NOTES ON STRAWBERRIES, GRAPES AND PLUMS. 375 [(ip 



native vines were the longest, and were all killed down. All the shoots of the foroign 

 vines escaped. I attribute this to the more vigorous growth of the native, and the greater 

 quantity of sap. But this is mere guess-work. The shoots of the foreign and native 

 vines, fifty feet from the wall, were all killed. Foreign vines grafted on our natives, are 

 equally tender as on their own stock, and are with me often killed down to the native 

 stock. I shall be pleased to learn that the grapes of your correspondent succeed better in 

 his southern latitude than in our region. He will be more successful than the vine culti- 

 vators were in South Carolina. Mr. Guignard wrote me that four-fifths of his wine 

 turned to vinegar; and I know that the wine of Mr. Hkrbkmont, sold after his death at 

 auction, was rapidly becoming good vinegar. They were both men of great skill and 

 judgment. There are many things hard to account for. I believe that wind alone will 

 not impregnate hermaphrodite strawberry blossoms. That insects are necessary. On my 

 border, against a high wall fully exposed to the south, and where, from the warmth of 

 the atmosphere, flies and bees congregated, even in our cold weather, my Schn ike's her- 

 maphrodite and pistillates, this season, produced a full crop of perfect fruit. Fifty feet 

 distant, my pistillates had not one perfect fruit to 100 blossoms, though in close contact 

 with staminates, and the hermaphrodites had not one perfect fruit to twenty blossoms. 

 Here it was too cold to attract insects. A singular instance occurred in my grape-house. 

 The handsomest grape in the house I got from Mr. Buist, but under a wrong name. Its true 

 name I know not. The bunch is very large and the grape beautiful. It has ripened fruit 

 two seasons. Three or four blossoms on a bunch were impregnated, and had very large, 

 long grapes, with seed, and of fine quality. The residue of thegrapes had no seed, and were 

 not larger than pe.ns. This spring, by merely shaking the vine, all the blossoms are fully 

 impregnated, and the fruit large. My gardener was led to try this experiment from their 

 practice in England with their hermaphrodite strawberries. In forcing their plants in 

 green-houses, they are placed on boards which are jarred to insure impregnation. I had 

 supposed the location of the stamens over the pistils, and the current of air would always 

 insure impregnation. It may do it where the blossom shoot is upright, not where droop- 

 ing. 



You say, Mr. Editor, that Texas and New Mexico may hereafter give us Sherry and 

 Madeira wine. The Herbemont grape is a table grape of superior quality, and the most 

 vigorous growth of any grape in our vineyards. This grape, without the addition of spi- 

 rit or sugar, will make a wine of the same flavor, and of superior quality to the Manza- 

 nilla Sherry, and our Missouri grape, with the addition of brandy, equal to Madeira. I 

 say with the addition of brandy, for brandy is added to Madeira wines. Without brandy, 

 the Missouri makes a superior wine. The vine is hardy, but a delicate grower. The 

 vines should be planted close together and trimmed low. 



You say, "no method of securing the plum from the ravages of the curculio, has prov- 

 ed efiectual, but placing the trees in the midst of the pig and poultry yard." I have not 

 lost a crop by the curculio in twenty-five years, and in the same time had but two crops 

 in other parts of the garden. I have forty trees planted round the house, with a compact 

 and clean brick pavement extending beyond the tops of the trees. Others have, with good 

 pavements, been equally successful. Some of your eastern writers say, that where their 

 plum trees bend over a stream of water, that that part of the tree escapes the ravages of 

 the curculio. The reason is this, if true. The instinct of the insect teaches it not to de- 

 posit its egg where the young must perish when it falls to the ground, and cannot obtain 

 quarters. The insect is a timid one. The proximity of my trees to the house 

 persons are constantly passing, may aid in keeping ofi' the insect. This is the 



