392 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



found them more difficult to vegetate than those 

 planted in time. They are often kept dry for 

 several years, and then sown with success ; though 

 we have found them more difficult to vegetate than 

 those planted in time. They are often kept dry 

 for several years, and then sown with success ; 

 though a proportion of them [a large proportion] 

 will always in such cases fail. 



Pears and apples are ready for the bad the 

 second year, provided they receive a good growth, 

 and are well treated. 



Though quinces may be grown from the seed, a 

 better way is to use the cuttings. We have been 

 nearly as successful with them as with those of the 

 currant ; and they may be propagated in this way 

 indefinitely. 



The stones of the peach, cherry, and plum, 

 after being taken from the ripe fruit, should be 

 immediately planted in the seed bed, when they 

 will make their appearance on the following spring. 

 It is sDmetimes recommended to put cherries into 

 sand, and keep them till spring hefore planting 

 out. This is an unsafe mode; from the fact that 

 they are liable to start before being planted } and 

 ■when this is the case, their removal is their de- 

 struction. If the stones of either of these fruits 

 are allowed to become dry before planting, they 

 will not open again, though exposed to the frost 

 and wet of winter. There will be exceptions, and 

 only such, to this, among the peach stones, but 

 none, or next to none, with either of the other 

 named fruits. The vital powers of a peach seed 

 are not destroyed in many years by being dried, 

 and if the stones are broken, the dried ones may be 

 grown; but without this care, not one in a hun- 

 dred will germinate. 



After standing the first season in the seed beds, 

 all these fruits should be removed to nursery rows, 

 setting them therein about one foot or fifteen inches 

 apart, having taken the precaution to cut off one- 

 half the length of the tap root. The peaches will 

 be ready for the bud the first season, and the others 

 the second. [Peaches are usually planted in the 

 nurseries in the spring, and budded in antumn — 

 the stones having been buried in the ground the 

 winter previous, and taken up and cracked before 

 planting. — Ed.] 



Some prefer grafting all these fruits, with the 

 exception of the peach ; but budding is so much 

 easier, and quite as sure, that it will probably be 

 adhered to instead, both by nurserymen and those 

 who cultivate for themselves ; though the former, 

 as a saving of time, will practice all the usual 

 modes of propagation. — Prairie Farmer. 



Allen's Trertise on the Vine. — The first 

 edition of Mr. Allen's treatise on the culture of 

 the grape, received a notice in the Horticulturist, 

 which was no doubt heartily responded to by all 

 whose experience enabled them to form an opi- 

 nion on the subject. Probably the only regret 

 expressed concerning it, was that the author had 

 not drawn more largely on the rich store of expe- 



riencc from which he had condensed his thoronghly 

 practical and common sense remarks. The gene- 

 ral expression of this feeling has doubtless led to 

 the publication of the present enlarged edition, 

 ■w'hieh contains such a collection of essentially use^ 

 ful matter as to make it, beyond all question, the 

 most valuable work for the American cultivator of 

 the grape, whether native or foreign, that has ever 

 appeared in print. The necessity for such a trca^ 

 tise, adapted to the climate and soil of the United 

 States, has been seriously felt by cultivators who- 

 have relied on the works of English writers, and 

 have found by experience how much their systems- 

 have required raodificaticin, to adapt them to this- 

 country. Our native vines particularly require a 

 mode of treatment entirely different from any that 

 is practiced abroad f yet so- conflicling have been 

 the opinions expressed as to the best methods of 

 preparing the groimd, planting, training, pruning, 

 &.C., that the novice in the art has often found 

 himself at his wit's end to decide between so many 

 plausible theories, offered by different writers, 

 each insisting upon his own with a pertinacity 

 only equalletl by certain theologians, physicians- 

 and politicians. The sound common sense with 

 which Mr. Allen discusses these theories, is such 

 as to make his work invaluable to the novice, and 

 scarcely less important, perhaps more interesting, 

 to the experienced eultivator, whc will here find 

 a rich collection of the experience of others, care- 

 fully detailed and commented on by the author, 

 with a wallingness to give full weight to their opi- 

 nions, even when opposed t& his own, which must 

 inspire the fullest contidence in the fairness and 

 honesty of his statements. The amount of labor 

 in studying the works of others, and examining and 

 testing the truth of their theories, w-hich the w^ork 

 displays, cannot fail to excite the admiration of 

 the reader. 



The iirst portion is sievoted to the enlture of the 

 grape under glass. The frontispiece is a beauti- 

 ful view of a span roof grape house, belonging to- 

 Mr. Allen, of which a detailed description is 

 given, containing the exact dimensions, materials- 

 and manner of construction, with a minute esti- 

 mate of costs. Similar details are given of other 

 structures, both for forcing and cold-houses, with 

 such directions and estimates as would alone be 

 worth far more than the cost of the book to any 

 one about building any kind of a grapei-y or green- 

 house. The various modes of producing artificial 

 heat are described and illustrated by plans. The 

 fullest details of the management of the cold-house 

 and forcing-house are given, with a journal of the 

 latter, kept by Mr. Allen, from the time of begin- 

 ning to force (Dec. 20th,) till the ripening of the 

 fruit. A list of more than 100 varieties of foreign 

 grapes is given, with the characteristics so far as- 

 known of each; a large proportion of which have 

 been proved by Mr. Allen in his own vineries. 

 This is of very great value to any one about plant- 

 ing, and is entitled to the careful consideration of 

 the American Congress of Fruit Growers, in pre- 



