274 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



New Mode of Training Grapes. 



Mr. H. L. Salsbury, Holley. Orleans county, N. Y., says : "A 

 new mode of training orape-vines has been started here. A vine 

 is trained to a stalk live feet liigh, more or less, a main stake which 

 is to be the central pillar and principal support of the structure ; 

 from this stalk, laterals are made to descend to the ground where 

 they take root and are thus braced, keeping upright the central 

 cone. These laterals are eight in number, or more, four of them 

 starting two feet from the ground and the remainder four from the 

 top. The calculation is that when this fabric gets age enough (say 

 eight years), it will stand without the help of the stake. Will 

 this plan answer ? 



Dr. Grant.- — This is not a new plan, nor is anything gained by 

 this mode of trainino;. The branches will start from all these 

 canes and grow upward. So they would if they lay upon the 

 ground. But something is wanted to support the new shoots 

 which produce the fruit. It is a better plau to train the vine in a 

 bow shape, without any stake. 



Mr. John G. Bergen. — In California vines are successfully grown 

 by allowing them to run upon the ground. I saw the same plan 

 successfully pursued at Hammonton, N. J. Delaware vines are 

 hard to strike root from cuttings. Mr. Scoles of Brooklyn informs 

 me that if the cuttings are set in autumn, there is no difficulty 

 about their striking root. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter said that was also true of the prairie 

 rose and several other plants. 



Agriculture in Denmark. 

 The Eev. Joshua Weaver, who has formerly been a regu- 

 lar attendant at the meetings of this club, is now in Denmark, 

 where he has spent the summer. Our readers will be interested 

 in a few extracts from his letter. "Many of the characteristics of 

 these people are much to be admired. They are quiet, industri- 

 ous, and especially cleanl}^ The farmers live mostly in one-stoiy, 

 thatched cottages, always neat, and nearly always with windoW'S 

 adorned with pots of flowers. The land is carefully tilled, even 

 small patches by the roadside. Still, I cannot term them good 

 farmers, since they do not know how to make their land yield 

 abundantly. England supplies a market for everything. Eye is 

 the principal grain. Wheat does not succeed well. The barley 

 crop is large and excellent. So of oats ; no Indian corn. App es 



