Vol 1.— No. 22. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



1T3 



cd well this autumn. He insists on it that 

 grapes should be trained up high, like his 

 over a trellis that has an open roof; and cer- 

 tainly the only fine bunches he had were 

 there: but really the expense of all this post, 

 rail and roof work, is rather out of propor- 

 tion to the quantity of grapes thus raised. — 

 I found a short grape walk, well stocked 

 with grapes, on my farm. They bore this 

 year, for the first time ; and although the 

 mildew was very destructive, and the vine- 

 fretter and curculio destroyed the leaves, yet 

 I had here and there a good bunch, which 

 enabled me to judge of the value of the dif- 

 ferent kinds. 



After opening the earth around the vine,! 

 \ scraped off all the loose bark, and little! 

 knotty roughnesses, which one usually sees- 

 on a vine near the ground. I cut off what) 

 are termed day-roots, — those small roots' 

 which proceed from the stem near the sur-| 

 face of the ground. After this operation, II 

 whitewashed the whole stem, even covering 

 the eyes of the buds; I then bent the stem 

 down and fastened it strongly, a k\v inches 

 underground, by means of a forked stick; 

 vastly, I drew the earth up to the stem again, 

 and tied a wisp of straw, or rather laid a 

 bunch of straw, on each plant, throwing dirt 

 on the edges to prevent the wind from blow- 

 ing the straw away. Haywood says that I 

 shall have finer grapes next summer, than 

 my neighbors; but the doctor shakes his 

 head. Every man has a pet method of rais- 

 ing grapes -. but I fear that I shall have to 

 give the matter up. The truth is, that the 

 vine does not bear well more than once or 

 twice, excepting in cities : there the frost 

 and dew, both so hurtful, are kept off, by the! 

 constant agitation which the smoke and dustj 

 causes among atmospheric gases, and by 

 warm enclosures. It must be that the diffi- 

 culty lies with the bark of the old wood, as 

 well as with the roots, which run deep in the 

 ground. Young Haywood thinks this may 

 be the case ; for when he binds the old stump 

 entirely down under ground, and only allows 

 Che new wood that shoots out from the buds 

 to appear above ground in the spring; gSd 

 ;it the end of two years, if he separates the| 

 layer from the old root, the crop of grapes is 

 free from mildew. I did not see his grapes 

 last year, when he made the experiment, but 

 I hear that he had the finest grapes in the 

 country. This summer he gave up the grape 

 vines to his youngest brother, who chose to! 

 let them run up over a trellis, after the man-; 

 net of Dr. Bentley, having refused to cut' 

 them off, as his brother Andrew advised. I 

 find that great care is necessary during the 

 season of blossoming, a's the frost is very apt 

 to injure the flowers and young leaves. — 

 Straw mats, set up before the vines every 

 evening, when frost is apprehended, will ef- 

 fectually prevent it. 



What volumes have been written on the 

 snbject of the vine .' — and yet we are no near- 

 er the true mode of raiding grapes than we 

 were before a line was written. There are 

 certain things, about which there can be no 

 mistake. Give a cabbage a good deep soil,! 

 and it will never disippoint us ; do what we 

 will with a grape vine, it is subject to so 

 many casualties, that we can only expect a 

 crop once in six years. I find that in the 

 middle states, the grapeswluch succeed best 

 are the yellow, amber-coloured, or golden 

 ehasselas. It may be known as soon as the 

 tender leaves put out at the extremities, they 

 being of a copper or deep fawn color. The 



next best is the black cluster — a small, tight- 

 bunched grape. The extremities of the 

 leaves are a grey, or sage-colored white, the 

 under side of which is woolly. Neither of 

 these grapes is subject to mildew ; but ex- 

 cess of heat or cold, moisture or dryness, 

 very materially injures the berries. 



Whatever the cause may be, it certainly 

 is a fact, that vines do not fruit well after 

 they are four or five years old, excepting in 

 cities, or in warm, small enclosures. When 

 this important truth is known by persons who 

 are accustomed to solve difficulties, we shall 

 learn whether it be within the compass of 

 ordinary skill to remedy the evil. What 

 causes this mildew 1 This is a secret which 

 s yet undiscovered. As far as my limited 

 observation extends, I ascribe it to obstruct- 

 ed perspiration, and to the ascent of too 

 much of the watery particles of the sap. — 

 The malady makes its appearance when a 

 few hot days have been succeeded by cold 

 nights, or when a moist atmosphere has been 

 followed by excessive droughts. Exotic 

 plants suffer very much from the changea- 

 bleness of our climate ; nay, the grapes even 

 of our southern states are materially injured 

 when transplanted to a colder region. The 

 Isabella grape, for instance, during the long 

 drought of this last summer in the middle 

 and northern states, was both mildewed, and 

 exceedingly sour and worthless. There is a 

 very remarkable circumstance about grapes, 

 which is, that a certain degree of humidity 

 in the atmosphere is necessary to developei 

 the saccharine principle. Whereas in other! 

 fruits, such as apples, pears, and peaches,' 

 although a drought materially injures the 

 size and aromatic flavor, yet there seems to 

 be a concentration of the sugary juices. It 

 would appear therefrom, that the ductile ves- 

 sels of the vine require a certain quantity of 

 external lubrication to correspond with the 

 rapidity of the circulation of sap within. 



I know that you are very anxious to get 

 all the information you can on this subject.! 

 I shall give you from time to time, as you] 

 have desired, whatever new matter may oc- 

 cur. I have intelligent neighbors, all culti- 

 vating the grape, and striving to outdo each 

 other. We have an excellent market for 

 fruit, and this, you know, is a great stimulus. 



There can be no doubt but that all per- 

 sons who raise grapes have a strong desire 

 to succeed in the culture of them, and yet 

 how few are successful ! Two years of good j 

 bearing, and the beauty and value of the 

 plant are gone. It is either seen trailing on 

 the ground in mutilated branches, or it hangs 

 slovenly over a trellis, or a confined arbor, 

 with branches, tendrils and twigs interlacing 

 each other — a dense mass, impervious to 

 light and heat. The few bunches which 

 hang underneath are sour and watery, and 

 in two or three years the vine is a mere nur- 

 sery for caterpillars and other vermin. 



But the most provoking part of the whole 

 history is, that no one tells the truth about 

 grapes. I allude as well to those persons 

 who raise plants for sale, as to those who 

 pride themselves on great horticultural know- 

 ledge, and cultivate them for pleasure. I 

 am perfectly amazed at the reluctance, which 

 is felt by almost every man to acknowledge 

 that his grapes are mildewed. I have seen 

 men of the strictest integrity in ordinary 

 matters, so mortified at the failure of a crop, 

 that they have resorted to every species of 

 prevarication to deceive. I went with Dr. 

 Berrtly one day in September, to see a neigh' 



bor of Mr. Grant, who had a fine grapery, 

 and who prides himself upon his knowledge 

 of the art of culture. We went in unex- 

 pectedly, and at the back gate too, and there 

 we caught our worthy friend with a basket 

 on his arm filled with mildewed grapes! 



We were well aware of his sensibilities, 

 so we did not cast an eye on the basket, 

 which he quickly deposited in a root house, 

 muttering something indistincty about gath- 

 ering grapes for a sick friend. Notwith- 

 standing that nearly half a bushel had been 

 cut off, enough still remained to show that 

 mildew had been very busy there. When- 

 ever he came to one of these blighted bunch- 

 es, if he could not nip it off and throw it o- 

 ver the fence unobserved, he would say, " a 

 bunch or two slightly affected, as this is, doe; 

 not injure the vine — I think myself very for- 

 tunate in having escaped so well.'' And 

 when I observed that the leaves of the grape 

 vine were seriously injured this summer by 

 the insect called the vine-fretter, he shifted 

 the conversation by taking us to a favorite 

 vine near his house, which being in its fourth 

 year was in full bearing and was really beau- 

 tiful. Here his pleasure was extreme, for 

 he could breathe freely while we regaled on 

 the delicious fruit, which was a white Lis- 

 bon. There was no mildew, no vine-fret- 

 ter, no curculio, no rot of any kind, and we 

 could admire both the beauty of the grape 

 and the liberality of our host, who cut oft 

 bunch after bunch with greater pleasure than 

 he abstracted those which were mildewed. 



Mr. Thorn trims his grapes according to 

 the French mode — two buds this year, four 

 the next, and so on. I shall follow young 

 Haywood's mode, for this year at least, and 

 if I do not succeed, then I must give up the 

 culture of grapes. The approved mode herc- 

 is to plant the vines six feet apart each way. 

 if for a vineyard, or if for a walk, five feet 

 is not thought to be too near together. One- 

 thing I was instructed in, and that is quite 

 essential. This is, never to put a grape vine 

 or any plant by a post. In a (ew years the 

 post rots, and then the vine or plant will be 

 injured by the process of putting in a new- 

 one. 



Dr. Bendy has a grape walk of about two 

 hundred feet in length ; the posts of the trel- 

 lis are made of white oak, five inches square 

 at bottom and four by two at the top ; the 

 length is about eight feet, two of which are 

 under ground. My trellis, which was made 

 in a similar manner, has been cut down, 

 leaving only four feet above and eighteen 

 inches under ground. The laths or slats 

 are divided on the posts equally, being three 

 in number. The proper time for felling 

 trees for posts or timber, is in August. What 

 ever is thus cut should be left to season foi 



a year, and then taken to the saw-will. 



When sawed in suitable pieces, each piece- 

 should be charred at the bottom just so fir: 

 as it is to be sunk in the ground. Posts cut 

 and charred in this way, will last for twenty 

 years ; but unless the wood is cut in August. 

 and seasoned for a year in some dry place, 

 it is worse than useless to char them. It 

 has been ascertained that when unseasoned 

 timber is charred, the rot takes place much 

 sooner than if left without charring. The 

 timber from full grown trees lasts longer 

 than that from young saplings ; even the 

 limb of an old white oak will be of longer 

 duration as a post, than one of the same- size 

 of a young tree. 



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