374 ^ STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Concords, -while these vines are altogether exempt. Tliis year hot, steamy 

 ■weather would occur immediately after severe showers. The result has been 

 wide-spread blight among pear, apple, and other trees, and grapes could be seeu 

 to mildew wliile observing them ; but tlicse vines, close to the ground, have 

 been kept shaded all the time and wore also much cooler. In no case do they 

 show any evidence of atmospheric or insect injury of any sort. 



Experiments like these are recommended in localities where mildew is com- 

 mon, and wlicrc choice sorts, like the Catawba, do not usually prosper. The 

 mode of cullure has many merits. It costs little or nothing to care for them, 

 only placing brush or rough forks under them to keep the vines from contact 

 with the earth. In winter tlie snow, leaves, and other sheltering cover, sift in 

 among the branches and remain there, preventing injury from severity of the 

 climate. Last and most important of all, the fruit is of a superior quality, 

 Avithout any imperfections, in any part, even while requiring no care. 



Have any of your readers ever tried this method of grape culture? If they 

 have, it would be instructive to hear from them, whether they succeeded or 

 failed. — T., in Prairie Farmer. 



DETEllIORATIOX OF VARIETIES. 



Those who propagate from inferior seed or inferior stock, may expect to see 

 ''varieties run out." Those who use mature and healthy stock or seed, can 

 rely on keeping up the variety they breed or grow from. Those who select extra 

 specnnens to perpetuate the variety, may look for improvement. 



These rules are laws of nature. If they show exceptions that are not the 

 result of bad treatment or accident, the exceptions will prove very rare and 

 establish the rule. The one fast trotter, from plow-horse stock, docs not con- 

 vince anybody that horses for the course are hereafter to be bred from scrub 

 stock. 



I planted, last season, a few hills of "Stowell" corn from an ear that was 

 partially matured. Some of it grew, but the plants were weak, and the small 

 ears produced were much later than those produced from plump full-grown 

 seed. Shrunken grain may grow and produce a crop, but the yield must be 

 small and the grain inferior. And if the best of seed be used on weak soil, or 

 with bad culture, or if the crop be injured by drouth, or shrunken by mildew 

 or rust, such a crop is unfit for seed. WiLli the best care in the best soil, it will 

 produce weak plants. It has started already to "run out." 



In grafting, I have found unmistakably more vigorous growth from scions 

 that were large, mature, and with strong eyes, than from those that were not 

 well matured or were of stinted growth; and doubtless the same is true of cut- 

 tings of all sorts when used for })ropagation. And thrifty trees and vines can 

 be relied on to produce the best fruit, and (quality and quantity considered) 

 fruit of the most value. 



New varieties are produced by seed, and plants ; and desirable varieties can't be 

 perpetuated without care. Those that are reproduced by seed only, require care 

 to avoid mixture and care to use only the best mature seed at that; and where 

 cuttings are used for reproduction the liealthy and mature alone are fit for use. 



In the past, most tree fruit improvements have resulted from clnuice. Ai)ple 

 seed seldom rei)roduces a variety. Tlie Strawberry apple, the Northern Spy, 

 and the Crabs, come nearest to it, and seedlings from these give largest promise 



