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PATRICK BARRY.

[Illustration: Patrick Barry]

Our portrait this week is of Patrick Barry, Esq., the noted nurseryman
and horticulturist of Rochester, N. Y. Mr. Barry was born near Belfast,
Ireland, in 1816. His father was a small farmer, but he gave the boy a
good education, and at eighteen he was appointed to teach in one of the
national schools. At the age of twenty he resigned this position, and
came to America, where he began clerking in the Linnaean nurseries, at
Flushing, L. I. During his stay of four years here he mastered the
principles of the nursery business. In 1840 he moved to Rochester, and
forming a partnership with Mr. Ellwanger, started the famous Mount Hope
Nurseries. They began on a tract of but seven acres. In 1852 he issued
the "Fruit Garden," which is to this day a standard work among
horticulturists. Previous to this he had written largely for the
agricultural and horticultural press. In 1852 he also began editing the
Horticulturist, then owned by Mr. James Vick. Mr. Barry's second great
work, and the one involving most time and labor was the Catalogue of the
American Pomological Society.

Mr. Barry has long been President of the Western New York Horticultural
Society. He is also a member of the Board of Control of the New York
Experiment Station. He has served several terms in the city council of
Rochester and in the Board of Supervisors of the country. Mr. Barry is
an active business man and besides his great labor in conducting the
nursery affairs, he discharges the duties of President of many corporate
enterprises in which he has large financial interests. Mr. Barry was
happily married in 1847, and the amiable sharer of his hardships and his
successes is still living.

COMPILED CORRESPONDENCE.

HANCOCK CO., Dec. 31.--Weather very disagreeable; snow six inches deep,
and from rain and sleet and thaw and freeze, has formed a hard crust, so
as to make bad traveling--in the roads icy and slippery. To-day cloudy,
damp and cool. A few days ago the mercury reached 8 degrees below zero,
the lowest of the season. It is very hard on stock, and many of the
cattle are without shelter, as usual. Accept New Year greetings for all
THE PRAIRIE FARMER family. L. T.

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MILLS CO., MO., Jan. 8.--Since the first of January we have had hard
winter weather. An old weather prophet says we are to have just such
weather for forty days. I s