184 Notes and Gleanings. 



The Frenxh Vineyards. — A tourist who has just paid a visit to the 

 vineyards in the environs of Macon gives the most favorable accounts of the ap- 

 proaching harvest. The neighborhood of Brouilly, among others, holds out the 

 brightest hopes. The grapes have almost reached their full size ; but they have 

 hardly yet begun to turn color. The wine-growers are in high spirits ; and if 

 slight rains, alternating with hot weather, continue to prevail as for some time 

 past, there is every reason to expect a superior yield, both in quantity and 

 quality, to that of last year. Advices from Place (Rhone) announce that the 

 famous wine-growing district of Hant-Beaujolais is equally promising : so that 

 we hope to have plenty of good wine in the market this year at a low price. — 

 Coiintry Life. 



LoNiCERA AUREORETICULATA. — This plant has flowered this year in two 

 g^ardens near Chichester, early in June. Its trusses are said to resemble those 

 Q){ L. fiexuosa J while its fragrance is so great, that it may be perceived for four 

 to five yards around the arches over which it grew. 



A New Mulch for the Grape. — I find leached ashes and cut (green) 

 grass the best mulch I can use. The ashes gather moisture, and repel heat 

 (by their color). Grape-vines that were mulched at the commencement of the 

 drought are doing finely. The moisture extends not only to the surface, but 

 into the grass (mulch). This has been moist since it has been applied, — some 

 three weeks. It is partly rotten, so that the ground derives nutriment from it. 

 A shower, now, would aid this effectually. Thus this mulch is both protective 

 and enriching, and the nutriment of a kind that is wanted, — the vegetable or 

 carbonaceous. A good mulch in the summer, and a coat in the fall of this kind, 

 is all I want on fair or even moderately-poor soil ; providing always the soil is 

 in a healthy, friable condition. I also want clay to a considerable extent. Then 

 close pincliing in the start, with plenty of room on the trellis j and, if the year 

 is not a bad one, — particularly a wet one, — I should have fruit. A drought 

 like the present, with heat unexampled, seems a benefit rather than a hurt ; and, 

 should the wet set in, here is extent on the trellis that gives plenty of air, and 

 takes what sun there is. I thus am defying the drought, and fear little more the 

 wet season ; but, for a drought, cut grass and leached ashes are a reliance that 

 it does you good to contemplate. The ashes also are a benefit manurially : 

 it requires but a thin coat, so as to cover well the grass. 



It is time yet to benefit vines by the application. First mellow the soil ; 

 spread the grass several inches thick ; sprinkle with water, and apply the ashes. 

 Weeds or garden-refuse are a good substitute for grass. — F. C, in Country 

 Gentleman. 



[We have great doubts about the necessity or propriety of mulching grape- 

 vines. Where the soil is much inclined to be weedy, it may do very well to 

 keep the weeds down ; but we hardly think it can be of much benefit to the 

 vine, which, in this climate, needs all the sun and warmth it can get. We have 

 Concord vines growing well, unmulched, in a dry, gravelly soil, where even 

 white beans will not flourish. Unleached ashes is a most excellent manure for 

 vines, — Ecls.'\ 



