1871 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



43 



hills and slopes; at all events the dryer the better. 



CLOVEK IN VINEYAKD. 



At the meetings of this Society in Vermillion 

 last August, I saw and heard much of the use of 

 clover and even weeds among grapes, as a means of 

 preventing disease of the vines ; and we found 

 some cultivators excusing their slovenly practice liy 

 adopting this theory. It was clearly shown that 

 sowing clover has been in use in some vincj'ards 

 on flat soils ; and my belief is, that the roots of clo- 

 ver were of use in drawing the surplus moisture 

 from the soil about the grapes roots. 



INFLUENCE OF TREE ROOTS ON GRAPES. 



On the boundary between my vineyard and lawn 

 I have a very large tree of the native Mugndia 

 accuminata — the trunk fiftein feet in circumference 

 at the base and eighty feet high, with spreading 

 top, and the roots drawing the moisture from at 

 least an eighth of an acre of land, in summer 

 time. Within this radius are a dozen bearing 

 grape vines, of several varieties, and the fruit of 

 these invariably ripens sooner and better than any 

 other in the vineyard. The soil is a sandy ridge, 

 but seldom really dry for a foot in depth, excepting 

 where the moisture is sucked up by this big tree ; 

 and whenever there is a depression and the soil at 

 all moist and rich, there is a liability to rot and 

 mildew. I am half inclined to try cropping with 

 clover. 



For the Western Pomologist. 



Horticnltnral Notes Trom missonrl. 



Fickieneis of the winter— Peachee gone np—The Clark Kasp- 

 beri-y—lvfiufnce qf water, &c. 



By S. Miller, Blutpton, Mo. 



Welcome is the first number of the new year ! 

 Now hast thou shaped thyself into a nice form, 

 Friend Miller. Now let me congratulate you on the 

 handsome appearance of your journal, in the begin- 

 ning of the new year. Not only is the thing in 

 ship sJiape, but full of interesting matter. 



With such winters as we have here the present 

 one, it is hard for the horticulturist to know what 

 is really hardy or not. One day beautiful sunshine, 

 and so warm that the woodticks are on the move, 

 and grasshoppers skip. Forty-eight hours there- 

 after eight inches of snow, and the mercury down 

 below zero. Now how are vines and fruit trees to 

 stand this ? Our northern neighbors have winter 

 and it stays winter, but here it is both winter and 

 almost summer in the same week. The conse- 

 quence is, that our peaches are gone up ; all the 

 tender and half hardy grapes, that were left unpro- 

 tected, are killed to the snow line. Fortunately for 

 them, the ground was covered with snow, and the 

 ground underneath unfrozen at the time of our 

 coldest spell (when the mercury went down to 17 



degrees below zero), or I fear many vines would 

 have been killed root and branch. One thing sur- 

 prises me — that my Clark Raspberry plants, that 

 were killed to the ground two years ago, when not 

 so cold, are now fresh and sound. The fall before 

 they suffered so much, I had dug up all the suckers 

 between the rows, wliich might have had something 

 to do with their tops being killed. This is, at least, 

 I think, worth noticing, so that others may observe 

 how it affects them. 



The Clarks being all dead to the ground that 

 spring, caused me. to write an article for a certain 

 journal denying its hardinsss ; whicli communica- 

 tion was copied by many others, so that it may have 

 done injustice to that variety as to hardiness. I 

 feel it almost a duty to retract, tor now I believe it 

 to be the hardiest of all the foreign* varieties with 

 which I am acquainted, and that has not been a few. 

 In quality it is hardly surpassed by any, productive, 

 of good size, and late, making it a valuable acqui- 

 sition. 



Old settlers here tell me that whenever the tem- 

 perature gets ten degrees below zero, with the river 

 shut with ice, the peaches are killed in the bud; but 

 that if the river is open, they will come out safe 

 from a still colder atmosphere. Four years ago we 

 had 15 degrees below zero, with the river open, and 

 a full crop of peaches the following summer. This 

 influence is only fell within a half mile to a mile 

 from the river. Out further it makes no difference. 

 When (lur peaches fail htre, we make up for the 

 loss by planting more melons and cantelopes, be- 

 tween which and grapes, we can get along. 



But this is only a rambling communication, and 

 is already too long, perhaps. 



* I mean pure foreign blood. 



Grapen at AFarsa-w, III., 



isro. 



The Committee on Grapes of the Warsaw Horti- 

 cultural Society, in ther report on the grape crop 

 of 1870, say : 



The Catawba seems to have taken the lead this 

 year — setting and perfecting the fruit even better 

 than the Concord. One vineyard, belonging to 

 John Rinkel, of one and a fourth acres and nine 

 hundred vines, made thirteen hundred gallons of 

 wine, or nearly si.x quarts to each vine. 



The Delawares did only tolerably well, and that 

 is as much as could be expected, as the vines lost all 

 their foliage by mildew the year previous, before 

 they had ripened their fruit or wood. 



The lona has done better than ever before, hav- 

 ing held its foliage and ripened its fruit. One of 

 the committee has been able to make five gallons of 

 wine from three hundred vines three years old ! 

 [Nute by the Secretary. — The birds are said to have 

 taken two-thirds of the fruit, and the family used 

 them quite freely ; two facts certainly expressive of 

 the quality, at least.] 



Clintons rotted a good deal in some vineyards, 

 and the fruit did not set^as well as usual. They 

 may have suffered from the drouth. 



Concords did well, as they always do ; and when 

 the shoots were pinched to two bunches the bunch- 

 es were very large. 



The Virginia Seedling perfected a very heavy 

 crop, where the fruit was grown on spurs. 



All of Rogers' Hybrids that have been fruited 

 here have given good satisfaction. 



Ives' Seedling did well, and the wine is preferred 

 to the Concord by a good many persons. 



