No. 151.] 543 



March 16th, 1847. 

 MANURES. 



Messieurs Biarnois, freres, presented to the club a jar of the French 

 guano, prepared by a company in Paris, who have a capital of six 

 millions of francs employed in its manufacture. Messrs. Biarnois are 

 agents in America, and their office is at 113 William-street. They 

 will give samples for experiment, and can sell the article at thirty 

 dollars per ton. The value of this fertilizer consists in the use of 

 an antiseptic, which combines with the ammonia, and prevents its 

 evaporation, and plants readily decompose the compound as they re- 

 quire it; while the natural guano, for want of the antiseptic, loses 

 its ammonia too rapidly; so that this French guano amends the soil 

 for a length ol time. 



M. D. N. Demarest, of Woodbridge, N. J., presented grafts of 

 the orange blush apple, which ripens in August. 



GRAPES. 



Dr. Underbill said, the interest in the cultivation of the grape ra- 

 pidly increases, and in a few years it will be very extensively raised. 

 The taste of the grape is natural to man! In sacred writ it is pre- 

 sented as the emblem of all that is most excellent; the more we be- 

 come familiarized with it, the better we like it. I have seen late 

 publications shewing how to cultivate the grape in America; these 

 may do well for Germany, but not for us; a vineyard cannot be made 

 here as it is there. Cuttings will not answer for us; we must plant 

 our vineyards with vines two, three or four years old, from the slip. 

 The more dry the soil is, the better for the vines. When your vine- 

 yard is planted with vines well rooted, the loss is not five per cent. 

 We have a grape called the Alexander; it has a thick skin, and not 

 fit for the table; it cannot be placed at the head of our list of native 

 grapes, as one writer has done. The York Madeira is a fine grape 

 for the table and for wine; but it is a shy bearer; small berries, and 

 few of them half the size of the Isabellas. It is not the synonime of 

 the Alexander, as stated in a late work. 



It is said that the black Hamburgh and the sweet water grapes 

 succeed in the open air in our Southern States. I do not believe 

 they will generally ripen; both the heat of summer and cold of win- 

 ter, are too much for them, except under glass. 'Our Isabella and 



