114 



HORTICULTURAL SUGGESTIONS AND MEMORANDA. 



low, and exposing the trunk meantime to 

 the hot sun, unprotected by shade; for if 

 the trunk had been shaded, I must think 

 the tree would not have been materially 

 injured by the interruption of the circula- 

 tion for so short a space below. The sa:;;c 

 principle applies in the partial peeling of 

 hide-bound cherry trees, mentioned by Mr. 

 Newton, in your last. 



Gooseberries.— I have tried the plan of 

 spading, manuring and applying salted 

 straw or hay to my English gooseberries, 

 which was suggested in the Horticulturist. 

 Year before last I tried it for the first time. 

 I had a fine crop that season, though never 

 any before. The next year 1 omitted it ; I 

 had no gooseberries. This year I tried it 

 again, and have had a fine crop. 



Quinces. — I salted my quince bushes, 

 and manured them, this year, as you re- 

 commended. I have, for the first time, the 

 pleasure of seeing fine fruit on them. 



Apricots. — I threw an awning of coarse 

 sheeting over my apricots early in spring 

 before the buds started, and put straw 

 about the roots, and saved my bloom from 

 early frosts, and, of course, my fruit, for 

 the first time. The awning was kept on 

 until the fruit was fairly set, and frosts all 

 over. 



Grapes. — Oh, Father Bacchus, what 

 shall I say of the poor grapes ? They look 

 dryer than Semele did after Jupiter ap- 

 peared to her in his glory; and it would 

 take more than one Aunt Ino to nurse 

 them into life again. Well, the rot, the 

 rot ; and. then, there is two kinds of it,— 

 the broion wet rot, and the dry black rot. 

 Both come on most freely after sudden al- 

 ternations of showers and hot suns ; and 

 both appear often on the same vine, and 

 at the same time. The lowest branches 

 usually rot first — the higher last, except 

 that a side branch will sometimes escape, 



where the main stem is thrown far above, 

 so as to take most of the sap from it. 



The brown rot begins with a small 

 whitish spot on the skin of the grape, 

 which frequently exudes a particle of sap 

 from its centre, and immediately progresses 

 toward the stone, so as to involve and de- 

 stroy the whole pulp in a short time. 



The black rot begins with a black or 

 dark spot on the skin, often bordered with 

 a circle of reddish brown, and is quite dry 

 in its appearance, and seems for a long 

 time to be confined to the skin of the 

 grape, — stopping its growth, and slowly ex- 

 tending over the surface, without impli- 

 cating, at first, either the flesh or the 

 stone. This former disease resembles a 

 rapid multiplication of the tissues of the 

 human subject; the latter is like a fatal 

 erysipelas ; but both are equally incurable 

 and deadly. Are they from the same cause ? 

 Both of these forms of rot attack our best 

 native grapes; but the Isabella more than 

 the Catawba in this region. The young 

 vines, say until four or five years old, gene- 

 rally escape unharmed. But after that age, 

 the rot generally grows worse and worse 

 on all sorts of common prairie soil, until 

 the vine becomes useless three years out 

 of four ; that is, in all seasons except those 

 which are remarkably cool and dry at the 

 time the fruit is hardening its seeds. For 

 I have never known a single year in which 

 the vine here, even under the most careless 

 management, did not set with an abundant 

 crop of fruit. But after it is half or two- 

 thirds grown, or when the shell of the 

 stone or seed begins to concrete, then 

 comes the fatal rot, in one form or both ; 

 and if the weather is warm and wet, the 

 bright and cheering hopes of the season 

 are all blasted in a single week. 



In one case, this season, I found a very 

 small white maggot, wholly enclosed in 



