DIANA GRAPE— FRUITS AT THE SOUTH. 



DIANA GRAPE — FRUITS AT THE SOUTH. 



BY ROBERT HARWELL, MOBILE. 



A. J. DowxiNG, Esq. — The Diana Grape fruited with me this year, and is cer- 

 tainly the best grape I ever tasted. The vine is a strong grower and good bearer, and 

 will suit this climate as well as we could desire. I had Catawba grapes ripe at the same 

 time the Dianas were ripe, and although the Catawba is a most excellent grape, it cannot 

 be compared with the Diana for fine flavor. 



In your remarks at the close of an article written by me for the Alabama Planter, you 

 ask me to explain how it is that our native peach trees set their fruits better than the 

 northern kinds, when the natives generally blossom in February, and the northern kinds 

 in April. 



I would most gadly comply with your request if I could do so, but I feel altogether un- 

 equal to the task. I have thought, however, that all fully acclimated stone fruits, in obe- 

 dience to an unchanging law of nature, must blossom just as soon as the spring will per- 

 mit, in order that the fruit may set early, while the weather is cool, and before the gene- 

 ral rush of spring sap comes on, which I think tends to throw oif the very young fruit. 

 There are, probably, no better bearing fruit trees in the world than our native, or Chick- 

 asaw plums, and they almost always blossom here about the last of January or early in 

 February, and set their fruit while the weather is cool; and it is prett}^ much the same case 

 Avith our native southern peaches. On the 28th of March, last spring, our northern peaches 

 were killed in the bud, while our native trees had a fine crop of young peaches nearly or 

 quite as large as Partridge eggs, and were but little injured by the cold. Our wild cher- 

 ries, also, blossom very early, and set their fruit well. 



AYhen I first began to cultivate the northern varieties of peaches, I thought their habit 

 of blooming late in the spring would be a decided advantage — ^but I have found that in 

 this I was mistaken. This habit of late blooming renders them liable to be destroyed by 

 cold weather in the latter part of March, or in April — and if they escape the cold weather, 

 the season is so warm when they blossom, (say from 10th to 20th April,) that the young 

 fruit nearly all falls off the trees, from some cause or other; I suppose it to be owing to 

 the warm Aveather. I have seen our northern peach trees loaded with young fruit about 

 the size of small bird's eggs, and not a bud to be seen on the trees, and in this condition 

 they would remain for two or more weeks without any perceptible change in the size of 

 the j^oung fruit — when the spring sap began to flow freely and rapidly, the young peaches 

 would be thrown ofl" in a few days. Robert IIakwell. 



Cottage Hill, Mobile, Dec. IsoO. 



Mr. Harwell is one of the most intelligent fruit-growers at the south, and we believe 

 the first to test the Diana Grape there. We are glad to hear so favorable an account of it, 

 and one corresponding to our own opinion. 



His account of the habit of our northen peach trees at the south, is curious and unex- 

 pected, and shows how strong constitutional tendencies are. It goes also to prove how 

 necessary it is that native sorts of real excellence should be originated in every considera- 

 ble section of our widely extended country, to be thoroughly adapted to such localities. 

 Ed. 



