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CRITIQUE ON THE JANUARY HORTICULTURIST. 



Vineyards and the Art of Making Wine. 

 — Wine-making will, ere long, become an 

 important department of American produc- 

 tion and industry. The indefatigable Mr. 

 Longworth, and the Germans of southern 

 Ohio, are making rapid advances in the 

 cultivation of the proper grapes, and their 

 manufacture into wine. Excellent speci- 

 mens of domestic champagne, and the dry, 

 light Rhenish wines, are already produced 

 by them ; but whether we shall ever see 

 the choice Southside Madeira, Sherry, 

 Claret, and Port wines produced in Ameri- 

 ca, is problematical. All wines have their 

 peculiar soils and localities ; and it is hardly 

 worth while to say that we may not have in 

 the United States the very soils, climates 

 and grapes, to produce them in as great ex- 

 cellence as they now are made in Europe. 

 Let the work proceed. If we must drink 

 wine, better make it at home than abroad, 

 provided we can make it good. 



Braining Warms the Soil. — To be sure 

 it does, as every one must know who has 

 seen its operation. English agriculture has 

 doubled its productions by draining alone ; 

 and any stiff soil, which lies in a neighbor- 

 hood where a free and open soil is worth 

 fifty dollars an acre, will pay for it in the 

 two first crops after the draining is com- 

 pleted. To test the matter, let any one 

 who is planting upon, or cultivating a stiff, 

 clammy soil, or a wet, springy one, try an 

 acre, or but a few rods, and he will effectu- 

 ally prove it. We shall soon make drain 

 tile cheap enough in this country, to bring 

 draining measurably within the reach of 

 every farmer who desires close and profita- 

 ble cultivation. John Delafield, Esq., of 

 Seneca county, formerly of New- York city, 

 last year imported a tile machine from 

 England which works successfully, and for 

 which he deserves the gratitude of his 

 countrymen. I trust we shall soon hear of 



successful efforts at draining in his neigh- 

 borhood. 



Report of the Congress of Fruit -Growers. 

 — Well, that is handsome ! Why, when 

 folk undertake to do a clever thing, don't 

 they carry it out ? When the New- York 

 State Agricultural Society invited the Ameri- 

 can Pomological Convention to assemble at 

 Buffalo, in 184S, they not only provided an 

 expert short-hand reporter for them, at an 

 expense of a hundred dollars, but also de- 

 voted another hundred dollars to print and 

 disseminate its reports. And now, after 

 claiming all the glory for its liberality in 

 patronising the " Congress," the American 

 Institute sneaks out in this way. The sooner 

 the " Congress" take their own affairs into 

 their own hands, the better for their interests. 

 There is nothing like " carrying round the 

 hat," at the time, for all such purposes. 



Smokehouse Apple. — I don't like it. 'Tis 

 a great, coarse, spongy thing, fit only for 

 " sauce" and drying; that is, the specimens 

 I have seen ; and they are said to be true. 

 Let the fruit be brought before some re- 

 sponsible pomological body, and examined 

 before its reputation goes forth to the world 

 upon the ipse-dixit of one or two partial 

 propagators. [We doubt if Jeffreys has 

 seen the true variety. Ed.] 



Building Vineries. — By all means, ' ' Phila- 

 delphia Subscriber," send your expense 

 account to the Horticulturist, when the 

 vinery is completed. You don't know how 

 much we have to pay " thro' the nose" in 

 all these out-of-the-way structures. A pro- 

 per plan, once made, and the items brought 

 down to a specific rule, vineries can as well 

 be built by the running foot as brick or 

 stone wall, or the much heavier structures, 

 — a block of city houses of given dimen- 

 sions, so much each — all fit to move into. 

 It does appear to me that if some clever 

 man will set himself at work, and obtain a 



