Vol. X.-Xo. 40. 



Ai>JI). HOIITICULTUIIAL JOURNAL. 



315 



woniJjLmt not equal to the c) c.tlie hoe,an(;l the knife. 

 Eveu with these, the worm will sometimes escape 

 detection. It appears princiiutlly in July, August, 

 nud September. There are statements as to the 

 time the egjr is deposited, but this I have no cer- 

 tain knowledge of.] 



27lh. Find a very little iriildew on a few bun- 

 ches of grapes, on old vines; brushed these as be- 

 fore ; upon young vines, no case of mildew this 

 season. 



29th. Picked first green-corn ; small sweet 

 corn. [This I find to be one of the best vegeta- 

 bles of the garden, and in my family, a perfectly 

 healthy vegetable ; it has now been used for six- 

 years without an instance of known injury, either 

 to young or old. It is on the table every day 

 during its season ; but then it is always eaten when 

 quite tender, and when the tough hull of the corn 

 has not appeared. For this purpose, I always 

 liave three or four successive crops ; the common 

 corn as it is usually eaten is a kind of poison. It 

 is a crime thus to trifle with health and spread hu- 

 man misery. The benevolent community who 

 are doing so much for the cause of temperance in 

 diitiking, can now do little more needful than to in- 

 struct the people on temperance in eating. As to 

 what, also, is the most healthful and economical 

 food, and the best preparation of it.] 



30th. Sowed raspberry and strawberry seed ; 

 former all of the white Antwerp ; latter of the 

 common field strawberry. [These seeds sown for 

 new varieties ; plants have not yet appeared.] 



August 3d. Syringed old grape vines with lime 

 and sulphur water, on account of the mildew 

 which has increased, but still in a small degree. 

 Weather for three weeks unfavorable, rains almost 

 every day, and the days hot. Notwithstanding 

 the appearance of mildew there is very little of it, 

 and I believe the brushing, heretofore, has been 

 useful. 



8th. Mildew having increased much on old 

 vines, cut out nearly half the wood which is much 

 mildewed, so as to leave remainder very open — 

 no mildew on young bearing vines ; not a bunch 

 of grapes on those injured. Rainy yesterday and 

 today. More hot weather in last six weeks, than 

 I have known for a long time. Put compost 

 about some young bearing vines and dug it in. I 

 have found, for some days, many young shoots of 

 vines, young and old, entirely covered with eggs 

 of the black ant; saw the old ant on the shoots in 

 more than fifty instances ; cut off many shoots. 

 This ant I have never seen in this way before. 



15th. Black ant in great numbers ; do not see 

 that it injures the grape vines. Mildew has in- 

 creased on the wood and fruit of old vines ; grapes 

 apparently all touched, more or less ; they still 

 appear, however, as though they would all ripen, 

 except a few bunches that were left untouched by 

 the brush, by way of experiment. Fruit on all 

 young vines yet uninjured. 



16th. Cut off the entire head of a young win- 

 ter St Germain pear ; it having been attacked by 

 the blight in the branches some time since ; 

 but the blight has continued to destroy the tree. 

 Picked the first melons ; cantelopes. No rain 

 since Wednesday of last week ; weather very hot ; 

 most of the time, thermometer at eighty. Grapes, 

 sweet-water, begin to show ripeness ; in some 

 cases, soft to the touch. Ever since dry weather 

 came on, have watered daily one young sweet- 

 water, to see if it would ripen the fruit the sooner; 

 [no effect perceived.] Black ant increased im- 



mensely, though not perceived that it has injured 

 the vines. 



23il. Heavy showers this morning, after dry 

 weather since Wednesday of the week before last. 

 Black Cluster or Burgundy begins to turn black. 

 Some few berries of the sweet-water quite palat- 

 able. Larger berries on the young vines than I 

 recollect to have seen in my garden. Melons ripen 

 fast ; have watered these vines a very little during 

 the dry weather ; they have suffered from it ap- 

 parently. 



September 1st. Some grapes, sweet-water, ripe 

 — i. e. what is usually called rijie, and such as I have 

 often seen brought to the table, and in the market ; 

 still, they are far from ripe ; many berries on the 

 bunch are still acid, and some bunches are still 

 entirely unripe, ftlildew apparent on every bunch 

 on old vines — i. e. on the stem of every bunch; 

 though in most instances the grapes are sound, 

 not perished or shrunk. On the contrary, berries 

 often larger and finer than usual ; not the bunches. 

 The wood of these vines all affected by mildew ; 

 I allude to the old vines before mentioned, nine in 

 nundjer. As to young vines, though the wood 

 is in a few cases partially discolored by mildew, 

 tliere is but a single bunch on all these vines, that 

 is injured by it. 



3.5th. Sweet- water grapes now in perfection, 

 and many of them have been for some days; those 

 bunches turned to the sun have acquired the russet 

 color, which shows perfect maturity in the grape. 

 Burgundy or Black Cluster not ripe. [This grape 

 is a spirited fine grape, and in the books is 

 said to be earlier than the sweet-water, but in this 

 instance 1 have not found it to be so ; this may be 

 accidental; I have but three bearing plants of this 

 kind. In no instance was fruit ripe as soon as on 

 other vines. I have no doubt but that mine is 

 the true kind ; the description in the books is too 

 plain to be mistaken.] Isabella. not ripe ; indeed, 

 fat from it. [I must enter a solemn protest 

 against this grape in this climate ; unless cultiva- 

 ted in the most protected situation it will not ripen. 

 My friend, Mrs Griffith, has given it a bad name 

 in all cases. Ripened within the walls of Albany 

 and New York, I have found it delicious ; men, 

 women and children will attest to it. I do not 

 mean as delicate as the Chasselas or Froulignac, 

 but still excellent ; and I must say again, in its 

 sweetness delicious. And then as to fruitfulness 

 it is not surpassed.] For the first time and with- 

 in a few days, robins have attacked my grapes, 

 not the black otily, but the sweet-water ; having 

 shot five, the rest have disappeared. [Here was 

 an unexpected thief, and a horticultural mortifica- 

 tion not looked for. After watching, nursing, pro- 

 tecting these offspring of care, by night and by 

 day, as the mother does her children, now comes 

 the spoiler. What is to be done ? I had never 

 suffered one of these beautiful tenants of the bough 

 and the air, to be shot on my place ; but this was 

 too much ; iny humanity gave way, and the deadly 

 shot removed my fears and preserved my fruit. 

 Was I wrong? I commit myself to the taste, 

 judgment and humanity of the horticultural re- 

 public, and will abide its decision. As to the 

 white grape, it has been said that its color would 

 preserve it from the attack of birds, and till now, 

 I supposed that this was the fact. It may be so, 

 generally.] Trimmed six vines .is I intend they 

 shall remain at the next year's growth ; when cut, 

 the old wood bled a little. [This done as an ex- 

 periment ; Loudgn asserts that this early trimming 



will greatly accelerate the fruit the next year ; even 

 two or three weeks.] 



Here, Su', ends my meagre journal. On the 

 2Gth of September I left home and was absent 

 some weeks, and since that time I haCe not liad 

 leisure to note down the various operations, that 

 always go forward in the garden in the fall. Be- 

 fore I leave the subject, I will take notice of two 

 or three ])ariiculars. 



1st. Grapes. The beauty, the delicacy, the 

 hcalthfulness of this fruit, early attracted my at- 

 tention, and I was determined to be successful, if 

 diligence would insure that result. My confidence 

 is not diminished, though I am aware that most 

 cultivators in the northern and middle States have 

 less hope. Mildew is the great enemy. The ex- 

 cellent lady I have mentioned, says, that two or 

 three good crops tiiay be expected from onr 

 young vines, but that, after that, we all "_/(6" about 

 our grapes. I will not plead guilty, and cannot 

 stand mute. I have given the reader a faithful 

 account of my vines this year ; my crop on the 

 old vines was poor ; the young vines were too 

 young to expect much from. For the first time, 

 my old vines were a good deal infected with mil- 

 dew ; this attacks the stem, the wood, and the 

 fruit. I think I can account for the mildews on 

 the old vines I have mentioned ; I sufl'ered a good 

 deal of wood to grow, much more than usual — 

 this was partly intentional and partly owing to an 

 omission to take oft' superfluous wood, as the buds 

 started in the spring ; the wood accumulated be- 

 fore I was well aware of how much was left on 

 the vines. In addition to this, we had very hot 

 and very wet weather during a part of the season. 

 Not expecting mildew, I was not prepared for it. 

 After all, upon these nine years old vines I did 

 not lose twenty bunches of grapes ; this I attribute 

 in a good measure to the brush. To my recollec- 

 tion, I have never in one season before lost ten 

 bunches of grapes from mildew, and I attribute 

 my success to these canses. To climate I cannot 

 say how much. 1st. I trim very closely during 

 the summer, by keeping the false wood always 

 down ; I shorten many bearing shoots, so that the 

 vine is left very open to a free admission of the 

 air and sun. 2d. I manure very highly, and dig 

 or fork my grape ground not less than four or five 

 times during the season ; so that the ground, being 

 a light sand and loam, is like an ash heap. My 

 grapes are now prepared for the next season, by 

 the richest manure from the hog pen. On the 

 continent of Europe, they speak of manuring \\ith 

 vegetable manure ; and I well recollect that the 

 late ingenious Mr Parmentier of Brooklyn, told 

 me that he preferred a good deal of vegetable ma- 

 nure. But I am satisfied that this will not answer 

 in my garden. I do not rely on the brush, nor 

 on lime and sulphur as practised in Boston. The 

 latter may be useful, and I once supposed from 

 the statements made, that it was a panacea ; but I 

 fear that there is none; that therefore we must 

 build our hopes, whatever ihey are, upon that in- 

 dustry and diligence to which are awarded the 

 greatest bounties of Providence. Let none, there- 

 fore, despair. I have mentioned that there was 

 no mildew worth regarding, on my young bearing 

 vines ; the best of tliese were taken care of, almost 

 exclusively, as to the trimming and disposing of 

 the trellis, by a young lady of the family, whom I 

 instructed as to keeping the vines open and expos- 

 ed to the sun and air. 



2d. Strawberries and Raspbenies. There is 



