1879.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



45 



Some years ago we published a plan for making 

 a liquid wax ; simply melted rosin poured into a 

 bottle of alcohol. 



Grape vines are of course all pruned and tied 

 up. .Just as the buds are bursting the steel blue 

 beetle attacks them. Hand-killing is the remedy. 

 Where grape vines are to grow fast, use twiggy 

 stakes or wire trellis for them to cling to. It is 

 as good as mamu-e. Also in planting grapes be 

 sure to have a dry bottom. The best security 

 against wet roots is to raise the soil above the 

 level of the surface. Also the drier the soil the 

 richer it may be without risk of injury. Organic 

 manures sour rapidly in wet places, and injure 

 fibres. 



Gooseberries and currants should have their 

 weaker shoots thinned out, and a little of those 

 left shortened. It makes the fruit much larger. 

 The foreign varieties mildew badly unless grown 

 where the roots will be moi'st and cool in Summer, 

 but not wet. All these mountain or high north- 

 ern races, want a cool Summer soil. With the 

 exception of the Cluster there has not been much 

 improvement on the Houghton's Seedling which 

 is the most popular of the more hardy American 

 class. Of currants the Red and White Dutch 

 and Versaillaise are we think still the best. 



In those favored localities where the frost has 

 melted before the suns of Spring, the gardener 

 will lose no time in getting in his potatoes, beets, 

 carrots, parsnips, peas, spinage, radishes, let- 

 tuce, onions, and salisfy. These should be the 

 first crops put in after the season breaks up for 

 good. The earlier they are in, the better. As- 

 paragus, rhubarb, and horse radish beds may 

 now be made. Asparagus roots are generally 

 planted too thickly to produce fine shoots — they 

 starve one another. A bed five feet wide should 

 have three rows , and the plants set about eighteen 

 inches apart. A deep soil is very important, as 

 the succulent stems require every chance they can 

 get for obtaining moisture. About four inches 

 beneath the soil is sufficient to plant them. Rhu- 

 barb also requires a deep, rich, and moist soil. 

 Horse radish beds are best made by taking pieces 

 of strong roots, about one inch long, and making 

 a hole about a foot or fifteen inches deep, with a 

 dibble, and dropping the piece to the bottom of 

 the hole ; a clean straight root will then rise up 

 through the soil. Crowns or eyes are better than 

 pieces of roots, where they can be had, and a 

 rich clayey soil ])etter than a light sandy one. 



About the middle or end of the month, or still 

 later in the North — say the middle of March — 



celery and late cabbage may be sown. Here we 

 usually sow the second week in March. 



All gardens should have beds of herbs. They 

 are always looked for in the Fall, and nearly al- 

 ways forgotten in Spring. Now is the time to 

 plant thyme, sage, mint, balm, and other per- 

 ennial herbs, and parsley and other seeds or 

 hardy kinds may be sown. When we say noio, 

 it is, of course, understood to mean where the 

 frost has evidently broken up for the season^ 

 Our readers in less favored climes will not forget 

 it when it does. 



COMMUNICA TIONS, 



REMARKS ON THE PRODUCTION OF 

 CRAPES. 



BY F. W. POPPEY. 



.Judging from the scarcity and inferior quality 

 of grapes found in our markets and growing on 

 so many places, there seems to be yet a want or 

 proper understanding of the matter, which is the 

 more ditficult to account for, as it might appear, 

 that enough of advice and instruction had been 

 given by letter, word, and practice for all inter- 

 ested in the production of plenty and good 

 grapes. Seeing so many failures in viniculture, 

 it struck me that, if not the majority, at least a 

 great number of experimenters, are still labor- 

 ing under some erroneous impressions, one of 

 which is, that graperies must be planted on dry 

 land, and that they must have a rich soil and be 

 manured, the more the better. As this is all 

 wrong, I beg to state some facts and make some 

 suggestions, trusting they will not be void of in- 

 terest to those who would like to produce either 

 a good grape to eat, or a good wine to drink. 



To raise good grapes for the table, is compara- 

 tively as cheap as it is an easy matter, being 

 entirely under the control of man, very difterent 

 however from that for the purpose of making 

 wine. The former may be had almost any- 

 where, while the latter requires natural condi- 

 tions, which man cannot procure or change at 

 will. The vineyards in which the grape for the 

 finest wines, the Riesling, is grown have a west- 

 erly exposure, on steep hils, with a river at the 

 foot of them, which sends nightly its vapors up, 

 furnishing heavy dews. The sun warming the 

 soil to the greatest depth possible in the latitude- 

 of middle Europe, and the winters being througlt 



