150 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



facts enable us to become better acquainted with 

 the nature or caus" of this disease? 



By the way, in speakiii<; ol' iVuits on the inlands 

 in the Niagara river, I will just hint that our old 

 friend, '' Uimus," (L. F. Allen,) has a little or- 

 chard on the upper end of Grand Island, of about 

 60 acres, and with a fair prospect of increasing 

 "!t to 100. For apples and pears, the location and 

 soil are admirable; and at no distant da}', he will 

 make some Utile noise about it. 



On the lower end of this island, some three 

 miles from Niagara falls, at " Peach Haven," the 

 writer of this has also a little plantatiou of some 

 few thousands peach trees, together with a " right 

 smart sprinkling" of other fruits. However, it is 

 not necessary to apprise the public, that the.se or- 

 chards are designed for anything more than for 

 family use. Yours very truly, B. Hodge. Buf- 

 falo Nursery, Aug. 19, 1850. 



The Peach and Nectarine. — Since the in- 

 spiration of your mysterious knockings have been 

 vouched for by an eastern clergyman, I presume 

 all doubts have vanished in regard to the raising 

 of the. Nectarine from the Peach. I regretted to 

 learn from the letter of said reverend divine, the 

 truth of your Gotham knockings, as he informs 

 us they are performed by his satanic m.ijcsty. If 

 Satan be the operator, he will make them operate 

 to our injuiy. Wh}' did you suppose I could 

 longer doubt of the peach stone producing the 

 nectarine, when in your paper, a year or more 

 since, we had conclusive evidence that a tree bore 

 peaches one year, and nectarines the next? Why 

 should I doubt, when I had positive evidence of a 

 greater change? I planted in a pot, in the green- 

 house, three apricot stones, and from them had 

 three forest trees. If I plant 10,000 peach stones 

 yearly in the open ground, it is not strange if, in 

 60 years, there should be a chance nectarine 

 stone dropped near them, and grow. But when 

 the stones were planted in a flower pot. and never 

 appeared, but three forest trees in their place, the 

 evidence is conclusive. And I was as.vured they 

 were trees not known in this region. This evi- 

 dence is as satisfactory as the case named in your 

 paper, where the person one year saw a peach on 

 the ground, under his tree, which proved it to be 

 a peach tree, and the next season the same tree 

 was covered with nectarines. From your silence, 

 I supposed you had faith in this change; and I 

 therefore feel bound to believe that a nectarine 

 tree may grow fiom a peach stone. 



I had a grapevine, that bore white grapes for 

 several years, when it produced a crop of black 

 grapes. This was much stronuer evidence than 

 seeing a single grape under the vine. Yet. my 

 vine-dresser was an unbeliever; and for no other 

 reason than this: the white grapes were produced 

 from a graft, inserted in a idack grapevine; and 

 he insisted that the black grapes must have been 

 produced from a shoot from the old root. I should 



be as unwilling to believe this, as to believe the 

 doctrine of our friend Downing, untrue, — " that 

 l)istillHte strawberry plants change their sexual 

 character from running," as he proved in the ease 

 of Hovey's Seedling. Does he still hold to this 

 doctrine? If so, I hojie to see it stated m the 

 next edition of his book on Fruits. Is your Black 

 Prince strawberry pistillate or hermaphrodite? 

 I have plants ol both. I should, of course, be- 

 lieve the sexual character changed in runners, 

 were it not that the fruit of the latter is a very 

 long one. The colour is the same — the herma- 

 phrodite the richer fruit. Is not such generally 

 the character of hermaphrodites? Our fruit com- 

 mittee reported both of inferior flavor. 



From seed that I furnished two of my tenants, 

 they raised some thousands of plants. Nearly 

 one-half were entirely staminate. Seven plants, 

 among the whole, were deemed worthy of cultiva- 

 tion, — six pistillate, and one hermaphrodite. 

 Three of them, in our soil, surpassed in size any 

 exhibited, and were deemed of fine flavor. The 

 hermaj)hro(lite has borne a full crop of extra 

 large, perfect fruit, and of good flavor, for three 

 seasons. That it may always do so, is more than 

 I dare say. Our fruit committee, deeming a 

 fourth crop before they awarded premiums advi- 

 sable, laid the subject over. Though they did in 

 this instance, as in all others, exainine the fruit in 

 the gardens, and not, as is done east, judge from 

 a sample exhibited at the horticultural room. In 

 this way, hermaphrodites get a high character, 

 by having premiums awarded to them, that will 

 not average one-sixth of a crop of perfect fruit. 

 A member of the Itte fruit convention informed 

 one of our horticulturists that Hovey's Seedling, 

 in his garden, bore a full crop of perfect fruit, 

 without a possibility of impregnation from any 

 other plant. Yet, strange to tell, these same 

 plants, on the grounds of his neighbors, proved 

 entirely barren. Do not understand me as say- 

 ing, that I want faith in this, though not vouched 

 for by the eastern divine, as the work of Sa- 

 tan. 



I have as much faith in it as I have in the 

 peach chansing to a nectarine, and a pistillate 

 strawberry plant becoming staminate by running. 

 I this spring grafted 55 kinds of new native 

 grapes. Nearly all ai-e growing, and several 

 have fruit. A few of them are slated to be supe- 

 rior to the Catawba, as a table grape; and the 

 assurances arc from persons to be relied on. The 

 stem and leaf sustain the assertion. Their quality 

 for wine has not been tested. They are from dif. 

 ferent parts of the United States. I shall endea- 

 vor to get fruit of each that give a fair promise 

 for wine, of the perso;is who sent the cuttings, in 

 the fall. Strange as it. may appear, some of the 

 best have been in the families for 30 or 40 years, 

 yet never attracted notice beyond the neighbor- 

 hood. Several of them are the Winter, and the 

 Fox grape, and of no value for the table, or for 



