166 



llie Grape Vultuiist. 



Goethe ; we want a late grape, not an 

 early one. I look for the time when 

 grapes will be kept all winter, as our 

 apples. 



A. Starr — I consider the grape the 

 most sure and profitable of an}' fruit 

 [ raise; can make money raising Con- 

 cord at five cents per pound. 



Kingsbury — I grow no fruit that 

 pays so well; after adding up all ex- 

 penses, freight, commission, etc., they 

 cost me four cents per pound in Chi- 

 cago. I can raise two tons of Con- 

 cords per acre. ^Co/man'.s Riir. World. 



[Our friends at Alton have a ver}' 

 flourishing Horticultural Society, in- 

 deed, one of the liveliest in the couii- 

 tr}-; and it gives us a good deal of 

 pleasure to look over the sayings and 

 doings of the genial lovers of horti- 

 culture there assembled. But some- 

 times they get an idea, as the saying 

 is '^on the brain," and in their zealous 

 chase after it, run it, as the hacknej-ed 

 old phrase goes, ^"^into the ground." 



Thus, we remember the time well, 

 several years since, when thej- had 

 quite a hot argument about the ques- 

 tion, occasioned by an assertion of 

 ours, ^^whethor the vino had secondar^^ 

 buds," or in other words, ''whether 

 the eyes, on the vine were triple or 

 single," some strongly contesting, 

 "that there was no such thing as a 

 secondary bud." We hope they have 

 discovered them by this time, and that 

 oven the most unbelieving have been 

 convinced of their existence by the 

 frost of the 17th of April. 



Another time thc}^ had ''birds ori 

 the brain," and a resolution was pass- 

 ed to exterminate the whole feathered 

 tribe, as they were convinced that 

 they did much more harm than good. 



In consequence of this, we surmise 

 they now have "insects on the brain" 

 for when the birds went "by the 

 board," the insects clambered up on 

 the other side, and have increased 

 alarmingl}'. 



Tlieir last idea seems to be entire 

 healthiulness of fruit and foliage in 

 the vine, and friend ivingsbur}^ goes 

 so far as to say that only two varie- 

 ties can be depended upon, the Ives 

 and Concords. Groethe and Wilder 

 will, he thinks, be found wanting in 

 an essential point, viz: "healthfulness 

 of foliage." 



Now we know that among sOme 

 70 varieties which avc observed close- 

 ly last summer, there was none which 

 held its foliage better, and was more 

 healthy than the Goethe. We think 

 our friends mistake the speckled ap- 

 pearance of the leaf^ which is char- 

 acteristic of the vine, for signs of 

 mildew, and would advise them to 

 look twice before they run that idea 

 "into the ground." We hope it wull 

 not take them as long to determine 

 this as the bud question did, and that 

 the Goethe will be placed by them 

 where it belongs, among the healthy 

 varieties. It can no more help this 

 speckled appearance than our friends 

 can help that they are white, or their 

 fellow citizens "ob color" that they 

 ai'e black, and disease has nothing to 

 do with it. 



We would also like to know from 

 them why the ^lartha, Maxatawny, 

 Telegraph, Norton's, Cynthiana, Her- 

 mann and Hartford cannot be depen- 

 ded upon, and hope they will enlighten 

 us upon the subject, as we have not, 

 so far, been able to discover any un- 

 healthijiess in them. — Ed.] 



