Domestic Notices. 81 



it can readily be effected by pincliing out the points of the shoots about 

 the beginning of March. The spring-sown mignonette comes in very well 

 to succeed tliat sown in September. The July sowing should be in flower 

 about tlie beginning of November, and continue to flower tlirough the win- 

 ter. The sowing recommended the latter end of September or beginning of 

 October, would be very difficult to carry tlirough the months of November 

 and December, — at least, in the neighborhood of London — from the necessity 

 there would be in severe frosty weather of keeping the covering on for sev- 

 eral successive days. The plants being young and weak, would most likely 

 perish by damp. — [Gard. Jour., p. 772, 1849.) 



Art. II. Domestic JVotices, 



The Isabella Grape. — I write to enquire about the Diana grape, of which 

 I have seen so favorable a notice, — and to know if it is really hardy and good. 

 I do not dare to leave my Isabella grape vine exposed to the weatlier in 

 winter ; the buds would be injured, and the fruit prove abortive. Indeed, I 

 have lost one entirely, that girted eleven and a half inches at the ground, and 

 bore finely, by leaving it exposed a few winters since. It was killed to the 

 root, and never started again, although it was alive (at root), and bled enor- 

 mously, the sap forcing out through the bark in all directions. I raised, this 

 year, about three quarters of a bushel fseventy-one bunches) of the finest 

 Isabella grapes I ever saw. The vine I had of Messrs. Hovey & Co., two 

 and a half years since. It girts nine inches at the ground. It is now shel- 

 tered with long straw, and bound in with list, and was pruned December 1. 

 This is the only grape worth a farthing, in this extreme cold climate, for out 

 door culture, unless the Diana will prove hardy. The Catawba tmll not go 

 and that is the " end on't." — Yours, Trvly, Alex. Johnston, Jr. Wiscasset, 

 Me., January, 1850. 



Transplanting large Trees in Winter. — I see Mr. Downing still 

 holds on to the hard work, pickaxe, old fashion idea of digging up trees and 

 setting them out again when everything is froze hard. It is hard, expensive 

 work, and is not a whit surer than my way, and twice as costly. My way is, 

 in a few words, to transplant large evergreens and other trees ; select the 

 Trees in February or March ; cover their frozen roots with evergreen boughs, 

 a foot deep, or more, and keep the frost there. Dig the hole in April, or last 

 of March, for the tree, and then go and get the tree, roots, frost and all ; set 

 it out first rate, and it will grow first rate. I have now Norway pines twenty 

 feet high, planted as above, three years since, — splendid trees now. — Yours 

 truly, A. Johnston, Jr., Wiscasset, Me., January, 1850. 



Seedling Pears in Vermont. — Mr. L. C. Udal, of Pomfret, exhibited 

 five kinds of seedling pears, at the show of the Windsor County Agricultural 

 Society ; all of good appearance, and two of such degree of excellence, that 

 the Committee felt themselves justified in awarding to him tlie Discretiona- 

 ry Premium, to the amount of one dollar, Mr. Udal has other seedlings, 

 VOL. XVI. NO. II. H 



