of them.
I wish it could be ascertained whether grapes take  the
graft," he.
   I  consider it perfectly practicable for wine of the grape,
both of the  foreign  and domestic stocks, to be produced
in the proper  soils  and  climates  of the United States,
whenever the agricultural citizens  shall turn  their atten-
tion that way.   If I should hesitate or object to this mode
of improving laud,  it would be upon other  ground.  I
have ever considered a country abounding in grass and
grain, as affording the greatest amount of enjoyment to
those who do the work.   The beast and his master are
more plentifully fed.  The abundance which passes from
the field into the barn and the granary, shows itself in
the number and fatness of the animals, in the  excellent
condition  of buildings  and fences, in the comforts and
even elegancies of  the mansion, and in the  income and
credit of the owner.  This association of a  grazing and
bread-stuff culture with the maximum of enjoyment for a
free and republican people,  is almost  indelible in  my
mind.  Every additional acre thus improved is an addi-
tional evidence of prosperity, in my sense of the word ;
and every acre taken from this culture, and turned to 
44
 something else, even to the culture  of the vine, may be
 considered as withdrawn from the more interesting busi-
 ness of yielding food and its accompaniments.
   The planting of the apple-tree is not liable to this re-
 mark.  It is consistent with the  full exercise  of the
 plough and the hoe,  the scythe and the flail, the mill and
 the tannery.  The manifold uses of this fruit are universally
 known.   How, nevertheless, can I forbear to mention the
 Swaar-apple of Poughkeepsie, the Spitzenbergh of Kings-
 ton, and the Pippins of Newtown ?   New-Jersey has be-
 come  famous for the cider of Newark.   Virginia is
 proud of her Hughes's crab.  New-York dwells with sa-
 tisfaction upon the praises of Fame's  red-streak:  and our
 fellow-citizen, William Cumberland, has been specially
 occupied  for a considerable time in practical trials to
 bring cider to that degree of purity and excellence, enti-
 tling it to the appellation of apple wine.
   I really wish, that farmers would  turn their  thoughts
 more seriously to the apple, and its vinous products.
   The points more immediately worthy of observation,
 are, among others, the following:
   1. The selection of the best fruit for making the  parti-
cular ciders.
  2. The rearing of a sufficient number of trees, to pro-
duce a good vintage.
  3. The securing thereby the ripening of the apples, at
the same time, and at the proper season.
  4. The separation of the select apples from all unripe
ones, and  from all acerb varieties.
   5. The removal of all dirt and heterogenous matters. 
45
   6« Attention to the  clean and  inodorous condition of
 fhe  casks and vessels.
   7. Proper attention to the process of fermentation, that
 *t be checked by sulphureous fumes, or by cool vaults,
 before it goes too far.
   8. The construction of cellars or recesses along side-
 hills or slopes, for keeping and ripening the liquor.
   9. Due attention to  fining, racking, decanting,  and
 precaution requisite for rendering it  as complete as its
 nature will admit.
   Whenever the  state  of society shall arrive, and I hope
 it is not very remote, when the  apple shall receive that
 culture and management of which it is susceptible, there
 will be produced among ourselves  liquors or drinks far
 superior to the greater  part of the  imported  wines, and
 approaching,  with  due care and art, the virtues  of the
 most highly esteemed and fashionable of them all.
   I avail  myself of this opportunity to congratulate you
 on the good already done by the members, and the pros-
 pect of an enlargement  as well as a  continuance of their
 useful labours: and I conclude my  communication by a
renewed assurance of my good feeling and high regard.
SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 
/                         46

  Extract from Observations on the Domestic Wines of th
          United States, by the late Dr. Rush.*
    " It is to be lamented that the  grape  is not vet suffi-
 ciently cultivated in our country, to afford wine for our
 citizens; but many excellent substitutes may be made for
 it, from the native fruits of all the states.   If two barrels
 of cider, fresh from the press,  are boiled into one,  and
 afterwards fermented,  and kept for two or three years in
 a dry cellar, it affords a liquor, which, according to the
 quality of the apple from which the cider is made,  has
 the taste of Malaga or Rhenish wine.  It affords, when
 mixed with water,  a most agreeable drink in  summer.
 I have taken  the  liberty of calling it Pomona Wine.
 There is another method of making a pleasant wine from
 the apple, by adding  four and twenty gallons of new
 cider to three gallons  of syrup made from the  expressed
juice of sweet apples.  When thoroughly fermented, and
 kept for a few years, it becomes fit for use.  The black-
 berry of our  fields, and  the raspberry and currant of
 our gardens, afford likewise an agreeable  and wholesome
 wine, when  pressed, and  mixed with  certain proportions
 of sugar and  water, and a little spirit, to  counteract  the
disposition to an excessive fermentation.   It is no objec-
 tion to these cheap and home-made wines, that they are
 unfit for use till they are two or three years old.   The
 foreign wines  in common use in our country, require not
 only a much longer time to bring them to  perfection, but
 to prevent their being disagreeable even to the  taste."

   * See his Inquiry into the effects of ardent spirits upon  the human
 body and mind.  p. 17. 
I