314 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



powerful rays of a burning sun occurring immediately after a 

 shower, striking the branches still wet, often producing in 

 young trees this desiccation of the bark. In proof of this we 

 find these appearances generally on the south side of the stem, 

 more especially on the sovith-south-west side, or towards the 

 two o'clock sun. The means of protecting the trees, adopted 

 by Downing, was to white-wash the trunk in spring ; we find, 

 however, a wisp of straw matting or sea-weed to answer the 

 purpose, covering the trunk quite up to, or upon the lower 

 limbs. Although the pear tree generally requires a retentive 

 soil, in order to give good returns, a swampy or wet land, or 

 where water stands under the surface, (or subsoil,) is an unsuit- 

 able location for this tree ; in such a place it may be necessary 

 to take off the tap root, that the upper lateral roots may be 

 kept near the surface. If the roots of any fruit tree enter and 

 remain in a swampy or wet soil, such roots will decay and a 

 corresponding decay — sometimes called canker — will be seen 

 commencing in the top limbs. 



Grapes — Importance op Leaves. There are many varieties 

 of native grapes which have been from time to time recom- 

 mended for culture.; among them (as a wine grape) stands the 

 Catawba, which is rather extensively grown at the West for 

 this purpose. As this grape is later than the Isabella, it is not 

 much cultivated in New England, for the only difficulty we find 

 in the Isabella is in its uncertainty of ripening. The great 

 desideratum at present, is to obtain a grape of as good quality 

 which will ripen some three or four weeks earlier. As to the 

 flavor, as well as the bearing quality of this fruit, nothing could 

 be wished for better than we have seen it in New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania. Numerous seedlings of this and other native 

 grapes have been produced, varying but little from their 

 original except in form ; seedlings of the Isabella which we have 

 seen have been almost invariably rounder, or not so oblong. 

 The Concord, Millard, Clinton, Diana, Hartford Prolific, 

 are neither of them much earlier than the Isabella ; the last 

 named one may be considered from ten to twelve days earlier, 

 as also the Concord and Diana. The Isabella grape may be 

 accelerated in ripening, and produce larger berries by a process 

 of ringing the shoots from the 15th to the 25th of July, upon 



