319 



colored starch and cellulose structures sometimes appear of a green 

 color in couseqaence of beiug covered with amber-colored albuminous 

 matter. On the application of water and friction, the latter may be 

 removed, when a deep-blue structure will become apparent. 



I propose to resume my investigations on this subject at an early day, 

 and will, as I progress, make careful drawings of every form of cellulose 

 structure and starch-granules found in the important viscera of the 

 animals under examination, carefully noting the forms and peculiarities 

 found in each part. 



PRODUCTION OF MUSCATEL RAISINS IN MALAGA. 



By John A. Mark. 



The cultivation of the Muscatel vine, notwithstanding that it supplies 

 a source of such great wealth to the province of Malaga, and a vast 

 commodity for exportation to almost every part of the world, in the 

 shape of the universally-known Malaga raisins, is carried on in a way 

 which generally is little to the credit of the cultivators. 



The vines are generally very superficially planted, and the culture 

 afterwards partakes very much of the same poverty of tillage. The 

 consequence of this is that the majority of the fruit scarcely attains 

 any size, is poor and skinny, and ultimately has to be foisted on the 

 public in the shape of " corrientes,'" or what very erroneously are quoted 

 as the standard from which all other and superior classes take their 

 relative prices. 



The vines should be planted in December and January, and I con- 

 sider that the most favorable sites are those which lie on gentle slopes 

 in the laps of the hills, as these generally are overlaid with the washing 

 down of the finest and richest soils from above. These latter possess 

 great fructifying power, with all the richness of the alluvium. These 

 lands generally have a substratum of slaty rock, very frangible, and 

 which, when broken up, readily mixes with the soil above and proves a 

 most congenial grouud for the vine, especially if it should be a decom- 

 posed slate tinged with oxide or peroxide of iron, and of a rich reddish 

 color. This land retains the moisture most admirably, and therefore 

 Is most fitted to support the vine during the long summer droughts, 

 which are inevitable. 



Generally speaking, the vines are planted at about five feet distance 

 from each other, at a depth of about two feet. Now, in this last circum- 

 stance lies all the fault of the general 'poverty of the vineyards, as, 

 owing to this surface-planting, the roots live where all the digging- 

 operations injure them twice a year, and where they are thus also amen- 

 able to all the changes of atmosphere, drought, &c. 



The correct thing is to plant them about G or 7 feet apart, according 

 to the supposed richness of the soil, as when they are closer together 

 they obstruct each other, both in their roots as well as their surface- 

 growth, to say nothing of the more ample succulence which the soil thus 

 affords them. The holes should be dug about 3 or 4 feet deep, and, 

 if possible, the same diameter throughout. Then the finest and healthi- 

 est cuttings of the vines should be obtained, about 6 feet in length ; they 

 should be laid across the bottom of the holes, in a small trench which 

 should be made in each, and then they should be brought up against 

 the faces or walls of the holes, taking care that they be all laid and, 



