Vol.1— No. 16. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



125 



be fed cheaper and equally as well as when fed 



on milk alone. 



WHITEWASHING. 



As spring is a time when country housewives 

 make every exertion to introduce cleanliness 

 iuto their department, we would particularly 

 recommend whitewashing, as well out doors as 

 in. Who ever parsed by a cottage where all 

 the fences about the gardens the out-houses, 

 &c. were whitewashed, without being impres- 

 sed with the idea, that the inhabitants were 

 cleanly aud respectable I To paint board fen- 

 ces white with lead and oil, is a costly busi- 

 ness, and looks a little like extravagance ; and 

 unless every thing corresponds with it, does 

 not have a more pleasing effect than a coat of 

 whitewash well laid on. Tho cost of doing it 

 is trifling, and it can be done by the females 

 when the men are very much engaged in put- 

 ting in their spring crops. It adds much to the 

 health of the family to have the house white- 

 washed as often as twice a year; and by giv- 

 ing the out-houses and fences a coat in the 

 spring, many insects are destroyed, and their 

 hannts are broken up. One of the cheapest 

 and best modes of preparing the whitewash, is 

 to use skim-milk with new slacked lime ; this 

 renders it adhesive, and it does not fall off as 

 quick as when the lime is wet with water. 



PLANTING GRAPE VINES. 



As tho season for plaming out grape vines 

 in this climate has now arrived, a few direc- 

 tions for those unaccustomed to the culture of 

 the vine may be useful. Two methods are re- 

 sorted to fur the commencement of vineyards, 

 or for cultivating the most approved kinds of 

 grapes for the table. The first is, by procuring 

 from the nurseryman such as have already ta- 

 kon root, and made one or more year's growth. 

 When snch can be obtained, care should be 

 taken that the roots be not dried or frozen be- 

 fore they are planted out, as either would be 

 very injurious to them. Grapes have very long 

 roots, therefore much care should be taken in 

 setting, that they may be well laid in; when 

 *hey have large buBches of fine hairy roots, 

 they should either be cut off or washed in, by 

 pouring a sufficient quantity of water into the 

 hole after it is partly filled, to reduce the soil 

 to a thin puddle, when by shaking the vine, the 

 earth will be filled in amongst the roots ; they 

 should then be left until the water disappears, 

 nfter which the hole may be filled with good 

 rich sod and trodden firmly about the plants : 

 unless this precaution is taken, the. fibrous roots 

 being packed upon each other, are liable to 

 become mouldy and do the plants material in- 

 jury. The same effect is often produced by 

 putting manure into the hole dug for receiving 

 the plant : this is a bad practice, and ought 

 never to be allowed, After the vine has beon 

 planted out, a little manure spread about it 

 will serve to keep the ground moist in dry 

 weather, and will he found very beneficial, — 

 The first year after planting, a small stake 

 should be driven down by each plant, to which 

 the young vine should be tied as it increases 

 in length. Care sbouid also be taken to trim 

 off all the sprouts but one, or two at most, from 

 a vine of ordinary size the first year after set 

 ting, and the tops of those should be pinched 

 off by the middle of August, to allow the wood 



i ripen more perfectly to enable it to with- 



stand the first winter. The other method 

 commonly practised, is to cultivate plants from 

 cuttings which have been taken from the vine 

 previous to the commencement of the circula- 

 tion of the sap in the spring. The common 

 length of these is from a foot to a foot and a 

 half. These should be planted out in good 

 rich earth, and where it is rather inclining to 

 clay than sand, and a northern aspect is pref- 

 erable to a south. Bury the cuttings in a slant- 

 ing position nearly their whole length, leaving 

 the upper bud near the surface of the ground. 

 In dry weather they should be watered, and 

 the ground covered with some coarse manure 

 to keep it moist. The American varieties do 

 not take root as readily as the foreign ones, 

 but both will grow with ease. As cuttings 

 make but small shoots the first year, it is well 

 to cover them up the first winter, afier which, 

 all the American and most of the European 

 vines will endure the winters in this district 

 without being covered. 



GRAFTING GRAPES. 



The following article on grafting Grapes, from 

 the New England Farmer, is worthy the atten- 

 tion of every practical man. We hope this 

 subject will be better understood than it has 

 heretofore been, as the advantage of it to so- 

 ciety will be very great : — 



Mr. Fessenden: Observing in your Farmer 

 of the 9th inst. apiece signed 'An Amateur,' 

 soliciting from some one who grafted grapes 

 the last season, for their result and information 

 upon this subject; and no one offering, the 

 season passing on, and fooling that we are 

 bound by oor membership to the Horticultural 

 Society to communicate the results of our prac- 

 tice and experiments, I venture to offer a few 

 observations with a statement of facts on graft- 

 ing vines the last season. I also hand you a 

 copv "f a communication from an intelligent 

 member residing in the vicinity ot Boston, up- 

 on the same subject. 



Sometime in March, say about the middle, 

 we had eight wild grape vines grafted wilh the 

 Chassela? grape, three on large, old vines, of an 

 inch and over in diameter — and five, on cut- 

 tings of the wild grape vine set out in the spring 

 of 1828. They were not large when grafted, 

 the tciont being larger than the stocks. The 

 scions cngrafied into the three old vines did 

 not grow; they kept alive some time, the buds 

 swelled, and some of them opened ; the leaves 

 expanded, but finally died ; I watched their 

 progress with particular attention, and my con- 

 clusions are, they were grafted too early ; as 

 the sap flowed so long, and abundantly, before 

 it became glutinous and adhesive, that the graft 

 was water-soaked and died at the bottom, tho' 

 the top, as I before observed, had the appear- 

 ance some time of doing well. The other five 

 small vines did bitter; four of the five took 

 well and grew astonishingly fast; the flow of 

 sap was small compared with the old vines; 

 some of thein grew from twelve to fifteen feet 

 in height, and very rapidly, after the scions 

 had taken to the stock; sume days the vine 

 grew thirteen inches per measurement. 



The above mentioned vines were operated 

 on by cleft grafting, and grafted in the ground, 

 the soil hauled round them. Hereafter we 

 shall alter in some respects, viz. where the 

 stocks are large shall bore in them, good sized 

 stocks that pinch in i he scions tiald, let them 

 remain without tying a piece of bass mat round 

 them; smaller stocks should be well tied, for 

 I observed in those that did not take, the split 

 inclined to open and remain wide during the 

 flow of the sap. — Have them clayed, and the 

 dirt haulded over the clay. 



[Copy of memorandum handed me] 



Grafts of the Chasselas set 5tli April, 1830, 

 grew about fifteen feet same year, grafted (by 



cleft grafting) and clayed on the common wild 

 grape. — The graft bore fruit, but it did not come 

 to maturity. Grafts set by boring into a vine 

 laid down in a trench, pinned down and cov- 

 ered about two inches with earth. Set the 13th 

 May, grew nearly as well as those set 5th April. 

 One sot at the same lime at the extremity of 

 the vine, by cleft grafting, grew as well as the 

 others Grafts set 4th of March did not live ; 

 of several set 11th March, by cleft grafting, in 

 the usual manner, more than one half did not 

 take; those that did take made a greater growth 

 than those set by boring holes, but more of the 

 latter lived. I should think that gralts set 

 from 15th April to 15th May in this climate. 

 more likely to do well than those set i arHer. 

 S. DOWNER. 

 Dorchester, March 20, 1831. 



PRESERVING ZGGS. 



At this season, e^gs are plenty and cheap ; 

 but recollect that next February and March, 

 they mav be as dear as they have been the past 

 season, viz. from eighteen to twenty five cents 

 per dozen. It will be good economy there- 

 fore, to lay down eggs for the season of scar- 

 city. For this purpose, take a vessel of suffi- 

 cient size and fill it with strong lime-water, in 

 which put fresh eggs; let them be kept per- 

 fectly covered by keeping a piece of board 

 loaded with sufficient weight upon them to 

 keep ihem an inch or two below the surface. 

 In this manner eggs may be kept two years — 

 Another method is to dip them in melted bees- 

 wax, tallow, or varnish, or a solution of gum 

 Arabic, by which the pores of the shell are made 

 tight. Either method, as may suit tho conve- 

 nience of the housewife, will render them suit- 

 able for long keeping. 



PUMPKINS. 



We believe this crop is more neglected than 

 it ought to be. Whether this is owing to the 

 old cant phrase of " Brother Jonathan and 

 Pumpkin pie," used by our transatlantic breth- 

 ren, we know not. But this is certain, that a 

 given weight or measure of Pumpkins contains 

 more nutricious matter than ihe same quantity 

 of turnips, and they are not as difficult to keep. 

 For feeding to milch cows in the fall, we do 

 not know of a better article according to their 

 cost: for feeding to beef catile Ihey are ex- 

 cellent — and when boiled, and a little Indian 

 meal added to them, for feeding hogs they exs 

 celt most kinds of food. We hope therefore, 

 that instead of running mad about raising Ruta 

 Baga, our farmers will look carefully to rais- 

 ing Pumpkins, for without them the emigrants 

 from Connecticut would make but sorrowful 

 work keeping Thanksgiving. 



FLAX. 



We make the following extract, from a let- 

 ter from a practical farmer of Pembroke, Gen- 

 esee county, who. we hope, wili oft-jn contri- 

 bute to the columns of the Former: 



" I have for a few years past made some ex- 

 periments in the growing and preparation of 

 Flax, and believe, from mj own experience, 

 that the Irish mode is decidedly the tnorf ad- 

 vantageous for this country. Water-rotted 

 flax is vastly superior, when the process is per- 

 formed in waterof proper quality; butl tuink ihc 

 watcrof Old Genesee generally loo hard to pro- 

 duce the first rate article. Last \ear I expos- 

 ed my crop to the Equinoctial rain, and in five 

 days the lotting process was finished; and a 

 better article of the kind 1 have never seen in 

 in this country. Our farmers generally, have 

 imbibed very ononcous notions with regard to 

 the proper quantity of seed to be sown on an 



