•148 



I the New York Ai: 



THE GRAPE. 



MnEriiroR, — Having seen a t'avoiMbio nolici' 

 ill your jnipor of a treatise on the ciiltivatio!i of the 

 grape, I immediately sent to town for it. Tliis 

 book, the ^'American Vine. Dressers^ Guii!'','' con- 

 tains 137pa!Te3, and can he read attentively, being 

 half French and halt English, in about lialf an 

 hour. — Price 50 cents. 



I am, Sir, a cultivator of the grape, not for wine, 

 bnt for the fruit. I am an enthusiast in its culti- 

 vation; but enthusiasm without knowledge is noa 

 sense. Knowledge I wanted from Mr Loubat, the 

 author of the book, but have soug-ht it in vain ; for 

 to me, who have the e-;pcrience of five years only, 

 his book is of little value. The epistle to the skade 

 of Franklin, in French, is well enoii^-li ; but \vc 

 could have spared the eloquent for the useful, 

 which Mr Loubat seems in vain to have aimed at. 

 When I first began with the vine, I soufiht infor- 

 mation from every quarter — aniong other tilings,! 

 read Cobbelt's "American Gardener," who lias in 

 a few pages more useful informtilion, than is con- 

 tained in the whole of Mr Loubat's book. What 

 Cobbclt A'jioio.i, ho knows perfectly, and c.oir.muni- 

 cates so clearly, that if a man has any brains at 

 all, he can be understood. — When hs speculates, 

 he is often like many other men, rash, wrong- 

 headed, and presumptuous. In addition to reading 

 Cobbett, I obtained accurate drawings of this 

 plant, in its four first years' growth, from a gentle- 

 man who had .successfully cultivated the vine. 

 Drawings may be seen in Cobbett. With this in- 

 formation, and what I could get from the Encyclo- 

 poedins, I went on blundering for the five years I 

 have raeatioued, being fully assur.jd a!l the while 

 that I should succeed, and that the most iisoful 

 knowledge would be gained from my own e.xperi- 

 ence. I have succeeded. But still five years' ex- 

 perience wont do: I am still ignorant. There are 

 doubtless nice points in the cultivation of the grape 

 very 7ticc — these particulars I wanted to know 

 from Mr Loubat. That I may bo better understood 

 than Mr Loubat always is, I will inform the reader 

 that [ live in the latitude of Albany, about thirty 

 miles from the iI:!d;-,on, wliLcli is neither on Lake 

 Champ'ain, nor at Buffalo. As to the Irlud of vines, 

 vvhicli is of all importance among us, tliat is, 

 whether la'.e of early, good or poor bearers, Mr 

 Loubat says not one word. 



Indeed he has not mentioned a single variety of 

 vino by name, when all the world knows, that in 

 the quality of fruit, whether plum, peach, pear or 

 grape, as well as its character for laU or early, 

 ttese differences are all in all. Under the head of 

 'Lopping," Jlr Loubat says, that during the 

 first year, the vine may grow at random, unless 

 planted fro*;! the roots; in this case, he directs us 

 to pluck off as close to the stock as possible, all 

 the useless ^■spriggs." Now what is the spring 

 of a grape? Not a word about tlic /«/sf icooJ. A 

 man ver.=;ed in the cultivation of the grape, knows 

 what Mr Loubat means, but not f-om what he says. 

 As to letting a vine gro'A' at rnndom the first sea- 

 son, you miy with as much propriety let your 

 children ilo the same thing. A clean stem from 

 the beginning, "no spriggs," no false wood, as re- 

 commended by Cobbett, is the true thing. As to 

 pruning, nothing can be less satisfactory than the 

 directions given. "Vine arbours." I .should like 

 to see a vine arbour, with fruit, or Ike vine, from 

 tb&/orpigii virit-, b<»yoiid the walls oCXow York, in 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEil. 



this latitude. An arbour must be made of a vine 

 that will bear o:.r winter, i have heard it asserted 

 during the present summer, that somebody had 

 found out that t!i e^'oreig-i: vines, or some of them, 

 would in the neighborhood of New York bear the 

 winter. This would bo truly a discovery. I know 

 that the black Cluster, White Chassehis, Golden 

 Chasselus, and various other kinds of foreign 

 grapes, are laid down at Brunswick, in New Jer- 

 sey, and this from necessity, to keep them alive. 



-'• Espaliers," the author says, beware never to 

 plant "too close" to the wall. "Too close," this 

 is the real objection to half of the books that are 

 written. An elementary book should take it for 

 granted, that the reader knows nothing of the sub- 

 ject treated of. If Cobbett means si.\ inches, he 

 says six inches, if a tout, he says a foot. Besides 

 I am not sure, that a v^^all is a good thing here. A 

 gentleman at Poughkeepsie told me that his grapes 

 against a wall mildewed regularly. .They want 

 air; he put thern in the open ground, and succeed- 

 ed entirely. On this head I shall try both modes 

 — of clipping and nnbearing. As to " clipping," I 

 believe that/ruif bearing branches should be clip- 

 ped, and that those intended for next year bearers, 

 should not f:e clipped. This direction is not in the 

 book. As to " uubearing " for provender, you can- 

 not have any thing more than the cat and lier skin, 

 and when you have thc//ui7, you have cat and 

 skin too; and i imagine that tho loaves for profoi- 

 der in these states, would be as usuful as potatoe 

 vines, buried for manure, which I tried ojicc, but 

 not a second time. Of the "incisure" — This is 

 what we call giVJ/ijjo- ; right or wrong, that is a 

 word well known. Mr Loubat should have had a 

 better tran.-.lation of his French. "Diseases of the 

 Grape." This is a fruitful topic ; I know gentle- 

 men in Boston, who have dug up their grape vines 

 in dc.'pair, in consequence of mildew and rose 

 bugs. But I believe that these enemies may be 

 triumphed over ; certainly not, however, if the 

 physician knows not the cause of the disease. Mr 

 Loubat vvrites in reference to a soil and climate 

 which he is ignorant of, and this is an insupera- 

 ble obstacle to his producing a book very valuable 

 to us. As to that part of the book which treats of 

 making wine, I know nothing about it, but recom- 

 mend it to the Harrisburgh Convention — to that 

 club o^ disinterested gentlc.iien it may prove truly 

 useful ; for I have no doubt tliat American industry, 

 with ten times the labor and ten times the expense, 

 and a good sound prohibition Tariff, may in twen- 

 ty years, ^in Now York or Pennsylvania, produce 

 us good wine as 3Ir Loubat's •celebrated'' Sauterne. 

 May the good people of this country return to 

 their reason, and may Heaven avert in its miircy, 

 the calamity which would be brought upon us by 

 the shocking principles contended for by this great 

 Sanhedrim! But to the book. — Tt is one thing to 

 be a successful cultivator of fruit, and another to 

 write 3 good book about the cultivation. 



'i'be very best single paper that I have seen, 

 vas published in the " New England Farmer," 

 2f!th October, 182(j, written by a gentleman who 

 has several times bei'n in various parts of Europe 

 selected the best fruit himself, has seen the kiu'j's 

 garden in England, has cultivated (I think) the 



j grape for twenty years, and had great success. 

 That gentleman, I think, has been good enough 



1 to supply me with si.x kinds of grapes, fitted for 



i the open ground in my latitude. These vines are 

 all young, and not in bearing. Should I succeed 



I wiiii any excellent varie'r, the gentlemen of tb.o 



Nov. ;iO, isa7. 



Horticultural Society of New York shall have the 

 results of my experience. To conclude, Mr Edit- 

 or, the grape is an exquisite fruit ; for hoaUh,I be- 

 lieve, no.ie to be like it. An eminent physician of 

 your city told me, that one of the most aggravated 

 cases of dyspepsia be had ever known, was abso- 

 lutely cured by the patient's eating plentifully of 

 grapes for six weeks. I would not. Sir, for any 

 consideration, unnecessarily say a word that could 

 possibly injure a public spirited man, as I suppose 

 the author to be ; but the public has higher claims. 

 I have no doubt that the cultivation of the grape 

 is better understood in France than here ; at the 

 same time, there must be much yet to be learned, 

 in this, as in every other species of husbandry, es- 

 pecially in reference to our own country. I v/ould 

 recommend, therefore, to our ingenious country- 

 men, the raising of the grape, which, in many cas- 

 es, in the neighborhood of the great markets will 

 prove very profitable, and in all, useful and de- 

 lightful. A. B. * 



FOREIGN PLANTS AND SEEDS. 



Vv'e notice with much pleasure a circular ad- 

 dressed by the Secretary of the Treasury to the 

 American Consuls abroad in relation to the intro- 

 duction of valuable foreign plants into the United 

 States, and confidently expect from it mojt desira- 

 ble acquisitions to our agriculturists. In his cir- 

 cular Mr Rush states it to be the President's wish 

 that all such trees and plants from other countries 

 not heretofore known in the United States as may 

 give promise, under proper cultivation, of flourish- 

 ing and becoming useful, as well as superior vari- 

 eties of such as are already cultivated here, should 

 be introduced. " Forest trees useful for timber : 

 grain of any description; fruit trees ; vegetables 

 for the tables ; esculent rjoots ; and, in short, plants 

 of whatever nature, whether useful ns food for 

 man or the domestic animals, or for purposes con- 

 nected with the manufactures or any of the useful 

 arts, fall withi.i the scope of the plan proposed." 



Each circular is accompanied with a specifica- 

 tion of such plants as are supposed to exist in the 

 countries where the consul, to whom it is address- 

 ed, is resident, and questions are to be answered 

 by them in relation to the latitude, the soil, the 

 seasons of bloom, the mode of culture, the diseas- 

 es &c. incident to the plant ; and whether there 

 are any treatises in relation to them. — The differ- 

 ent officers of tlie navy have bpen instructed tc 

 lend their aid in the promotion of these objects — 

 ditections for putting up and transmitting seeds 

 and plants are also given at length. These direc- 

 tions we shall publish to-morrow, as they contain 

 much interesting information aiid many facts o! 

 value to our agricultural friends at large. 



It is to be regretted that at present no funds can 

 be appropriated in the furtherance of this object 

 and the suggestion which the circular contains, 

 that Congress may probably make some provision 

 for the purpose, will it is hoped be attended to. 

 Our soil is so various, from cold to warm, and from 

 sandy to clayey, that there is hardly any vegetable 

 production but in some parts of the United States 

 may be naturalised. No experiments have ever 

 been made on so large a foale as this, in adding 

 to our great garden the beauties and uses of 

 others, and a better plan for accomp!i.';hing these- 

 purposes ronld not well be devised. In speaking, 

 of this subjert, theBultimore American very justly 

 remarks that South America, especially, may fur- 

 nish invaluable additions to »ur stock of useful ioor 



