CLIMATOLOGY, GRAPE CULTURE, ETC. 361 



hours, it will have settled and become perfectly clear. This should be drawn off 

 as clear as possible. Half a pint of this mixture, added to three gallons of water, 

 will be sufficiently strong, and may be applied over the fruit and every part of the 

 vine when the mildew first appears. It can be repeated every few days, if occa- 

 sion requires. The first application, I have found, would kill the most of it ; a 

 second and a third is all that I have ever found necessary for tlie season. The 

 fruit and foliage have ripened fully on the p]uropean varieties. The American or 

 native varieties are less subject to the attacks of this fungus than the European. 

 There is also a difference in these, the " Catawba" and " Isabella" being more 

 attacked than some other kinds. 



That this mildew, or fungus, requires a peculiar condition of the atmosphere to 

 allow of its vegetating, is a hopeful fact for the people of the European grape 

 growing regions, A series of seasons unpropitious to its growth may destroy the 

 millions of sporules, or seed vessels, deposited upon their vineyards. Should not 

 this occur, they are not without hope, as sulphur, and a preparation of sulphur, 

 will destroy it. Perseverance with its application, will keep it in subjugation 

 until the favoring season arrives for its final extermination. 



CLIMATOLOGY, G K A P E CULTURE, &c. 



BY A. HUIDEKOPER, MEADVILLE, TENNA. 



KoT being a Doctor of Horticulture, with any specialty to advocate, I will 

 have to ask indulgence if my present article is a little promiscuous in its character. 



To 'begin with that very trite subject, the weather, we have had within the last 

 thirty-six months a very dry season, a very wet, a very hot, and a very cold one. 

 All the weather prophets have been at fault, and the auguries, whether based 

 upon bird, or animal, or vegetable phenomena, have been alike deceptive. If the 

 weather is not the result of a present exercise of the Divine will, but is governed 

 by established rules, they are certainly thus far inscrutable to humanity. 



In this section of the county, according to a very conservative thermometer 

 kept by Professor T. F. Thickstun, who makes observations for the Smithsonian 

 Institute, the mercury has stood, between the 26th of December and the 2 1st day 

 of March, twenty-four times below zero, the lowest degree reached being 27° 

 below 0. Instruments in other parts of the village gave four or five degrees 

 below this. Another unusual feature in the weather was the absence of any rain 

 from the 22d of Dec. to the 2d of April, a period of over 14 weeks. On the 

 other hand, the snow, which commenced falling about Christmas, lasted until the 

 middle of April, and accumulated in many places until it was tlnrty inches deep 

 on the level. 



A temperature, several times reached, of from sixty-five to seventy-three degrees 

 below freezing point, of course left its mark pretty deeply on the orchards and 

 ornamental shrubbery. 



There is a sad list of killed and wounded, and a very crymean air of grief 

 about amateur cultivators. Quinces and roses are killed down to the snow line ; 

 Chinese arbor vitae and many other evergreens are done up brown ; the box wood 

 is blanched ; peach-trees, if they have any vitality left, will have to submit to 

 severe amputation when new buds have formed ; and dwarf pears are more or less 

 affected. Notwithstanding all this, there is much of beauty left in our groves 

 and fields. The snow has protected the winter grain, apple and standard pears 

 are showing their blossom-buds, and we shall probably have a good supply of 

 strawberries and the smaller fruits. Cultivators will hardly relinquish shru 



Vol. YI.— August, 1856. 24 



