252 



THE GENEi^EE FAR:MER. 



We did our best, but we were beaten; the yellow 

 jackets remained masters of the field. A few 

 forlorn looking plants we kept along by means of 

 open boxes, but all our hopes of squashes were 

 daslied to tlie ground. We had paid an extraordi- 

 nary })rice for Hubbard seed, and never saw the 

 color of that excellent variety of squash. 



Tlius ended the first campaign. We were beaten, 

 but not put to flight. We camped on the field, 

 intending to rentw the contest another season. 

 Remembering the prudent maxim, "in time of 

 peace prepare for war," we spent all our leisure 

 time during the winier in making covered boxes, 

 and this spring again took the field prepared for 

 action. The jilants came U'p, we clapped on the 

 the boxes, and felt secure. As the enemy did not 

 appear so early as last year, we grew careless, and 

 one morning found a nice large plant, that had been 

 left exposed, literally alive with the bugs. It had 

 not much life in it, however, by the time Ave had 

 driven them oft". The covered boxes, fortunately, 

 proved too much for the voracious intruders, and 

 baffied there they flew to our pumpkin plants and 

 made sad havoc. Animated by our love of pump- 

 kin pies, we renewed the contest, and this time 

 with a new weapon. We had lost all faith in any 

 remedy save the boxes, believing there is nothing 

 sufliciently noxious or deadly to conquer the yellow 

 striped bug, but the Neic England Farmer^ having 

 recommended spirits of turpentine, applied by a hen 

 feather or on cotton put on a stick and stuck in the 

 hills in a slanting direction over the plants, and 

 eeveral of our contemporaries declaring they had 

 tried it witii success, we concluded to experiment 

 with it. Thus far it lias partially succeeded. We 

 are inclined to think the bugs don't like it, but they 

 will eudure the pungent odor for a time rather than 

 go hungry. In our somewhat trying experience, 

 vfd have found open boxes the least objectionable 

 remedy. Covered boxes are more elfectual, but 

 they exclude the light too much. The bugs will 

 rarely enter the open boxes, and the plants have the 

 benefit of air and- Light. 



And now, having learned so much of the habits 

 of these creatures, we want to learn something of 

 their origin. Vv'hence do they come? Did they 

 enter our garden the second year in the manure, or 

 did they spy us out from afar and colonize upon us? 

 In all our researches in insect literature we find very 

 little written about the yellow striped bug. We 

 have looked at the creature through the microscope, 

 and have come to the conclusion that, like man, it 

 is "fearfully and wonderfully made," and like vice, 



" Is a monster of so frightfu] mein, 



As to be hated, needs but to be seen." 



—Portland (ifaine) Tramcrift. 



WINE-MAKING IN TEAN3YLVANIA. 



After about an hour's gallop across some rich 

 a;reen ir.feadows, in v.'hich the beautiful Baroness 

 W accompanied us — for the ladies of Transyl- 

 vania ahnout, rival our own as horsewomen — we ar- 

 rived at the vineyard, situated on the slope of a 

 small hill. There were about one hundred peasants 

 employed, in picking and carrying large baskets of 

 the bright grapes to a small pressing-house near by. 

 Beautiful groups tliey formed as we caught sight of 



them every now and then, half liid among the tall' 

 vines: tliere were young and old, men and womea'' 

 — the village seemed to have sent otit all its forcea' 

 for the joyous occasion, and in dresses so pictiir-' 

 esque too, that tlie artist's fancy could have desired 

 no happier union of color, form, or expression. 

 Leaving the Baroness in conversation witli some of 

 the old peasant women, the Baron, beckoned us 

 away, and led us alone to see the pressing process. 

 I could not understand tliis mystery, but, like a 

 wise man, held my tongue, and submitted — aud it 

 was well I did. In a number of large tubs we 

 found a set of almost naked men dancing barefoot- 

 ed, with all their force, to the music of the bag- 

 pipes, on the heaps of fruit which the carriers were 

 throwing into them. I did not wonder we were 

 led to this place alone, for except in some of the 

 Silenic processions of Poussin, I never saw so ex- 

 traordinary a scene. And it is in tliis manner the 

 whole wine of the country is prepared! The Tran-. 

 sylvanians,who are singularly delicate as to the cleanr; 

 liness of their food, declare that every possible im- 

 purity is driven oft" in the fermentation the wine 

 goes through after, and I was not sufficiently cruel 

 to undeceive them. The great object of all this 

 dancing seems to be to break the grapes, for they 

 are afterward subjected to the prc^s. I need not 

 say that a thousand simple mechanical contrivances 

 might be substituted for this na.?ty process. It is 

 reckoned that one man can dance about two Iiours, 

 when his feet become so cold he is forced to yield 

 his place to another. In cold weather, hot wine is 

 often poured over their legs to enable them to hold 

 out longer, and spirits are allowed almost nd libitum. 

 But the greatest sujjjiort of the wine-presser is the 

 bagpipe or^ddle, without which he cuuld not con- 

 tinue his dancing half an hour. During the whole 

 time, he dances the regular national step, and ac- 

 companies it with a song, which he improvises as 

 he goes on. The usual termination of the vintage 

 is a supper and a dance for the whole village. Tran- 

 sylvania is a country which will probably one day 

 assume a high rank as a wine-growing district. It 

 is almost entirely laid out in small hills, it is well 

 watered, a great many of its strata are of volcanic 

 origin, and the land* itself is rather poor : all cir- 

 cumstances which, united to its geograpliical posi- 

 tion, fit it for the purposes of the wine-grower. Al- 

 though, even at the present time, no less than one- 

 ninth of the whole population is said to live by the 

 cultivation of the vine, nothing can be more care- 

 less than the actual method of wine-making. All 

 kinds of grapes are mixed indiscriminately ; no 

 care is taken to separate the over-ripe and those 

 yet green from the others ; and the process of press- 

 ing is, as I have described it, dirty and careless. 

 The cultivation of the vine is equally neglected or 

 ill-understood. Notwithstanding these disadvan- 

 tages, however, there are already some score differ- 

 ent kinds of wine which enjoy a well-deserved 

 reputation! — PageVs Hungary and Transylvania. 



Keeping Apples. — A correspondent of the Farm- 

 ers' Journal says he took a keg full of apples last 

 fall, which he securely headed up and sunk to the 

 bottom of a mill-pond. On bringing them to the 

 surface a few days ago, every apple was found to 

 be quite free froiii speck or rot, and as sound and 

 unwrinkled as when taken from the tree. 



