265 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



hapa the most valuable crop of suitable land, and 

 certainly the crop most cheaply made. For want 

 of atieniion to grass husbandry, our towns con- 

 tinue to be supplied with hay imported Irom New 

 England — and our corn crops are stripped of the 

 leaves for Fodder, though the cost of labor so em- 

 ployed, and the injury to the grain, must amount 

 to much more than the value of the fodder so 

 obtained. 



A region in which hay is scarcely made at all, 

 and grass so much neglected, must necessarily 

 also show poor live slock, and small profiis there- 

 from. To both these bad courses we have 

 been seduced by the quantity of cattle-forage I'ur- 

 nislied in the offal (shucks and stalks) of our 

 large corn crops. But all that even this bounlKul 

 supply permits, is that the cattle may live, gra- 

 dually becoming poorer, through winter and 

 spring, and yielding through the year Utile or no 

 net profit, except in furnishing supplies necessary 

 to the comlbrt of the family, in milk, butter, 

 and meat, and of manure to the land. 



We raise not enough hogs, for the home supply 

 of what is the principal animal food of the country; 

 though this great defect is rapidly becoming less. 

 We "raise very few horses for labor. Sheep are 

 not to be found at all on most farms, owing in a 

 great degree to the risks they would incur from 

 doers. If every useless and worthless dog in lower 

 Vuginia were a sheep or a hog, the expense of 

 maiDtennnce would be less, and the returns to 

 agriculture greater by many thousands ol. dollars, 

 besides the rendering the raising of sheep in gene- 

 ral sale and profitable, instead ol being as hazard- 

 ous as if the country were inlested by wolves in- 

 stead of by worthless dogs. 



They have none of the hard pulp common to the 

 Catawba, Schuylkill, Muscadel, and the Isabella. 

 For the table, they are equal to the Meunier, or 

 Miller's Burgundy, and as free of pulp. One of 

 them, which I first met with a few years since, I 

 call the Ohio grape. The vine is periectly hardy, 

 a fine bearer, has never had the mildew or rot, and 

 the bunches very large, say four times the size of 

 the Burgundy. I sent a bunch of these grapes 

 to Boston, last fall, but it was too long on the road 

 to be in perlection. I will give five hundred dol- 

 lars lor a root of a native grape, that in quality of 

 the fruit and size ol" the bunch, shall surpass it. 

 The other two are equally good for the table, per- 

 iectly hardy, great growers, but the bunches of 

 fruit are not so large. 



I I was surprised, when east, to find no good na- 

 tive grapes. At my different vineyards, I have 

 about sixty acres in grapes, but not all in bearing. 

 Last season, I had not half a crop, with the ex- 

 ception ol one vineyard, where the Iruit was abun- 

 dant and fine. I made about two hundred barrels 

 of wine, and some brandy. I am now raising 

 large quantities of vines from the seed ol' my best 

 varieties of native grape, having cleared a piece 

 of new land expressly lor that purpose. 



The Bland grape is not a native. It was in- 

 troduced into Virginia from France, about fifty 

 years since, by a French gentleman, as I was in- 

 formed by Gen. Harrison, who knew the gentle- 

 man, and had seen the fruit on his table, more 

 than forty years since. It is a good table grape, 

 but subject to mildew, and does not always ripeo 

 its wood or its fruit. Yours, respectlully, 



N. LONGWORTH. 



Cincinnati, Ohio, March, 1842. 



ON THE COMPARATIVE MERITS OF THE ISA- 

 BELLA AND CATAWBA GRAPES ; WITH A 

 NOTICE OF A NEW NATIVE VARIETY CALLED 

 THE OHIO GRAPE, AND OBSERVATIONS ON 

 THE CULTIVATION OF GRAPES FROM SEED. 



By N. Longworth, Esq., Cincinnati, Ohio. 



From the Magazine of Horticulture. 



I was surprised on reading a communication in 

 your magazine, (vol. vii., p. 331,) from an 

 intelligent gentleman at Marietta, Ohio, in which 

 he speaks of the Isabella grape as the best native 

 grape cultivated by them, and that they com- 

 mence using it lor the table as soon as it assumes 

 a red color. 1 should suppose he alluded to the 

 Bland Madeira, did he not speak of that grape 

 in a subsequent part of his letter. I have ceased 

 to cultivate the Isabella for near twenty years, 

 deeming it interior, as a table and wine gra'pe, to 

 most others. He gives it the preference over the 

 Catawba, aa a table grape ; with us, it ripens bad- 

 ly, and is subject to rot, and in its best state far in- 

 ferior to the Catawba, either lor the table or for 

 wine. 1 have had a bunch of the Catawba to 

 weigh twenty-four ounces. I have a white varie- 

 ty of the Catawba, and another Catawba produc- 

 ing fruit a third larger than the Catawba of Adium. 

 1 say the Catawba of Adlum, tor Major Adlura 

 was the first to bring it into notice. 



I have three varieties of native grapes, which I 

 consider far superior to the Catawba lor the table. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



From the (London) Farmers' Magazine. 

 Sir,— I beg leave to state to you that, seeing the 

 bad effects of the waste of the draining of manure 

 heaps, and being convinced that much of the sub- 

 stance ol' the dung was contained therein, 1 deter- 

 mined on applying it as a top- dressing to a meadow, 

 which was effected in the following manner : — 

 Measures having been taken to prevent the escape 

 of the water, an old tar barrel had a hole about 

 six inches square cut out at the bung ; into this 

 was filled a funnel made of vifood, somewhat in 

 the shape of a hopper, having the bottom covered 

 with a piece of old tin perlbrated with holes, to 

 act as a strainer to prevent straws, or any matter 

 which would choke the passage, getting into the 

 barrel. Two old (elloes of a cart wheel, having 

 wedged-shaped pieces nailed on the outer side at 

 each end to keep them steady, were laid in a cart, 

 and the barrel having a hand-plug in the cock hole, 

 was laid on them. A trough a foot longer, the 

 width of the cart, one side of it being bored with a 

 double row of holes burned with a hot iron, was 

 then slung behind, and just under the cart ; which, 

 when the cask had been filled with the dunghill 

 water, was then driven on the meadow— the plug 

 being withdrawn, the water flows out on the bot- 

 tom of the cart and thence into the trough, which 

 through the holes distributes it in the manner of a 

 town watering cart. This apparatus is simple, 

 cheap and effective ; and when done with, the 



