1-70 Notes and Gleanings: 



own wine — and good wine too — for ten cents a bottle ; but just now we will 

 ask the question with the above-named prices. 



Ahnost every one would be glad to have a bottle of good light wine with his 

 dinner ; but very few, comparatively speaking, can indulge in this luxury without 

 a twinge of conscience. 



Without having any claims to be considered a skilful connoisseur, I may say 

 that I delight in good wine as much as any one ; but I never get a taste of 

 Johannisberger or Chateau Margaux without a feeling of sadness stealing on 

 me as I reflect how long a time must pass before I enjoy the same luxury again. 

 Millionnaires may smile at this ; and, to be sure, the question of prices does not 

 affect them : but the great bulk of the people, the would-be wine-drinkers, are 

 deeply interested in this matter, and look, in common with myself, for an answer 

 from Messrs. Hussman, M-Cullough, Werk, or some equally competent person. 



Mr. F. R. Elliott, in the December " Horticulturist," estimates, that, in the 

 United States, there are now one and a half million acres of bearing'vineyards, 

 and one million acres not yet in bearing. Surely prices ought to fall. 



J. M. M., Jun. 



Feb 4, 1868. 



S. F. T. sends us the following from Hannibal, Mo. : — 



" In the December number of the Journal I noticed a question from ' D. O. M., 

 Fall's Church, Va.,' involving a new and very grave question to horticulturists. 

 You treated the subject (and very properly) as though the thing spoken of was 

 very much out of the usual course of things, and probably a mistake. Without 

 comment, I wish to state a case that came under my observation. In 1859, I 

 came to this place, soliciting orders for Messrs. A. Frost & Co., of Rochester, 

 N.Y., and became acquainted with a gentleman, and lover of horticulture, who 

 was a physician by profession. He took me to his yard and showed me some very 

 fine seedling peach-trees, which he said were from seed selected from the finest 

 fruit of a Heath clingstone standing in the yard. The old tree was showing 

 signs of decay, and he wished to perpetuate it. I advised him to bud some of 

 them, owing to the uncertainty of seedlings producing fruit like that of the parent 

 tree. He brought out some of his surgical instruments, and 1 inserted buds from 

 the old clingstone-tree in two of the seedlings. The next spring I cut off the 

 trees, and sprouted them. One was destroyed accidentally : but the other bore 

 some fruit in 1862, which in appearance was the old clingstone over again ; but 

 it ripened two or three weeks earlier, and was a perfect freestone. All the re- 

 maining seedlings bore freestone peaches. The doctor said he was very careful 

 to keep off the sprouts, and he was sure there could have been no mistake in 

 that way. The tree is vigorous and healthy, being very large now. It is a good 

 bearer, but still retains its habit of bearing excellent freestone peaches." 



[We think there must have been some mistake about the matter referred to 

 by our correspondent. We iiave known even nursery-men to be quite sure that 

 a tree was budded ; but, on a very close examination, it would be found that a 

 sprout had pushed out and grown so as to deceive even a somewhat practised 

 eye. The seedlings, we are told, bore freestone peaches ; and this is not remark- 



