Notes and Gleanings. 53 



he can recommend his packages confidently without examination ; but, so far as 

 nine-tenths of the packages received from shippers are concerned, dealers know 

 nothing about them that will warrant them in asserting the excellence of the fruit 

 to a customer until it has been examined. I wish every shipper knew the value 

 to him' -of a good reputation, — of a reputation that will sell fruit-packages bear- 

 ing his brand at the highest market-price, without examination. Every fruit- 

 grower should aim to get such a reputation." 



Pure Wines: what and where are they ? — Your Missouri correspond- 

 ent in the February number says, " The wine-maker can make a drinkable, even 

 a good wine, in an indifferent season ; but the best is in the hands of Him who 

 has rain and sunshine at his command, and who alone is the giver of all good 

 and perfect gifts." I thank him for this admision, as wine-makers generally 

 are not so willing to put their trust in Him. Nor are they sensible of their own 

 want of strength. They assume that Nature often fails to furnish a perfect must, 

 or grape-juice ; and it is then neither wholesome, nor agreeable to the palate ; 

 and that they simply remedy these imperfections by adding wliat Nature should 

 have supplied, but fail«d to do. 



The wine-grower with safety and confidence affirms that the Author of Na- 

 ture, who is the giver of all good and perfect gifts, in his wisdom provided that 

 every country with suitable culture would produce the food best adapted to the 

 wants of its population, and that the climate will bring it to maturity when it is 

 best adapted to promote human health and comfort ; that, in his kindness, he 

 has given us the grape as one of the food-plants of this country, adapted to the 

 wants of its population, as one of the common supports of life ; that he 

 placed all nutritive properties of the grape in the juice of the ripe fruit, giving 

 this juice, when expressed, power to enter into spontaneous vinous fermentation, 

 converting it Into pure wine without the loss of any material inherent quality in 

 the grape which can minister to the wants of man ; that this pure wine is a 

 natural liquid food, adapted to the wants of the stomach and other organs, for 

 the growth and support of the body, with sufficient strength and durability to 

 keep through the season, and until the return of another crop ; that any altera- 

 tion in the natural chemical composition of the juice of the grape, of so small 

 a kind as to be scarcely felt, renders it unfit to answer the ends for which it 

 was designed ; that the art of wine-making, as at present practised, is properly 

 the art of wine extension, and has for its object money-making; that great 

 abundance and low prices will alone put a stop to the manipulations of the 

 wine-maker. J. M. iW-Culloiigh. 



Cincinnati. 



Theory and Fact. — The Pear. — A celebrated nursery-man, now de- 

 ceased, once assured a visitor, that, for twenty years to come, it would be impos- 

 sible to overstock the market with good pears. His prediction has not only 

 been fulfilled, but his visitor regards it, even now, as good for the twenty years 

 which are still to come. What a " good pear" means, it is not likely that all of 

 us will agree upon. Some plant exclusively for domestic consumption, others 



