SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 415 



-organization through hybridization. Mr. Bull grew some twenty-five hun- 

 dred different seedlings; Mr. Miner nearly as many; yet the Victoria, and 

 the Concord, etc., are the only results. I cannot help adding that I am 

 amazed at the lack of recognition of the higher value of the Eumelan for 

 hybridizing purposes. 



Manures for Grapes. — Dr. G. C. Caldwell says experiments with com- 

 mercial fertilizers in vineyards, continued for four years in the Rhine district, 

 have given encouraging results, showing that such manures can be profitably 

 substituted for stable manure, as to effect on both quantity and quality of 

 the fruit, although in general no important advantage over stable manure is 

 gained. Nevertheless it may be comforting to those who cannot get for 

 their vines all the stable manure they would like, to know that by judicious 

 use of superphosphates, potash salts, and nitrogen compounds, they may be 

 able to get with the same outlay as for stable manure just as good crops, and 

 often better ones. It was observed in these experiments that less favorable 

 results were obtained with white than with colored grapes. The explana- 

 tion is given that white grapes are deeper rooted, and that the manure should 

 have been put in deeper to get the same results. The best manner of apply- 

 ing the fertilizer was found to be to make, with an iron post-hole bar, narrow, 

 oblong excavations about eighteen inches deep at short distances from the 

 vine, and to sprinkle in each hole four or five ounces of the manure ; four or 

 five such excavations may be made around each vine, and they are left open 

 to collect the rain for the solution and distribution of the plant food; the 

 application is made late in fall or early in spring. A mixture containing 6 

 per cent of soluble phosphoric acid, 6 per cent of potash as sulphate, aud 3 

 per cent of nitrogen as ammonia salts or nitrate, has given the best results; 

 for deeper-rooted grapes the nitrogen is better applied in the form of nitrate, 

 so that when taken into solution it may sink deeper. 



Paper Bags and Pins. — "Hortus," in the New York Tribune, says that 

 he is more than ever pleased with the effects of using paper-bags on grapes. 

 Not so much on account of their preventing rot in a great degree if applied 

 early in June, or of their wholly precluding the serious loss by bird ravages, 

 as by the perfect condition in which the fruit keeps entirely free from mould 

 and fresh and beautiful as when picked; and with no trouble at all but that 

 of putting the grapes while still in the bags on shelves or in suspended 

 baskets in an airy, cool, dry room. The bags can be used as effectively a 

 second and often a third season, and so may the pins. These get rough with 

 rust, but if put into a bottle and covered with dilute muriatic acid (about 

 two-thirds water), for ten to thirty minutes, until the rust spots are eaten 

 off, they will be smooth and sharp as ever. Many rinsings with water are 

 necessary to remove all the acid, which would otherwise continue to corrode 

 the pins. Its effect, while present, will be seen by bubbles of hydrogen form- 

 ing on the pins and rising through the water with quick ascent. This gas is 

 separated from the water by galvanic decomposition in presence of the im- 

 mersed tin and iron. The pins may either be kept dry, or better, stored in a 

 bottle of kerosene until wanted again next June. 



*& c 



Packing Grapes. — A writer in Gardening Illustrated has this to say 

 upon packing grapes for shipments, from which we can certainly get a valu- 

 able hint for our side of the sea: 



