The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-30
Centenary of Americas
 First Landscape Gardner

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 While the name of Andrew Jackson Downing is well nigh forgotten by all but a few, the centenary of his birth today will not pass without notice for all horticuIturists and landscape gardners honor his memory as the pioneer of rural art in America. Every beautiful park and magnificent coun- [ trv estate in North America is in a sense to a memorial to Downing, for it was he who first implanted in Am erfcan hearts a love for the develop ment of the beautiful in nature, and in rural life.
 Andrew Jackson Downing was born in Newburgh, N. Y, Oct. 80, 1915. the son of a nurseyman. From an early age his tastes were directed to horticulture, botany. and the natural sciences. At that time the art of land scape gardening was almost unknown in the New World. Rural architec- ture was of the simplest and crudest type. and based almost solely on utili- ty Along the Hudson, the Delaware and the St. Lawrence there were a. few country estates whose owners had adaptrd European ideas of architec ure and landscape gardening to their houses, and grounds, but these were few and far between Even New Eng land with all it's inherited culture,
 
 country places.
 Downey was educated in an5-acad- emy in the town of Montgomery, but he left school at the age of sixteen, to assist m elder brother who had suc- ceeded his father in the. conduct of the nursery business. In the intervals of labor the boy read every available work on landscape gardening, botany and the culture of trees, shrubs, flow CTS and fruits. With his mind we'll stored with theoretical knowledge the nursery business gave him oppor- tunities to put his ideas into effect, and he made valuable suggestions. to the owners of neighboring estates along the Hudson.
 At twenty-three he married, and be- gan the erection of small but beauti- full home which. with its tastefully arranged grounds. afforded the first practical illustration of a typicaIly American conception of an American rural home. In 1841 he published his "Treatise on the theory and Prac- ice of Landscape Gardenening," the first work of it's kind printed in Amer ica. The authors correct ideas of taste, wide information, and full ap pra aciation of the conditions of rural architecture in the New World, gave the book the position of a standard authority. In England Down1ng's work won the Il1SneSI COII1IISIlOdtAOA Later he published his Cottage Art" and in 1S45 he issued a volume on Fruits and Fruit Trees in America . This was followed by ''Architecture for Country Houses,'' and several oth- CT volumes, all of which was recoS- nfzed as authoritive. He was elected to membership in all the leading hor- ticu1tura1 societies of Europe by the leaders of his profession, and afforded every opportunity to study the great country seats of Great Britian. On h1s return to America he was employed by President Fillmore to lay out the | grounds in the city of Washington in 1 the vicinity of the Capitol, the White l House and the Smithsonian Institute. 1
 It was while he was in the midst of ! these Iabors that Downing's came to | g; tragic end. He was a passenger !! on board the steamboat Henry Clay, | bound from Newburgh to New York, ! when the boat which had been racing | with a rival craft, was discovered to | be on fire. It was then off Yonkers,f and the boat was steered for the shore | but the heat of the conhagration l forced many to jump over board | Downing was one of these. When last seen he was struggling in the water, with several others clinging to him. His body was subsequently recovered and buried at New burgh.