Vol. XI.-No. 9. 



AND ilOUTICULTUUAL JOURNAL. 



69 



me, by name, before tlie public as the author of 

 ail artiile wliich 1 did not avow. Nor was there 

 the slightest necessity for it. He could as well 

 have res|)on(leil to tlie Editor of the Massachusetts 

 Agriciiliural Repository as to me. But lest it 

 should be supposed that these objections are made 

 upon any other, and less honorable and high 

 grounds, than those of the itiviolability of the 

 press, I distinctly avow myself the author of the 

 article in question. I have reperused it, and I 

 would not now alter a single sentence of it. It is 

 eminent!;/ courteous to Mr Snihh. It is feir and 

 manly in its tone. Its language is such as free in- 

 quirers ought to use. If gentlemen cannot reply 

 to such articles, without personalities, it is time 

 that we should give up our agricultural and horti- 

 cultural publications. 



I have been deeply distressed at the tone of 

 many articles in journals devoted to agriculture. 

 I allude, (for example) to the bitter discussions in 

 the American Farmer about the ridiculous ques- 

 tion, as to wheat turning to cheat, a question so 

 disgraceful to the science of our country ; and to 

 the equally angry debate about bots in Ijorses. 

 Surely politics and religion furnish abundant vent 

 for angry passions, without bringing those passions 

 into exercise on questions of horticulture. 



p^or myself, I sincerely and most ardently wish 

 entire success in Mr Smith's efforts to introduce 

 the arracacha. I shall taste the sample he may do 

 mc the honor to send, with a strong disposition to 

 find it savory and delicious, but as a patriot, I shall 

 be more pleased to hear of his sentling 500 bushels 

 to the Baltimore market, in five years from this 

 day; and if he and his neighbors cannot do that, 

 in such a liberal time, I feel assured, from his open 

 and frank character, as it is exhibited in bis])aper, 

 he will admit that it is not adapted to our climate. 

 JOHN LOWELL. 



Itoihunj, August 30, 1832. 



Mr Fesse.vde.x — I shall be happy to learn 

 through your journal, what success horticulturists 

 have had in raising the grape in the open ground 

 the present season. I shall state my own experi- 

 ence. I have ado])ted all the known precautions. 

 I have kept down the striped fly by repeated ap- 

 plications of sulphur. IMy grapes had on the 15tli 

 of August attained a Hiir size ; they were and still 

 are wholly free from mildew. The prospect was 

 cheering of a full crop, but the late cold nights 

 and heavy dews have rotted them, without mildew 

 on the fruit or leaf. When I stated (foiu- years 

 since) the simph fact, that out of twentyfour years' 

 experience, I had not succeeded six times in raising 

 foreign grapes in the open ground in the country, 

 (in the city the case is different) I was accused of 

 rashness. Still it was the rashness of actual expe- 

 rience. I should not now a<lvert to it, if it were 

 not, to recommend the erection of cheap houses, 

 without fire heat, which will uniformly succeed. 

 J. LOWELL. 



Roxhury, August 30, 18.33. 



summer, has retarded the usual progress of veg- 

 etation not less than two weeks. Wheat, howev- 

 er, with rarely an exception, looks well, and prom- 

 ises an abundant harvest. Rye and potatoes will 

 range at about a medium quality and quantity. 

 Grass is good, although much hay will be injured 

 in consequence of the rainy and unstable hay sea- 

 son. Bui Indian corn, unless the fall months 

 should be free from early frosts, and unusually 

 mild and open, will yield the husbandman but a 

 scanty return for his pains-taking. There will be 

 no fruit, which is the less to be regretted, as we 

 believe it is generally allowed, that the peculiar 

 properties of fruit, tend greatly to the aggravation 

 and increase of the prevailing epidemic of the sea- 

 son. Vegetation, however, and the general aspect 

 of the crops, are by no means so unpromising as 

 mnny have imagined, and we have no doidjt, but 

 if the resources of the country are husbanded with 

 a due regard to care and economy, they will prove 

 every way sufficient and ample to the comfortable 

 support of both man and beast.— Sherbrooke Gaz. 

 The weather for the last week or ten days has 

 been most propitious for the farmer, and it is sat- 

 isfactory to learn that in the crops in general there 

 has been a rapid improvement, which promise 

 more than an averace return. — Mir. Gleaner. 



CROPS. 



So far as we have been able to learn, from ob- 

 servation and .■ninute impiiry, the prospect of the 

 farmers in the townships, are not over and abund- 

 antly promising, the present season — although we 

 are confident they would not suffer with other 

 portions of the province. The long encroachment 

 of winter upon the spring months, and the rainy 

 and inauspicious state of a great proportion of the 



GRAPES AND GRAPE VINES. 



A writer in the Port Carbon Gazette continues 

 his essays on gardening; his latest is on the sub- 

 ject of the Grape. This interesting subject is less 

 thought of than becomes our citizens generally. 

 We subjoin one paragraph from the Port Carbon 

 writer: 



" The vine must always he predestinated — the 

 cultivator may have its growth exactly jjlanned for 

 a luimbor of years : there is no difficulty in this, 

 when the nature of the plant is well understood, 

 and there is less labor in its cultivation than would 

 be supposed by those not familiar with it." 



A grape vine may be directed to almost any 

 point, and almost any distance. We visited the 

 lioiise of a friend a few days since, who was fond 

 of cultivating the grape, but had, as it would seem 

 to others less interested in the pursuit, no conve- 

 nience for the purpose. The yard attached to his 

 dwelling was but a few feet square, and the sun 

 never darted its rays upon its moist brick pave- 

 ment, nor was the area enlarged above, even to 

 the top of his house, three stories high. He how- 

 ever, " planted a vine," it came up, he trimmed 

 it, coaxed it, directed and dreiv it in a straight 

 trunk until it attained the height of fiftythreefeet, 

 level with the trellis on the roof of his house 

 He then gave it a horizontal direction, and per- 

 mitted the branches to shoot out, which they did 

 kindly ; and after covering an arbor extending 

 over the whole roof of the building, they produced 

 gra|)es enough to make some excellent wine. 

 Grape vines may he raised by every housekeeper 

 in this city, whether there is or is not a yard to the 

 building. In Spain, we are told that housekeep- 

 ers who lack room on the earth, remember that 

 ground rent is cheap in the air, and they accord- 

 ingly put down a vine cutting in the cellar, and 

 direct it upwards through the cellar window, to 

 the roof of the house. 



transportation, duties, and other expenses amount- 

 ed to 27 cents per pound, making the whole cost 

 G,3 cents, and lie infers that the full blood wool 

 which the American farmers now have ought to 

 bring that price, and advises them not to be too 

 anxious to sell. We have conversed with a man- 

 ufacturer on the subject, who admits that the Kin- 

 derhook statement of the cost of German wool is 

 not too high ; he juits it a cent higher, and sup- 

 poses the actual cost last year (and it would not be 

 less this year) was 64 cents. But he says the 

 German wool is 10 per cent cleaner than the 

 American, and the fleeces are clipped and divest- 

 ed of the coarser and less valuable parts about 

 their necks, flanks, &c. He says the German 

 wool referred to includes the greater part of the 

 fleeces from large flocks, but not the finest nor 

 the coarsest fleeces. 



The prices of wool in Boston are the same as 

 they have been for some weeks — Saxony fleeces 

 50 to 60 ; full blood 47 to 50 ; three fourths 40 to 

 42; half 35 to 37; one fourth and common 30 to 

 33. Sales to a considerable extent have been re- 

 cently made at these prices. — Hampshire Gaz. 



Machines for Barrel Staves. — Thomas's patent 

 machine for sawing barrel staves, was put into op- 

 eration in this village the other day, and we were 

 iiuich gratified by a view of its operations. It is 

 a very simple machine, performs its work well, 

 and is in our opinion, a real saving of labor as 

 well as saving of stuff mach'me. There has also 

 lately been put up here a machine for planing, 

 grooving, and jointing boards, &c, which we are 

 told is an excellent machine, although we have 

 never had the pleasure of examining it. Now we 

 like the Paddy's plan of " making a slave of the 

 imter," and we hope every real labor saving ma- 

 chine Mill meet with good encouragement. Ex- 

 perience is fast doing away the old prejudice 

 against machinery, viz: that it throws people out 

 of employ — in fact it throws people into employ ; 

 for by decreasing the cost of producing an article 

 you increase tlie demand — if the demand is in- 

 creased, more hands must be employed to manu 

 facture; one employment starts another, and thus 

 more business is created. Never be afraid of a 

 good iriachine. — Gardiner Standard. 



WOOL. 



A writer in the Kinderhook paper states that 

 our manufacturers gave last year 36 cents per 

 pound for fine wool in Germany, and that the 



There is not a shrub, vine, jilant or tree to be 

 found in our fields and forests that is not suscepti- 

 ble of a high degree of improvement, if taken up 

 late in the fall or early in the spring properly 

 trimmed and transiilanted into good rich soil near 

 oin- dwellings. Their change for the better soon 

 becomes apparent. Take for instance young 

 chesnut trees from the mountain, lop off' as much 

 of their tops as you leave of their roots; set them 

 out as yon would your apple trees not deeper in 

 the soil than they have stood. They have a rap- 

 id growth, and if well preserved will spread and 

 bear very prolifically, producing a nut three times 

 the size of those generally brought to market and 

 of a better flavor. The hickory tree will do the 

 same. All will bear grafting as well as a pear 

 tree. Experiments in this line cost but little.— 

 Philadelphia Eve. Post. 



The greatest men are men of simple man- 

 ners. Parade, ceremony, show, and a profusion 

 of compliments are the artifices of little minds, 

 made use of to swell themselves iuto an appear- 

 ance of consequence, which nature has denied 

 them. 



