1872 The Western Ponvologist and Gardener. ^1 



We often have inquiries as to the best grape to raise, and if it is a farmer who makes the 

 inquiry knowing that he has large piles of straw to sell and to waste or burn up and none 

 to cover grapes with, I say raise tlie Clinton and Concord and run them up a tree. But in 

 the catalogue as my experience goes, give Roger's Hybrid first, then lona, then Delaware, 

 then Diana and Catawba, and lastly Concord and Clinton. Now I don't want any one to 

 adopt my say-so as to varieties, let him experiment himself, and ten years will bring him 

 over to my views. But the greatest diflerence that I have noticed the past year has been 

 the manner of pruning vines. We have some rather extensive garden culturists here that 

 spend a large amount of labor on their vines in keeping off all the laterals and extra 

 shoots — being anxious to expose the fruit to the sun to have it ripen, and it looks line too, 

 but my mode is different. In the fall 1 trim my grape vines as I want them before I cover 

 them. I do no summer pruning; I let the vine grow as it will, only keep them on the 

 wires, and the result is a dense mass of foliage, and the fruit is all under cover of the vines. 

 The sun can only penetrate to the fruit morning and evening, and what is the result? All 

 of my grapes grown under this mass of vines were sweet, rich and juicy, and ripened 

 evenly, while those on the trimmed principle were exposed to the sun, were longer in 

 ripening and were not evenly colored, and were invariably tart or sour. I have come to 

 this conclusion : that nature knows how to grow grapes and grape vines better than I do, 

 and I let her do it. If the leaves are the lungs of the vine, two leaves make more lungs 

 than one leaf, and consequently is more healthy. In another point of view my plan is 

 the best, because all of this extra growth is cut off in the fall, and all the labor of the 

 summer in pruning is so much lal)or lost, or money thrown away. I claim to have raised 

 the best, sweetest, most luscious Concords in this section, and that is my treatment. I 

 don't claim this being according to the books, but that makes no difference to me. I 

 believe that some authors on this subject couldn't tell a grape vine ffom a sweet potato, 

 and they have issued large books on the culture of the vine. Now Mr. Editor, if you 

 should happen to come up in these diggings next fall, just call and look over my little 

 garden of grapes. My varieties are not many ; I had only thirteen kinds on exhibition 

 at our county fair last fall, and they were all raised on my plan. 



Notes on tlie Contents of tUe Pomologlst for Janaarjr, 1872. 



Bt F. R. Elliott, Cleveland, Ouio. 



fo. PoMOLOGisT AND Gardbker : — I rejolce at the appearance of the January num- 

 ix of the PoMOLOGisT, and while so doing, regret the disappearance of the Journal of 

 lorticuUure, published the past three years at Boston. But the world moves and its tide 

 ' strides westward, opening new fields, developing old and suggesting new theories and 

 practices. The child grows, it takes from its parent certain hints and principles, but its 

 field of operations being larger, and its youthful energies greater, it follows in horticulture 

 as in manhood, that without appliances of concentrated knowledge in support of what- 

 ever life principle may be embraced, the old must give way to the new. It is this want of 

 understanding of life principles developed in extent that leads publishers to imagine that 

 Boston and New York (great centres of commercial values) are the great centres of 

 horticultural knowledge. The exhibit of the American Institute Club for years past 

 has shown that all there engaged, are, and have been, men with each an axe to grind, or 

 if none of his own ready, to minister at a price to any Charlaton that would pay. The 

 "Daisy Eyebright" writer of the East is one entirely void of practical knowledge. Every 

 line made up by that writer is a " packed line." Not a single journal emanating from 

 New Yor city to-day, has in it, aside from its western correspondence, a single writer whose 

 brains can grasp our great country or who can see aught of values outside of the New 

 York, Boston or Philadelphia 



MARKETS. 



We of the West know that to that market we only minister and serve our ultimate end, 

 in that we grow fruits and supply their exuberant population, but we are not deceived by 



