1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



251 



aDd if beer, whiskey, etc., were not " profitable," 

 not so many in San Jose, and other little towns, 

 would be getting dissolute, lazy and worthless sel- 

 ling them. But in what sense so profitable that 

 every agricultural paper in the land should so spir- 

 itually bend the willing knee to the shrine of Bac- 

 chus; should advocate ''wine, grmnng" as a worthy 

 enterprise, and stimulate themselves into the idea 

 that they are doing the country service ? We might 

 hunt up a formidable row of statistics to prove that 

 "wine is a mocker"; that for every ten that flourish 

 in the business of wine making, five hundred are 

 out of pocket, and at least fifty forever ruined- 

 Not so witli genuine agricultural productions ; the 

 producers and the consumers are alike benefitted. 

 But wine is not an agricultural production. It 

 does not exist in nature. It may be m ide from 

 grapes, and some other sorts of useful fruits; so 

 may many other extracts and poisons. But we to- 

 tally repudiate the insinuation that "wine growing'' 

 has any agricultural significance. We can never 

 even recognize the manufacture of fermented and 

 spirituous liquors as a reputable industrial enter- 

 prise. 



To claim to favor temperance from principle, and 

 at the same time regard wine making with favor, is 

 a trifle beyond our present capacity. We were 

 once upon a time inclined to favor the wine inter- 

 ests of this State, as tending to decrease the use of 

 ardent spirits. But fifteen years of close study 

 and observation on this hobby, has thorough- 

 ly convinced us that wine is an insidious enemy 

 Its victims are too often the thoughtless youth of 

 both sexes, and it starts on the road to ruin many a 

 fair prospect, that might but for its blight of moral 

 obligations, move on to usefulness and happy ac" 

 complishments. It is a first round, not on the lad- 

 der of fame, but to the lower defile of degredation 

 and disgrace. Regarding it thus, how can we but 

 renounce it? — Santa Clara Valley {Col.) Agricultu- 

 rUt. 



mildeiv on Gooseberries— Preventive. 



A correspondent of the Canada Fanner says: 

 " About thirty years ago I got some' plants of the 

 English gooseberry, and when the time for fruit 

 came around they yielded nothing but poor, dirty 

 looking, worthless stufi", year after year, on ac- 

 count of the mildew. At the time I could not 

 understand what was the matter — not even know- 

 ing what mildew was. After several years of trial 

 I pulled up the bushes. About eight or nine years 

 ago I procured some bushes of the English variety, 

 of two difi"erent sorts — one red, the other green ; 

 but, as on the previous occasion, these were 

 affected with mildew. By this time I had heard of 

 preventives, such as sulphur,;tar, bark, boards, etc 



I tried all of these, but with little success. Being 

 very fond of gooseberries, I determined not to give 

 up, and remembering that one of my bushes, of the 

 first lot, had by oversight been spared, it being in a 

 corner of the garden where there was a grass plot, 

 and not being attended to, the wild gra.ss grew as 

 high as the bush ; still there was a little fruit, small 

 in size, but perfectly sound from year to year. It 

 then occurred to me that if sound fruit grew among 

 a tangled mass of wild grass it might have the same 

 effect to spread grass on the ground, under and 

 around the bushes. For the last six years, as soon 

 as the grass will cut, say nine inches or a foot long, 

 I have spread a quantity of new cut grass under my 

 bushes, and let it i emain all summer. That, com- 

 bined with very high cultivation and close prun- 

 ning, has been a complete preventive of mildew for 

 the la.st six years. Whether this simple and inex- 

 pensive remedy will hold good on all kinds of soil, I 

 am not prepared to say. One thing I can say, as 

 all my neighbors can testify : I have had splendid 

 crops of large sized sound berries, some of them as 

 large as small plums. My soil is a sandy loam, 

 gravel sub-soil." 



Tbe Peaeb Borer. 



A correspondent of the Plantation feels assured 

 from long experience, that the cheapest and most 

 effectual preventive of the peach borer is to raise a 

 mound of earth about ten inches high about the 

 stem of the tree early in the spring, and to remain 

 until the last of September. Says : " About the 

 middle of May the peach moth in its egg-laying 

 state makes its appearance, and during the summer 

 months deposits its eggs in the crevices of the bark 

 at or a little below the surface of the ground, which 

 soon hatch if the weather is wet, and cuts through 

 the bark, where it remains without giving any sign 

 of its existence or whereabouts until winter, when 

 the gum is seen exuding through the bark, where, 

 upon examination, the borer is found in the shape 

 of an ugly red headed worm, having eaten the inside 

 bark and tender wood down the roots of the tree 

 for several inches, and sometimes girdled the tree. 

 When a hill of earth is raised round the tree in the 

 spring, and kept there during the summer, the moth 

 will deposit the eggs at the surface of the hill, but 

 when the earth is removed, they die for want of 

 moisture, or can be easily found and taken out with 

 the point of a point." 



Fisny. — An exchange says there is a grape vine 

 of the Oporto variety in Seneca county, N. Y., from 

 which 81 J^ gallons of wine was made last season. 

 That 1113, was realized from 56J^ gallons. That 

 the stem ot the vine is as large as a man's body 

 (don't tell how big a man) and the branches cover 

 three-fourths of an acre. 



