THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 209 



piquancy of flavor, and the renewed hope of having all this enjoyment close 

 under hand for mouths of future years. 



0. B. C, of Vineland, New Jersey, contributes to the Country Gentleman 

 on the same topic : Hundreds of thousands of bags were applied here last 

 season, and the net conclusion seems to be that it is noc best to enclose the 

 cluster while in blossom, but promptly as soon as out of bloom, — say when tiie 

 grapes arc as large as small shot, — and continue to bag till about the size of 

 buckshot or small peas. I put on 10,000 bags while the grapes were the above 

 size last spring, with entire success. The clusters were perfect, bloom 

 especially beautiful, and flavor vastly improved. Later in the season, when the 

 grapes were larger, and some nearly full size, though perfectly green, I put on 

 10,000 more bags. The weather was cool for several days at the time, aud 

 everything looked favorable; but the bagging was too late, and the grapes 

 nearly all rotted as badly as the year previous, when no bags were used. The 

 bagging was all done on the same vineyard, side and side. 



AVith respect to paper, oiled or waxed paper does not pay, and will not stick 

 with paste. I have used manila paper, fifteen pounds to tiie ream, also twenty 

 aud twenty-five pounds, and even forty or fifty i)ounds to the ream, and find 

 the lighter paper the best, not only because cheaper, but fruit ripens better in 

 paper of fifteen or twenty pounds, than in forty-pound paper. As a poor 

 material is often incor])orated in manila paper, twenty pounds to the ream is 

 the safest to buy, and will make about 4,000 bags to the ream. It is worth 

 from $1.75 to $3 in New York, cut into proper shape by the book-binder, at 

 ten cents per ream. A man will paste from 300 to 400 per hour, and for field 

 purposes the whole expense is light. Boys and girls will pin on 1,000 to 1,200 

 per day. A single pin to a bag is used. The leaf opposite the cluster, if 

 desired, can be removed without injury, and the mouth of the bag can be 

 doubled over, if more convenient to pin. If pinned fast in almost any way it 

 answers the purpose, as it is not found necessary to have them air tight. The 

 lighter is proved to resist storm and wind about as well as the heavier, because 

 the foliage soon covers the bags to a great extent, and protects them. 



BEES AND GRAPES. 



« 



The question of whether bees puncture grapes seems to be an open one yet. 

 During the past year a number of observers have recorded their opinions in 

 public prints. We desire only to make a note or two from points made by 

 correspondents of the Rural New Yorker. One in Canada says : 



I have in my garden 12 different varieties of Rogers' best numbers, all bear- 

 ing and young ones. One vine (the number I cannot tell) is, or rather the 

 fruit is, very much like the Delaware, only the berry is larger and the bunch 

 longer and not so compact, but it is very sweet, nothing acid about it what- 

 ever. Towards the end of the season I noticed that many of the bunches had 

 been about half eaten by something, only the skin of the berries remaining. 

 At first I supposed the injury to be done by the birds, but on closer examina- 

 tion I found swarms of bees about the grapes and noticed that they made a 

 puncture in the berry, and afterwards the wasp finished it by eating everything 

 inside except the skin and seeds. The skin then dried hftrd and the bunch 

 became almost unfit to eat. On tliis particular vine I can safely say that more 



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