308 Thne of kicking Apples. 



pay. The small vintner has had his day; it requires means either single, as in this 

 instance, or by association, to do the subject full justice, to command labor, skill, 

 science and all the necessary machinery to deliver the wines to the trade or to con- 

 sumers ready for consumption. 



Our vast country certainly contains many an excellent position, and soil suitable 

 for grape culture, the climate of this portion of the Mississippi Valley being tem- 

 perate and healthful, sufficiently warm and genial. The time is probably not far 

 distant when our long line of bluffs, on both sides of the river, will be mostly 

 occupied by vineyards for the production of pure native wines ; of grape brandy so 

 preferable, in its moral and physical effects upon man, to common whisky ; wine 

 vinegar, so palatable and preferable to other forms of vinegar ; of grapes for the 

 table, and raisins which will be largely shipped to less favorable parts of the country, 

 thus creating a safe, steady and important business, which will make of lands hitherto 

 considered the poorest the most productive and valuable in this section of Iowa and 

 Illinois, commanding as much per acre as the best prairie lands. The future lies 

 before us ; success is certain to follow the skillful and enterprising. It is certainly 

 within our reach. — E. Baxter, in Rural World. 



Influence of Stock on Scion. 



I HAVE been much interested in the notices given from time to time as to the 

 influence of the scion on the stock, and vice versa. In the early vinery here we 

 have a couple of Muscat vines worked on the Black Hamburg, and in the same house 

 we have a Muscat on its own roots. Those worked on the Hamburg started fully 

 five or sis days in advance of the one on its own roots, although they are nearly a 

 fortnight behind the Hamburgs they are worked on, each of which has a rod of its 

 own in addition to the Muscat worked on it. The stock would therefore appear to 

 have forwarded the Muscat about a week ; although I have never seen any difference 

 in the ripening of the two, nor any effect on the fruit, yet the growth appears more 

 robust and the leaves of better texture. In the late house we have a Hamburg 

 worked on Lady Downe's. The Hamburg has shoots varying from three to six inches 

 in length, in exactly the same stage as the other Hamburgs in the same house, while 

 the rod of Lady Downe's filling the next rafter, on the same roots as the Hamburg 

 has to draw its supply of sap from, is only just starting its buds ; showing clearly, in 

 this case, that the lateness of the stock has had no influence in retarding the earlier 

 habit of the Hamburg. — Gardener's Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette. 



Time of Picking Apples. — A writer in the New York Tribune tells us that 

 G. W. Browning, of Luzerne county, Pa., some years since accidentally discovered 

 that winter apples picked some five or six weeks before the usual time of gathering, 

 would keep sound some months longer than those allowed to ripen on the trees. 



Since that time he has picked his apples early, and reserved them for the spring 

 and summer market, thus obtaining much higher prices than if sold in the fall or 

 winter. Whether any effect upon the flavor and quality of the fruit was observable, 

 is not stated. 



