342 Enormous Grape Vine. — Renovation of Worn-out Land. Vol. XI. 



ers who appear to be equally benumbed to any 

 delicate sensations in shades of colour. They 

 judge of the beauty of colours upon houses 

 as they do in the raw pigment, and we verily 

 believe would be more gratified to paint 

 everything chrome yellow, indigo blue, pure 

 white, Vermillion red, and the like, than with 

 the most fitting and delicate mingling of 

 shades to be found under the wide canopy of 

 heaven. Fortunately fashion, a more pow- 

 erful teacher of the multitude than the press 

 or the schools, is now setting in the right di- 

 rection. A few men of taste and judgment, 

 in city and country, have set the example 

 by casting off all connexion with harsh co- 

 lours. What a few leaders do at the first, 

 from a nice sense of harmony in colours, the 

 many will do afterwards, when they see the 

 superior beauty of neutral tints, supported 

 and enforced by the example of those who 

 build and inhabit the most attractive and 

 agreeable houses, and we trust, at no very 

 distant time, one may have the pleasure of 

 travelling over our whole country, without 

 meeting with a single habitation of glaring 

 and inoffensive colour, but everywhere see 

 something of harmony and beauty. — Down- 

 ing''s Horticulturist. 



Enormous Grape Vine. 



J. J. Smith, of this city, says in a letter 

 under date of 10th ult., in Downing^s Hor- 

 ticulturist: 



"I have lately made an excursion to Bur- 

 lington, New Jersey, for the purpose of ob- 

 taining the exact measurement of the most 

 extraordinary grape vine I have ever beard 

 of. It stands on a farm called West Hill, 

 belonging to my late brother, two miles from 

 the city of Burlington, New Jersey, and the 

 truth of what I am about to relate, may be 

 readily verified, though in print it may really 

 seem incredible. At three feet from the 

 ground, it measures six feet one inch round 

 the trunk, and at ten feet high, it is posi- 

 tively /Aree yee< in circumference! It is a 

 native male grape, and has been the won- 

 der of the neighbourhood, as long back as 

 the memory of man reaches. It is still 

 healthy, and its giant folds run over and 

 cover four trees, one of which is a full sized 

 white oak, and the others are quite large. 



"The casual reader as he glances over 

 these unusual dimensions, scarcely realizes 

 the enormity of this vine. Let us try if we 

 can, to make it comprehensible, by a compa- 

 rison or two. A string six feet one inch 

 long, will enclose two tolerably corpulent 

 people; and these dimensions are as large 

 as a good sized washing tub. You may thus 

 form an idea of its great growth. This vine 



grows near a springy soil on upland, its roots 

 no doubt penetrating to the water. May 

 not this teach us a lesson, to give the root- 

 lets, wherever it is possible, access to a 

 spring or running water; it may be a ques- 

 tion too, whether we do not cut down our 

 vines too much. I observed frequently in 

 England, that a whole house was devoted to 

 a single vine, generally of the Black Ham- 

 burgh, and I think they uniformly bore the 

 finest grapes; to carry a single vine over a 

 large grapery, would of course require se- 

 veral years of judicious trimming and man- 

 agement." 



Renovation of Worn-out Land. 



Laurel Factory, March 29th, 1847. 

 To the Editor of the American Farmer : 



Dear Sir, — I have frequent letters from 

 difl^erent parts of this State and Virginia, 

 asking my experience as to the effects of 

 different manures — particularly guano — and 

 of my success in renovating these worn-out 

 lands, the modus operandi, &c. 



Now my farming operations being quite a 

 secondary consideration in my general busi- 

 ness, I cannot spare the time from my other 

 occupations to answer in detail these various 

 communications, and therefore have con- 

 cluded to reply to them generally through 

 your very valuable paper, and hope it may 

 reach through this channel every one of my 

 correspondents. For to this paper, and other 

 agricultural publications, together with a 

 natural fondness for the pursuit, I am in- 

 debted for whatever success I have met 

 with. 



You know my whereabouts in this desert 

 of old fields, gullies and poverty grass, and 

 are well acquainted — as who is not, who has 

 ever travelled from the city of Baltimore to 

 the seat of Government — with the total bar- 

 renness of the land, generally. I, therefore, 

 need say but little on the general character 

 of the land to start with; and will begin by 

 giving the reasons for my first attempting, 

 what appeared at that time, a Herculean 

 task, the renovation of these barren old 

 fields. 



Having been reared amidst the green 

 fields and lowing herds, in one of the most 

 fertile regions in the State of New York, I 

 could not look upon the barren face of this 

 country, without its producing a feeling of 

 melancholy. I came to the conclusion it 

 would never do for me, to plant myself down 

 bore with the expectation of making it a 

 permanent residence, with such a prospect 

 always before me; I therefore resolved either 

 to change the general aspect of the country, 

 in this respect, or leave it. The former ap- 



