22 



THE WESTERN£POMOLOGIST. 



1871 



and the current growing cane, and the two being 

 separated, will admit of easier handling, summer 

 pruning, <fec., as well as a considerable saving in 

 cost. The stakes should be of lasting wood, such 

 as locust, cedar, &c., but it is not a matter of much 

 consequence about the poles, as they can be cheaply 

 replaced." 



For the benefit of new subscribers, we will here 

 re-publish from Noy. number Mr. Mask's descrip- 

 tion of trellis referred to. This trellis is so very 

 simple and plain as to require no illustration to 

 understand its construction. 



I am now growing a square of some one hundred 

 vines in jny vineyard, which will be ready for 

 training next spring. They are set in rows of 

 twelve feet distance, and five feet in the row, running 

 north and south. I design to set in stout locust 

 posts, twelve or fourteen feet high, at proper dis- 

 tances, between and iu the center of each row. On 

 the top of these I shall nail a three or four inch oak 

 board, extending the length of the row. I shall 

 then prune the vines down to two eyes, and plant 

 an ordinary bean pole of the proper length to each 

 vine, resting it ou the ridge board, and making it 

 fast with a withe, or other suitable fastening, to 

 secure it to its place. When this trellis is comple- 

 ted, you will perceive, it will represent the appear- 

 ance of a skeleton green-house. To these poles I 

 shall tie up the vines. I will cut down to two eyes 

 the coming spring, and train the current growth 

 of next summer from these two eyes— one to the 

 right and one to the left. At the expiration of the 

 season, I .shall cut down one of the canes to one 

 eye, and let as much wood stand on the other as its 

 vigor will justify forbearing. 



Wire TrclUs Stlflener. 



A correspondent of the HurticultuHst describes a 

 cheap, simple instrument for stiflening wire trel- 

 lises : • 



" The accompanying drawing gives a correct idea 

 of this useful thing, though it is generally three 

 times the size here represented. It consists of a 

 small strip of iron a 10th of an inch tliich, %^ inch 

 wide, to one end of which— a little wider than the 

 rest— is fastened a rivet (a), with its head % inch 

 in diameter ; said rivet is pierced through by a hole, 

 into which the wire is passed. The wire being 

 fastened at both ends, all it requires to tighten it, is 

 to wind the stitl'ener around until the wire is suffi- 

 ciently stift', and then you make the stiflener fast by 

 just inserting the wire into the little notch (b) at 



the small end of the tightener, which is bent to a 

 straight angle, the wire itself acting as a spring. It 

 is very easy when the wire becomes slack by the 

 effect of heat or otherwise to give the tightener half 

 a turn, which is all that is necessary. The above 

 instrument was invented by Mr. Carbou, a French 

 gardener, and is very simple and cheap, and never 

 gets out of order." 



Rot in Grapes— Its Canse. 



A Cor. of the Cincinnati Gazette says: — "I have 

 used sulphur more than twenty years, and with 

 benefit, to prevent rot. Rot is not caused by a 

 fungus, as some suppose, but is caused by some 

 insect puncturing the grapes, whether to deposit 

 their eggs or not, I don't know, but we presume it 

 is for that purpose ; yet I never succeeded in finding 

 any eggs or worms in a rotted grape. Well, says 

 one, how do you know they have been stung by an 

 insect ? Because I have seen the puncture and a 

 jet of juice which had oozed out. Whenever you 

 find a grape that is stung, tie a string to it, (for a 

 mark so as to find it,) and watch the result. After 

 a longer or shorter period it will turn whitish 

 around the place where stung, and finallj- black, and 

 continue to spread until the whole grape is rotted. 

 If at an}' time with a sharp knife you cut out the 

 black spot, the remainder of the grape will grow 

 and ripen, thus proving there is no defect in the 

 vine. Upon this discovery was based the sulphur 

 remedy for the rot, being distasteful to all the in 

 sect tribe. Fumigations with sulphur in the even- 

 ing is better than the dust, as I think the depreda- 

 tors work at night. I have no certain knowledge of 

 the enemy, but always flud a few large yellow bugs 

 on the vines when the grapes are rotting — they are 

 very shy fellows. Whether friend or foe, I know 

 not, but kill them when I find them. 



Hybrid Grapes. 



Those T#ho have maintained that there has been 

 no true hybrid produced between the foreign Vitis 

 Viiiiferx and our several native species, will be 

 obliged to abandon their position. Leaving the 

 Rogers' hybrids out of the question, there are now 

 several which have been produced since, in which 

 the characteristics of the native and foreign are so 

 positively manifested, that the most skeptical can 

 no longer doubt that true hybridization has taken 

 place. The varieties sent out by Mr. Chas. Arnold, 

 of Canada, show a distinct trace of foreign blood. 

 The Senasqua of Mr. Undcrhill is a cross between 

 Black Prince and Concord, and shows the foreign 

 character in the fruit and the native in the leaf. 

 Later, .still, we have some fine hybrids by Mr. J. H. 

 Ricketts, of Newburg, N. T., in which the peculiar 

 flavor of the Muscsit Hamburg is imparted to a 



