Gleanings and Curiosities of Grape Literature. 



561 



most infernal humbug. The men who 

 advocate it are generally found to be 

 growing, and attempting to introduce, 

 the poor, sickly seedlings of foreign- 

 ers that have to be covered to live 

 through the mildest winters. It is 

 these gentlemen who are producing 

 these seedlings and hybrids, that give 

 you all the fine methods of winter 

 protection. "Necessity is the mother 

 of invention." The varieties they 

 grow are too tender for the climate, 

 and they invent patent trellises to lay 

 down; give all manner of new forms 

 of training, to make it easy to cover 

 in winter. Our advice is, only grow 

 such kinds as are entirely hard}' for 

 Missouri — Concord, Clinton, Dela- 

 ware, Hartford Prolific, Norton's Vir- 

 ginia, Martha, and a few others, can 

 be depended upon ; grow them, and 

 never cover the vine ; no danger of 

 losing your plants. If you are gi'ow- 

 ing grapes at the west, take western 

 experience and advice. — Ozark. — 

 \_From Colman's Eural World. 



[When wo read the above, we were 

 sorry to see that our friend " Ozark " 

 had one of his ill-humored spells on 

 him again, which occasionally lead 

 him so far astray as to '^ pour out the 

 child with the bath." He must have 

 had a similar spell when commenting 

 on " Bran Bread and Humbugs," and 

 which seem to blind him so that he 

 cannot even see and remember when 

 he contradicts himself. Thus, in the ar- 

 ticle mentioned, he cautioned the read- 

 ers of the Rural World to "go slow with 

 Martha and a host of others;" now.^ 

 he advises them to grow it in prefer- 

 ence to vines which have to be covered, 

 and says it can be "depended upon." 



Now, while we are glad that he has 



suddenly grown fond of the Martha, 

 and appreciates also our old-time 

 favorites, we cannot admit his truth 

 nor good nature when he calls cover- 

 ing of grapes {vines, he means, Ave sup- 

 pose) in winter "all a most infernal 

 humbug." Nor can we admit that 

 we belong to those " who are produc- 

 ing these seedlings and hybrids," 

 although we have always, and are yet, 

 advocating winter protection for such 

 varieties as Herbemont, Cunningha7n, 

 and others of a similar class. We 

 have no seedling out, consequently 

 no "axe to grind." We claim that 

 the Herbemont and Cunningham are 

 anything but " poor, sickly seedlings 

 of foreigners." It is not our custom 

 to call vines sickly which will make 

 twenty-five to thirty feet of healthy 

 growth in a single summer, and pro- 

 duce from twenty to thirty pounds of 

 delicious grapes — grapes of whose 

 excellence Ozark seems not to have 

 any conception. And we further 

 claim that the man who has the pro- 

 per soil for them, so that they will 

 average such a yield for him as they 

 have done for us the last six years, 

 does not know his own interest if he 

 begrudges them the slight labor of 

 covering, at a cost of about ten dol- 

 lars per acre, and occupies the same 

 ground with Concord and Hartford. 

 Good as they may be, and are, the 

 Herbemont and Cunningham, etc., 

 are much better, and their wine worth 

 at least double the amount, while they 

 will produce the same quantity to the 

 acre. So much for the "infernal 

 humbugs " of Ozark. We hope he 

 will be in better humor next time, 

 and not quite so annihilating in his 

 Avrath. — Ed.] 



