The Dueberry or Trailing Blackberry. 



ACORRESPONDP^NT in a P. S. to a business letter wishes to know if the 

 above named fruit is indigenous to Iowa, or whether its culture is known in 

 the State. The trailing or ground Blackberry, as it is or was usually called in 

 New England, is an old acquaintance of ours. Its fruit there is of higher quality 

 than that of the high bush-blackberry. It is not, so far as we know, found growing 

 wild in this State ; we obtained plants from the east in 1864. It grows luxuriantly 

 here, but produces no fruit. In New England it is generally found the most pro- 

 ductive in the poorest soil ; it might bear fruit on the sandy, gravelly, knobby land, 

 occasionally met with in this State. But it shows no fruitfulness on our ordinary 

 soil. On the other hand, we find it an intolerable nuisance. It literally covers the 

 ground with a net-work of vines, and appears to be no less tenacious of life than does 

 the Canada thistle. Cutting up the vines two or three times during the season 

 appears only to invigorate its growth ; our advice is to let it alone. We will thank 

 any one to take what we have of it, and pay a premium for its eradication from our 

 ground to boot. 



Is Grape Culture and Wine Making a Failure in this 



Country ? 



THE direful eflfects of two sharp night-frosts at the end of last April, in the wine 

 districts of France and Germany, causing the loss of no less than two-thirds of the 

 presumable crop for 1873, together with the oft-repeated failures which assail the 

 vintner of those countries, through early and late frosts, rot, mildew, insects — of 

 which the Phylloxera is no mean individual, naturally raises the above question in 

 the mind of Americans, who would prefer to rely upon the productions of their own 

 country for a gentle and agreeable stimulant. I now propose to examine and 

 answer it to the best of my observations and practical experience, for the satisfaction 

 of my friends who desire to continue in this line of business. 



There are a great many progressive ilndoubters who will be surprised by the 

 caption under which I write. To doubt the ability to grow grapes and to make 

 native wines is something beyond their comprehension, and smacks strongly of — let 

 us say it — a great deal of ignorance, with what has been accomplished within the 

 twenty years. I will say at once, to relieve their mind, that the question is not 

 whether grapes can be grown and wine made, but whether it can be made to pay. 

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