14 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[January, 



ican grapevines. They ripen and color well, 

 produce large bunches of fine flavored fruit, and 

 the berries adhere well to the clusters and are not 

 so liable to rot as the natives. He grows his 

 vines on three barred wooden trellises three feet 

 high, for should they be higher the vines would 

 be blighted and prostrated by the Avinds sweeping 

 over the oleanders. As in hot-houses, so are these 

 grapes out of doors, they require thinning, and 

 this the grower considers an objection, but it is a 

 small one, for when we see plainly the great good 

 thinning out grape berries in the clusters does to 

 the appearance, quality, and value of the crop, 

 we can hardly grudge the trouble and time spent 

 in«i't. The vines are subject to mildew but Mr. S_ 

 tells me that he keeps them effectually clean by 

 using powdered sulphur three times a year, viz., 

 before they come into bloom, after stoning and 

 before coloring. Ten dollars worth serves him a 

 year, for how many vines I cannot say, but he 

 estimates his crop this year at 5,000 pounds. He 

 applies the sulphur through a fine wire sieve. 



Mr. Stringfellow considers the Delaware the 

 best of the Americans for Southern Texas, and 

 particularly for Galveston, where it ripens early 

 and well, colors beautifully, and bears heavily. 

 He is very hard on the Scuppernong, and asserts 

 that it will grow like a weed, but with any amount 

 of coaxing he cannot get it to bear and ripen. I 

 may mention that Mr. S. is giving the Golden 

 Champion a fair trial. This is its first bearing 

 year, and now (April 29th) it has several very 

 solid bunches of flowers, and is withal in a most 

 promising and healthy condition. 



Lawyer Tucker, a gentleman who grows grapes 

 for pleasure and profit, has the finest collection of 

 kinds that I know of in Galveston or in Texas. 

 He has now in admirable vigor and fruitfulness 

 forty-two distinct sorts of European grapevines, 

 all three years old, besides several one year old 

 plants and cuttings from California and elsewhere. 

 He, too, is of opinion that the European kinds are 

 by far the best for Galveston, and places great 

 stress upon the different kinds of Chasselas as 

 being the best. He tells me that he sells his fruit 

 for $1 a pound in Galveston and that they retail 

 in the same city for $1.25. His mode of culture 

 is almost a fac simile of Mr. Stringfellow's, but 

 his garden is further from the sea-coast and bet. 

 ter sheltered with big trees than Mr. S's, and the 

 soil is older and deeper. Mr. Tucker places 

 much weight, and I think justly too, in surface 

 dressings, and for this purjjose he keeps under 

 cover heaps of fresh earth, decomposed organic 



manure, wood-ashes and charcoal, and leaf soil, 

 so as to be able to mix it and apply it as he con- , 

 siders necessary, and his whole garden beai-s am- 

 ple testimony of this efficacious practice. 



Mr. Cliappell, a farmer some five miles west- 

 the-island showed me an immense Scuppernong 

 vine that he has trained on a trellis over his wa- 

 ter cistern at the north side of the house, and 

 from which he says he cut 310 pounds of grapes, 

 besides what the folks about the house had eaten 

 off' it. He prunes off a good deal of old wood 

 annually, shortens the ends of the remaining 

 shoots, and as the vines begin to grow he leaves 

 only everj' third or fourth bud along the shoots, 

 rubbing off the rest. Mr. C. showed me several 

 other fine Scuppernong vines, all of which prom- 

 ised well for a heavy crop, but seeing the clusters in 

 flower and in ripe fruit are two difterent things. 

 Just observe the difference of opinion existing 

 as regards this grape between Mr. Stringfellow 

 and Mr. Chappell. 



Mr. Shrader, a German farmer some distance 

 north-west of Mr. Chappell's place, and a thirty 

 years' "residenter" on the island has the most taste- 

 fully kept garden I saw amongst the farmers in 

 that district. He is a most polite and entertain- 

 ing old gentleman, and in his fruit trees and flow- 

 ers he takes great pride and interest. He has 

 Concord grapevines, but he does not like them ; 

 they bear regidarly and heavily and have large 

 clusters and berries, but should there come a 

 rain at ripening time they are sure to rot. He 

 has the Isabella too, and it does well with him 

 and he never found it to rot. This gentleman 

 has many other very fine grapevines, but having 

 lost their names and not keeping a written record 

 of them he does not know what they are. 



COMET PEACH. 



BY D. .0 MUNSON, FALLS CHURCH, VA. 



I send you by to-day's mail a plate taken from 

 the same kind of peaches sent you, only the 

 ones sent to Dewey were larger than the ones sent 

 you. I also sent some to Chas. Downing, who 

 says it is a new peach. Rivers, of England, has 

 sent out a yellow peach called the Comet, and it 

 win therefore be necessary to give this one a new 

 name, and I have decided to call it the Billier's 

 Comet. It originated with a Mr. Billier, in Kent 

 County, Md., and has been known in that county 

 for several years as "Billier's Comet." The 

 buds I received from E. G. Hanford I learn 

 are from the yellow peach sent out by Rivers of 



