of Rural Art and Taste. 



287 



then having secured a hold, it shortens by 

 coiling up its whole length, or a good part of 

 it. This commonly draws up the climbing 

 stem, nearer to its support, and makes it 

 easier for the younger tendrils above to gain 

 their hold. A tendril which has taken hold 

 and coiled up, usually becomes stouter, rigid, 

 and much stronger than it was before. One 

 which would break with an ounce weight, 

 becomes capable of supporting two or three 

 pounds." — Prof. Gray. 



Grape Vulture in Culiforiila. 



The grape fever on the Pacific coast has 

 been carried to as great excess as the straw- 

 berry fever on the Atlantic. We see it now 

 announced in Pacific journals, that in some 

 parts grape culture has become so unprofit- 

 able, particTilarly Los Angelos county, that the 

 growers are tearing out the vines and planting 

 orange trees in their place. One noteworthy 

 vineyard, the Wolfskill, 35 years old, is said 

 to have been kept up for some time past at a 

 loss to its proprietor of about $2,000 per 

 annum. Others in the same neighborhood 

 have yielded no profit — a statement which 

 will readily be believed when it is i-emembered 

 that the grapes sold last season at from 50 to 

 65 cents per hundred pounds, a price barely 

 covering the cost of production. Great ex- 

 pectations are entertained of success with the 

 orange (some experiments in raising them 

 having proved very remunerative), and we 

 trust they will be fully realized. 



Spruce Cotie Orniiinent. 



One of the prettiest objects I ever beheld 

 is a spruce cone filled with sand and grass 

 seed, which sprouted and grew out of the 

 scales. It is now as large as a cocoauut with 

 the husk on, and of the most vivid green 

 color. The grass grows with a luxuriance 

 that is remarkable. To produce this charm- 

 ing specimen, the cone was baked in an oven 

 till the scales opened out equally. It was 

 then carefully filled with equal parts of sand 

 and grass seed, a string tied to the tuft, and 

 the whole suspended in the dark in a jar with 

 water enough to come half way over the cone. 

 In a week it was placed in the sunlight, when 



the seeds sprouted rapidly, and in a month 

 filled a gallon jar completely. It has been 

 taken out and hung in the window exposed to 

 the air of the room. Every morning it is 

 thoroughly soaked in tepid water. — Tribune. 



Oreen J^a>ieg. 



England surpasses the world in the peculiar 

 beauty of her green lanes. Italy has its skies ; 

 Grreece its classic ruins ; Egypt its pyramids ; 

 Switzerland its Alps ; Grermany its Rhine ; 

 America its Niagara ; but none of these has 

 a green lane such as there are thousands of in 

 England. The green lane is essentially 

 English, and is confined to England. There 

 are green lanes neither in Scotland nor Ire- 

 laud, we mean grassy roads, arrayed in 

 greenery, shaded by lofty old hedges. Beach 

 trees, alders or willows, leading to some 

 quiet cot or farm house, or i-ange of pasture 

 lands, and often leading one merely to some 

 other green lanes or series of lanes branching 

 oif to right or left, Avhich are there seemingly 

 without any other purpose than that they are 

 there to feast the eyes of country strollers 

 with the sight of their quiet green beauty." 



TjurffHut I'eacit Orcliurd in tUe World, 



Shellcross, who resides near Middletown, 

 Delaware, owns the largest peach orchard in 

 the world. Last year he shipped to New 

 York 125,000 baskets of fruit, and it is esti- 

 mated that he lost, by being unable to pro- 

 cure labor to pick, about 25,000 baskets more. 

 On several days he loaded from his orchard 

 ten car loads. 



Mr. Shellcross' orchard reaches along the 

 public road for more than eight miles — 

 generally on either side — and covers an ex- 

 tent of upwards of 1,000 acres ; on which is 

 growing more than 100,000 trees. The land 

 on which Mr. Shellcross' trees are planted is 

 worth $150,000. 



Fle.tnisit Jiettntt/. 



W. H. Ragan has pcax-s of the Flemish Beau- 

 ty variety, grown by his father at Fillmore, Put- 

 nam county, Indiana, which grew upon a tree 

 that has for the last seven years yielded fruit, 

 the average sales of which amounted to two 

 hundred and one dollars per year, besides 

 what was required for family use. 



