NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



339 



VEGETABLE CUTTER. 



This machine is used for cutting roots and other 

 vegetables into small pieces, so that animals can eat 

 them conveniently and safely, doing away with all 

 danger of choking, to which animals are liable in 

 eating large and hard vegetables. 



The cutting wheel is made of cast iron, with cut- 

 ting knives like plane irons, that cut off slices of the 

 vegetables that are put into the hopper ; and by cross 

 knives these slices are cut into fine pieces, adapted 

 to convenience in eating, or to mixing with straw or 

 coarse fodder. 



This implement cuts with great rapidity, and is a 

 labor-saving apparatus to those farmers who feed 

 roots to their stock. Roots and other vegetables for 

 stock, not only make a groat saving in other food, 

 but they keep animals in better condition, and render 

 them more productive than dry fodder ; and every 

 facility that promotes convenience, or saves labor, in 

 feeding, tends to encourage this improvement in 

 agriculture. 



THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



We are glad to notice a disposition on the part of 

 citizens, in various sections of the Union, to pay more 

 attention to the culture of the grape. Vineyards are 

 springing up every where. In the neighboring county 

 of Berks, we are told that already sixty thousand 

 gallons of wine are made per annum. At the Syra- 

 cuse Fair, specimens of American champagne, man- 

 ufactured in the immediate neighborhood, also a 

 specimen of port wine, so called, manufactured from 

 a native grape found in the vicinity of Columbus, 

 Georgia, were exhibited. No spirits of any kind or 

 coloring matter was mixed with it, and the gentle- 

 man who submitted the specimen made two hundred 

 gallons last year. But for the early frost, which 

 killed much of the fruit, he would have made a 



thousand gallons. While on this subject, we may 

 state that a few evenings since, we tasted, at the 

 house of a gentleman in this city, some verj^ delicious 

 American champagne, manufactured from a vine- 

 yard near Cincinnati. A French gentleman present, 

 who, we have reason to know, is an admirable judge 

 of wines, pronounced it to be very superior — possess- 

 ing the qualities of strength, richness of flavor, color, 

 and brightness. When prepared and bottled accord- 

 ing to the most successful plans adopted in France, 

 and a full age given to it, this wine will, in the 

 opinion of the French gentleman, become an article 

 of domestic consumption and foreign export of great 

 value. — North American Farmer. 



Remarks by Editor N. E. Farmer. — Many of 

 the native grapes that grow with great luxuriance, 

 and produce in abundance, will make excellent wine. 

 The musk taste, that is so off'ensive in this fruit for 

 eating, will give a fine flavor to the wine, at least in 

 the opinion of some nice connoisseurs. The vine 

 culture is extending all over our country, and thou- 

 sands of experiments are making with a view to 

 collect or originate new and valuable grapes, and 

 learn the best mode of culture. In a few years, we 

 shall have this delicious fruit in abundance, and in 

 great excellence. But the eff'ect of an abundance of 

 wine, genuine American wine, with no alcohol ex- 

 cepting that evolved from the juice of the fruit, on the 

 moral state of the community, is a grave question, 

 that involves in its bearing the welfare of milUons. 



Diffusion of Seeds. — In boring for water at a 

 spot near Kingston-on-Thames, some earth was 

 brought up from a depth of three hundred and sixty 

 feet. This was carefully covered with a hand-glass, 

 to prevent the possibility of any seeds being depos- 

 ited on it ; yet in a short time plants vegetatud from it. 



