146 



The HortivuUanst and Journal 



than formerly, and, cqpsequently, the product 

 is of better quality and commands readier 

 sale at better prices. This improvement in 

 the domestic wine trade causes an increased 

 demand for good grapes, independent of the 

 fruit markets, and prevents all feeling of dis- 

 couragement in the minds of those who own 

 vineyards in favorable localities. At the 

 prices paid by wine makers for the fruit, four 

 to five cents per pound, the crop is found to 

 pay bettor than the average of any other for 

 which the lands are adapted. For table use, 

 also — where the facilities for transportation 

 are good, by steamboat or freight cars — the 

 grape crop has paid quite well, even at the 

 low average prices of the past three or four 

 years. 



Some vineyards have entirely failed, as was 

 to be expected, from the want of intelligence 

 or care in the choice of land or its preparation 

 and planting, or in the selection of the varie- 

 ties of grapes and the management of the 

 vines. It will be seen, by the statistics, that 

 the increase of the aggregate is only about 

 one-half as many acres as are planted each 

 year — the balance being offset by vineyards 

 destroyed or abandoned. 



Much injury has been sustained, especially 

 by the Catawba and Delaware vineyards, from 

 allowing the vines to overbear ; this was par- 

 ticularly the case in the fruitful seasons of 

 1870 and '71, when many vineyards were 

 allowed to bear as much as five or six tons of 

 fruit to the acre. This so weakened the 

 vines as to induce disease of the foliage, and 

 thus they were unfitted to endure the severe 

 cold of the winter of 1872-'73, which caused 

 destruction of the wood in many vineyards, 

 and the buds in the majority, so that the crop 

 of the past season was not over about one- 

 fourth of the usual average for the entire 

 State, or one-third to a half in the most fav- 

 ored localities. 



The Sulphur Rt^inedy. — Much interest was 

 excited at the late annual meeting of our State 

 Horticultural Society, by reports of recent 

 experiments with the use of sulphur on Ca- 

 tawba vineyards at the islands. It was stated 

 by one of the grape-growers from there, that 



sulphuring the vines had been practiced to 

 some extent for several years past, and tliat 

 when judiciously done, it was found a certain 

 preventive of mildew and rotting of the fruit, 

 and also of the blighting of the foliage ; and 

 where this was practiced, in 1872, the vines 

 ripened their wood so well as to suffer but 

 little damage from the winter, and thus pro- 

 duced a half crop, while vineyards not sul- 

 phured bore no fruit at all. These facts will 

 cause a very general use of sulphur hereafter, 

 and much improvement is expected therefrom. 



The practice is, to mix the sulphur with an 

 equal quantity of fine air-slacked lime, and 

 apply the powder with bellows, of which they 

 manufacture a very cheap style for the pur- 

 pose. The first application is made as soon as 

 the blossoms are off, in June, and repeat once 

 a month or so during the summer. The labor 

 and expense are quite small compared with 

 the benefits ; and the practice is recommended 

 to grape-growers generally, especially for va- 

 rieties that are subject to mildew or blighting 

 of the foliage. Let us all give the experi- 

 ment a trial, and report the results next year. 



P allies oille, O. 



Strawberries. 



uv I', ji. al:gi;k. 



FOR general culture, the Wilson undoubt- 

 edly stands pre-eminent and without a 

 rival ; probably nine-tenths of the market 

 strawberries are of this variety. 



The Jucunda, Agriculturist, Triumph de 

 Grand and Seth Boyden, do well in suitable 

 soils with hill culture. Next to the Wilson, 

 and for hill culture, we think the Charles 

 Downing one of the very best and most pro- 

 ductive. Some cultivators of the strawberry 

 in our State have been very successful, as fol- 

 lows : Prepare ground in all respects nearly 

 as well as for a crop of tobacco. Using the 

 Wilson, set last of May or June 1st, in rows, 

 three feet apart ; cultivate and hoe, keeping 

 the ground clean throughout the season, but 

 after July let the runners stock the ground 

 well with plants, wliich have, in some instan- 

 ces, brought a gross income of from $900 to 

 $1,200 per acre. The plants, after the fruit 



