10 The Grape. [July, 



the year. It must often seem that temperature has something to 

 do with the disease, and still the only fact which favors this view 

 of the subject, is time, for it is not to be supposed that a certain 

 degree of heat w'ill cause the disease, and if it has any thing to do 

 with it, it is only one of the conditions. Without recurring to 

 theoretical grounds, or those which stand upon the known pro- 

 perties of matter, as it regards the conductibility of caloric, we 

 believe experience has fully disproved the theory. 



The blight is evidently making sad work in many parts of New 

 York. Both apple and peach trees are injured by this destroyer. 

 We have in one instance observed from fifteen to twenty recently 

 dead limbs upon a single tree. What is quite remarkable and 

 beyond comprehension, is the fact that a single tree is sadly effected, 

 while those around and equally exposed to the operation of general 

 causes, remained untouched. 



It seems from these facts, that in the vegetable as in the animal 

 kingdom, death strikes a blow where it is the least expected, and 

 in a manner or by an instrumentality which has hitherto eluded 

 our search. W^e deem it, in the present state of knowledge, to be 

 entirely unknown, so far as cause is concerned. The fact of the 

 death and the phenomena accompanying it are plain enough, but 

 by what agency the blow is struck, is wholly enveloped in darkness. 



A profound ignorance of the cause of the blight does not stand 

 alone. If the cholera in the human species is still wrapped in as 

 dark a mystery as ever, it is nothing strange that a disease should 

 attack the vegetable whose cause also should hide itself in the 

 profound. We know far less of vegetable than of the animal 

 structure, and less of the mode by which the imponderables act. 

 It is not strange, therefore, that we often inquire unsuccessfully 

 after causes, and that we are so frequently obliged to stop our in- 

 quiries at negative results. 



THE GRAPE. (Vitis Vinifera.) 



We have often been surprised at the little attention which is 

 bestowed upon the grape culture. As a fruit, it possesses in itself 

 the highest recommendation for deliciousness; and being at the 

 same time perfectly free from injurious action when eaten almost 

 to satiety, it is quite unaccountable that so little care is bestowed 

 upon it. What, however, makes the neglect of the grape still 

 more surprising is the certain profit which will be secured by the 

 crop. Its growth is quick, it attains a great age, and is but little 



