146 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



1871 



cask, prepare a limewater, (three quarts water, one 

 quart lime,) pour it into the cask and rinse it strong- 

 ly. The cask is then cleaned and well sulphured, 

 and the bung put on tightly. 



The cask will thus be perfectly freed from all bad 

 taste, and may be filled with wine without any 

 risk. 



Wine not suflSciently sour to be converted into 

 vinegar, in which acetification has commenced must 

 be left open to the air in a room of warm tempera- 

 ture for three or four days. Then rack it off two or 

 three times through shavings of beechwood, which 

 have been freely moistened with good vinegar. 



An excellent vinegar will promptly be obtained 

 by this method." — Wine Beporier. 



Potash in Gkape Culture. The Journal of 

 Ohemistry gives the following results of au analysis 

 of a Black Hamburg grape vine : 



" Potash, 20 parts in a hundred ; phosphate of 

 lime, 19 parts in 100; carbonate of lime, 13 parts in 

 100 ; soda, 3 parts in 100 ; magnesia, 4 parts in 100 ; 

 with small quantities of iron, magnesia, silex, etc. 

 The fruit evaporated to dryness, and ignited to ob- 

 tain the ash, gave of — potash, 34 parts in 100; phos- 

 phate of lime, 11 parts in 100 ; carbonate of lime, 

 9 parts in 100, with small amounts of earthy sub- 

 stances. Prom these results he finds mineral food, 

 which the vine and its fruit require in the largest 

 quantity, is, first, potash ; second, phosphoric acid ; 

 and third, lime." 



If the above analysis of the grape vine and its 

 fruit be correct, it affords a valuable hint to grape 

 growers. 



Bleeding of Grape Vines. — It should be 

 understood by every one who grows a grape vine 

 that if broken or cut in the spring after the sap 

 starts, it will bleed to the injury of the vine, nor do 

 we know any remedy. A correspondent of the 

 Small Fruit Recorder, however, claims to have found 

 a remedy in the use of potatoes. He says: 



" We select potatoes a little larger than a large 

 hen's egg, and make a kind of drill of a stick of 

 wood a size less in diameter than the limb or 

 branch to be taken off. The stick is dressed four 

 square, and tapering to a point. This is inserted 

 into the larger end of the potato, and a hole drilled 

 to the center. The stub end of the limb is dressed 

 to rather an abrupt point, which is introduced into 

 the hole in the potato and crowded in a little farther 

 than the middle, so that the potato shall perfectly 

 fit the end of the limb or stub. In the months of 

 April, May and June we took off" many limbs and 

 several large branches, and employed potatoes as a 

 styptic, and do not know that any one of them 

 bled a single drop." 



Training the Grape on Rocks. One of our 

 exchanges (we think it was clipped from the Mas- 

 sachusetts Ploughman,) says of Mr. J. H. Currier, of 

 Ryegate, Vt., in this wise : 



" He selects a strip of land at the base of a high, 

 steep ledge of rocks, with a southern or eastern ex- 

 posure ; all loose substances are removed from the 

 soil for a distance of fifteen or twenty feet in width. 

 The vines are set near the foot of the rocks, and 

 trained up the perpendicular face of the ledge. As 

 early as August last, the Delaware and Hartford 

 Prolific hung in rich, ripe clusters. Concords and 

 Isabellas about a month later, with the largest clus- 

 ters and in the greatest abundance we have ever 

 seen. Even in cool seasons, the rocks retain so 

 much sun heat that the early frosts do not injure 

 the vines." 



Hale's Early Peach. 



Mr. Bateham, an experienced peach grower, at 

 Panesville Ohio, in summing up on the peach crop 

 of 1870, says : 



" Hale's Early was particularly abundant and fine, 

 though much complaint was made of the fruit rot- 

 ting just at ripening time, and after being picked, 

 before it could be marketed and sold. In one of my 

 orchards, on high, dry, sandy soil, where the trees 

 had made but moderate growth, this fruit was very 

 fine, and showed no tendency to rot. But in anoth- 

 er orchard, within sight of the first, and the trees 

 of the same age, but lower and richer soil, where 

 the growth of trees was larger, the fruit of Hale's 

 rotted so badly, that much of it which looked fair 

 at picking was unsaleable the next day. 



Cnltivatlng Orchards. 



In a conversation not long ago with Mr. David 

 Aj'er, one of the substantial farmers of Vassalboro', 

 he gave us .some account of the method in which he 

 manages his apple trees, and the success of the plan 

 may be gathered from the fact that among the pro- 

 ducts of his orchard last year were five hundred bar- 

 rels Baldwins, all of so good a quality as to bring 25 

 cents more per barrel than those of the same kind 

 in market from other producers. The ground in 

 which his young trees are set is cultivated to hoed 

 crops — generally corn and beans, or beans alone — 

 and well manured. The latter do better in the shade 

 than corn or potatoes, hence he not unfrequently 

 devotes all the land in which are young trees, to 

 this crop. The surface of his old orchard is kept 

 open by plowing and harrowing, and no grass is 

 allowed to grow therein. This is done even where 

 no other crop than the trees occupies the land. He 

 uses muck as a top dressing, and regards it better 

 than strong manure, or even compost. The some- 

 what famous Smiley orchard at Getchell's Corner, 

 is top dressed with clear muck, after it has lain in 

 heap one season. — Maiiie Fwrmer. 



