no 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



May 



I 



mulching, that it may be very advantageously applied 

 to trees of any age or size, and particularly to pear 

 trees. All dwarf trees should be kept mulched ; the 

 roots of the stocks they are usually worked upon are 

 small, fibrous, and near the surface, and consequently 

 more easily affected by external circumstances. — 

 Mulching is therefore highly advantageous to them, 

 of whatever age, and especially in dry soils. Dwarf 

 bearing trees are greatly benefitted by an occasional 

 application of liquid manure ; it will aid greatly in 

 keeping up and renewing their vigor, and will improve 

 the size, beauty, and flavor of their fruit. Without 

 such care as this, dwarf trees are apt to exhaust 

 themselves by their excessive bearing. 



THE DIANA GHAPE. 



The fact that foreign varieties of the Grape can not 

 be successfully cultivated in the open air in our 

 nortliern States, to any considerable extent, renders 

 the acquisition of a new native sort of excellence a 

 most important matter. At present the Isabella, 

 Catau'ha, and Clinton, are the only sorts that can be 

 relied upon for ordinary culture, and the Catawba 

 requires a very favorable season to ripen, in a large 

 portion of the country. The best of these too, in 

 flavor, are quite below the delicious foreign sorts, and 

 require great amelioration to make them what a grape 

 ought to be. 



This new variety, the Diana, from all accounts, 

 is a great improvement, both in flavor and early 

 ripening. We saw some specimens exhibited at the 

 Congress of Fruit Growers last autumn, and in ap- 

 pearance they struck us as being very similar to, 

 though not so large as the Cataicha. We trust that 

 further experience will prove it to be all that is 

 claimed for it ; and if so, it must soon occupy a place 

 in every garden. We give the following figure and 

 account of it from Hovev's Magazine : 



The Diana, wlicn first exhibited, was shown for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining the name of the variety ; for nhhough 

 Mrs. Crehore raised the vine from seed, Squire Seaveb, 

 of Roxbury, " had no donbt it was the Catawba/' and she 

 was naturally desirous of nsoertainiiig whether it was in 

 reality that variety ; and we well remember that some of 

 the gentlemen w)io tirst saw it. remarked, that though it was 

 ripe so early as the 23d of .September, it was doubtful vvhether 

 it wftj not the Catawba, only grown in some warm and shel- 

 tered lorality. Its great resemblance to the Catawba favored 

 this impression so much, that after an inspection of the orig- 

 inal vine, when in fruit, the succeeding year, some of our 

 amateur cultivators were convinced it was only that variety. 



Mrs. Crehorf, from the liigh opinion we had expressed 

 of the variety, and the desire to possess it, kindly sent us a 

 few of the cuttings in the fall of 184:j. From them we 

 raised four or five plants, in pots, in the summer of 184t. 

 But from the idea entertained by many, that it was oidy the 

 Catawba, we neglected our vines. Two of them were 

 turned out into the ground in the spring of 18JG, and they 

 did not again attract any attention till the fall of 1848, when, 

 passing the vine after the leaves had partly fallen, we dis- 

 covered a few straggling clusters of grapes. Naturally curi- 

 ous to know whether the variety was as fine as w© origi- 

 nally esteemed it, we tasted some of the berries, and, to our 

 f;reat surprise, we found them perfectly delicious, far eicel- 

 ing the Catawba. We then regretted that we should not 

 hare earlier ascertained, and made known, its great merits. 

 Last fall we had a crop of line large clusters, ripe fully a 

 week before the Is.abcUa, and so superior to that variety that 

 they obtained the prize of the Miussachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, as the finest native grape. 



Vine \ igorous, making rather slender wood when young ; 

 but growing more rapidly after it has attained ago. Wood 

 light brown, rather long-jointed. Leaves similar to the 

 Catawba, without lobes. Bunch medium size, about four^ 



inches long, without shoulders. Berries medium size, 

 round, closely set, forming a compact cluster, of a delicate 

 pale red color, with a greyish bloom, not so dark as the 

 Catawba. Flesh, with scarcely any pulp, juicy, rich, and 

 vinous, with a high, delicious flavor. Seeds, generally two, 

 rather small. Ripe from a week to ten days before the Isa- 

 bella. It is a most abundant bearer, and has less of the taste 

 peculiar to our native grape, than any other variety. It 

 also possesses a peculiarity which we have not noticed in 

 other sorts , as early as the first of September, when the 

 berries first change to a grayish tinge, they are quite sweet, 

 and agreeable to the taste, but they do not acquire the high 

 flavor which constitutes its great excellence until they assume 

 their full color, when it is one of the handsomest grapes we 

 have ever seen. 



DIANA ORAFB. 



We have omitted, in Mr. Hovky's account, a letter 

 from Mr. Crehore, giving a history of its origin. 

 On this point it may be proper to remark that it was 

 produced from seeds sown in 1832, by Mis. Crehore 

 of Milton. It first bore in 1838, and was exhibited 

 before the Massachusetts Hort. Society in 1843. 



S. II. CoLTON of Worcester, Mass., says in last 

 month's Cultivator, that he and many others have 

 succeeded badly in raising this grape from cuttings, 

 owing, he remarks, probably to the slendcrness of 

 its wood. 



