190 Retrospective Criticism. 



The Ohio, and JVorton''s Seedling Grape. — I am somewhat nettled to 

 find that you have knocked my Ohio grape into Norton's seedling. 

 Would it not have been more prudent, to have waiied till you could com- 

 pare the fruit. It is an old axiom, that " chalk is not cheese." And it is 

 one of the few, on the truth of which I believe we may safely rely. Yet 

 blindfold a man, and placing the two before him, and deny him all chance 

 of tasting, feeling, or smelling, and there is an equal chance tliat his de- 

 cission will be wrong. Having now vented my spleen, at having my in- 

 fallibility doubted, I can readily grant you absolution. 



People have become so fond of writing for magazines, (or from a great 

 desire to benefit the human family.) that you are daily annoyed by dis- 

 coveries about equal to two, that I have seen going the rounds of the 

 press, to secure the plum from the ravages of the curculio. It seems an 

 honest, pains-taking farmer, by accident, hung his grubbing hoe on his 

 plum tree. That season, for the first time, the tree produced one plum. 

 It was published through the union, as a great discovery, with an assu- 

 rance that if a person would hang as many pieces of old iron on his plum 

 tree as it had blossoms, not a single fruit would be injured by the cur- 

 culio. Tlie other, was the case of a horticulturist, who accidentally 

 threw his Avaste brine on the ground under his plum tree, and that year 

 he escaped the fly ; and I perceive my neighbors are busy sowing salt 

 under their plum trees, with great confidence in its powers ; for say they, 

 " if it will save pork, why not save fruit ? " Having been engaged in the 

 cultivation of the grape for 30 years, and having tested the qualities of, 

 arid their adaptation to our climate, of more than 150 varieties of the 

 grape, both foreign and native, and having now GO acres in vineyards, 

 it would have been wholly inexcusable in me to have committed such a 

 mistake. I obtained the genuine Norton, and the grape brought into 

 notice by Mr. Pleasants, from Virginia, many years since. The latter 

 was utterly worthless, and the former bears fruit with me yearly, but I 

 have never increased it. With me it has tlie hard pulp, common to most 

 American grapes, from which the Ohio grape is entirely free, and the 

 bunches of the Ohio grape are more than double the size of the Norton. 

 The Ohio is a hardy vine, but may not succeed as well with you, for I 

 am told the Catawba is, by your horticulturists, scarcely prefered to the 

 Isabella, which we consider a far inferior fruit. I have had the Catawba 

 in my vineyards, where no special care was used, to weigh 24 oz. — Yours, 

 JV- Longworth, Cincinnati, Ohio, Alarch, 1844. 



[The Ohio grape we purchased last year, was entirely killed by the 

 severity of the past winter, while the Norton seedling, which stood side 

 of it, was uninjured. In stating this we do not intend to say the Ohio 

 will not bear our climate, as our vine was newly planted and small ; 

 though it was equally as vigorous as the Norton seedling ; when stronger 

 it may prove as hardy as the Isabella ; of this we shall speak when we 

 have had more experience. Ed.'] 



Dr. GunneWs collection of Camellias. — In your Magazine for March, 

 1844, I find on pages 84 and 85, where you give your recollections of 

 a tour, that you have committed a considerable error, unintentional no 

 doubt, as relates to my management, &c. of my camellias (which you will 

 please to correct): beginning at the 24th line from the top of page 84, 

 there is an error as relates to myself, as I never have in any summer kept 

 my general stock of camellias (or those that might be termed blooming 



