Notes ajid Gleanitigs. lyy 



plaints of its effects upon cotton are made. So far, the plant enjoys a very gen- 

 eral exemption from casualties and injuries. 



Rye, oats, and barley promise abundant crops : no serious drawbacks are 

 reported, and few complaints of bad condition are received. 



Potatoes, so exceptionably unproductive last year, are in unusually fine con- 

 dition ; and the average is increased in every State except Rhode Island, — the 

 natural result of extremely high prices of last year's crop. 



Fruit is variable ; apples and peaches less promising than usual. Vermont, 

 New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, 

 Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, make a worse record than other States 

 as to apples. Peaches will be less abundant than apples ; New Jersey, Mary- 

 land, and Delaware promising but half a crop, and Illinois and Michigan show- 

 ing a considerable reduction. A fair promise of grapes is indicated. 



Tobacco covers as large an area as usual in Virginia, Kentucky, and Con- 

 necticut ; somewhat less in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Its condition is 

 good in Kentucky and Michigan ; elsewhere, a little below an average. 



Sorghum is generally doing well in the West ; not so well as usual in the 

 middle belt of Southern States. 



The Golden Champion Grape. — A visit to Dalkeith, purposely to see 

 this grape, has confirmed a previous impression that it is in every respect first- 

 class. I first saw berries of it two years since, and was struck with its wonderful 

 size. I saw it again last year, and looked forward to a proof of its character this 

 season ; and the result now to be seen at Dalkeith fully justifies the assertion 

 that it is everybody's grape. It can be grown anywhere^ either in a cool vinery 

 or in the early house ; is as free and hardy as the Black Hamburg, fully equal 

 to it in flavor, and produces an abundance of superb bunches, the berries being 

 unusually large, and the bunches close and well formed. Compared with Buck- 

 land Sweetwater and Golden Hamburg under the same treatment, the Golden 

 Champion is the best ; and I venture to predict that very soon the two first 

 named and others of our common white grapes must give way before it. Of 

 course, it is not to be compared in point of flavor with our varieties of Muscat 

 of Alexandria and Frontignans : but these require a considerable amount of 

 heat, and cannot well be done without ; while the Golden Champion is a hardy, 

 easily-done grape, which can be grown readily in any common vinery, and, in my 

 opinion, will be a first-class pot variety also. I am afraid to say all I think about 

 it, lest I should be regarded as an enthusiast : at the same time, I cannot refrain 

 from expressing my firm conviction that this and the Black Hamburg will be the 

 two acknowledged favorite white and black grapes for general use throughout 

 the land. Fine as it is just now at Dalkeith, it will be seen much finer another 

 year. I say this because I believe in this grape just as much as I believed in 

 the Duchess of Buccleiich, another of Mr. Thomson's seedlings, from the be- 

 ginning ; and examples of this, as seen now at Dalkeith and other places I could 

 name, show plainly how hard propagation and other causes should make us 

 cautious of condemning a new grape until ample time has been allowed for fairly 

 testing it. — William Dean, in Gardener'' s Chronicle. 



VOL. IV. 23 



