NEW MIXTURE TO DRIVE AWAY INSECTS. 



81 



The favorite specific manure for the 

 grape-vine with me, is wood ashes. I am 

 in the habit of making a hollow basin, 

 some three feet in diameter, around each 

 vine, after stirring the surface in the spring. 

 In this basin I scatter fresh Avood ashes, at 

 the rate of half a peck to each vine. As 

 soon as the vines commence growing, I 

 begin to give them weekly rations of soap- 

 suds, — one of the very best fertilizers for 

 the native grape. My kitchen servants are 

 instructed to save all the soap-suds of the 

 weekly washing, and pour them into a 

 hogshead, sunk in the ground to recei^'e 

 them. These soap-suds are afterwards 

 poured into the basins formed at the base 

 of each vine; and, dissolving a portion of 

 the ashes, (deposited there in the spring,) 

 they carry down to the roots just the speci- 

 fic stimulus that the grape-vine most needs. 



I have found, by actual experiment, that 

 vines treated in this way, of the same age 

 and size, and in the same soil with other 

 similar vines, treated in the common mode 

 of culture, uniformly bear fruit from one- 

 third to one-half larger in size, and usually 

 richer and higher flavored in quality. The 

 product well repays one for the extra labor, 

 to say nothing of increased beauty of ap- 

 pearance. 



I very much prefer autumn to any other 

 season for making the annual pruning of 



the grape-vine. If made in the autumn, 

 as soon as the leaves drop, you have the 

 advantage of an accumulation in the re- 

 maining buds of all the stock of nourish- 

 ment, [organizable matter — Ed.,] at that 

 season, distributed by the plant to each and 

 every bud and portion of its system. By 

 the first of December, if not earlier in this 

 climate, all this process of accumulation 

 and distribution is over ; and, consequently, 

 in pruning in February and March you cut 

 off, with the J^oung wood, a considerable 

 part of the nourishment which would have 

 been deposited in the remaining buds at 

 early autumn pruning. This advantage is 

 very visible to the eye in the growth and 

 production of vines pruned at the two sea- 

 sons ; and it is greatly in favor of autumn 

 pruning. 



A number of persons, I find, are plant- 

 ing seecZs of the Isabella and Catawba grapes, 

 in order to obtain new sorts. They will, 

 many of tnem, be disappointed (like my- 

 self) in finding the seedlings only producing 

 grapes inferior and more pulpy than the 

 parents. A much more certain and satis- 

 factory mode, is to fertilize the blossoms of 

 the native grapes with pollen of the Black 

 Hamburgh, Muscadine, and other first rate 

 foreign sorts. I am, sir. 



Respectfully yours, D. 



New-York, Jtdy.,\B\8. 



NEW MIXTURE TO DRIVE AWAY INSECTS. 

 BY AN OLD GARDENER, PHILADELPHIA. 



Sir — I see in your Horticulturist the in- 

 quiry, started by several of yojr corres- 

 pondents, — what is the best means of dri- 

 ving away or destroying rose bugs, striped 

 bugs, and other troublesome insects, dele- 

 terious in the garden ? 



I have been in the habit of using, for 

 three years or more, a mixture, first made 

 known to me by a German farmer, that I 

 am much pleased with. In almost every 

 case in which I have applied it, success haa 

 followed its application ; and the insects 



