482 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



the suckers within this age are in the best 

 condition for forming self-sustaining roots, 

 and that after having grown twelve to thirty 

 inches, according to the length, the roots be- 

 come smaller and tougher, less juicy, and more 

 vigorous and thicker at the point of connection 

 with the main roots, the root fibres weaker, 

 the tops leaner and wiry ; and accordingly, 

 the plant more nearly approaches the nature of 

 the bearing vines ; becomes more dependent on 

 the main plant for support, and proportionately 

 loses its root-germinating powers. From this 

 evident fact will be seen the necessity of trans- 

 planting the suckers at their earliest age. 



Carefully removed from the main root by 

 cutting or breaking, without bruising, when 

 the tops are not more than one or four inches 

 long, and planted early in a damp time, suck- 

 ers are superior to seed roots planted in the 

 spring, and with nice care, planted soon 

 enough, will bear half a crop the first season. 

 The older suckers having materially lost the 

 inherent property of establishing a healthy, 

 self-supporting root, when transplanted will 

 grow and often do very well ; but will seldom 

 attain a mediocrity, and most generally amount 

 to nothing. Those missing hills that have been 

 filled out with aged suckers, with an idea that 

 the older they are, the better, has proven this 

 fact at a dear cost to the owners of the yards. 



In planting, dig, four or five inches deep, two 

 longitudinal holes leading away from the cen- 

 ter of the hill, in opposite directions, and put 

 one good plant in each place, with the tops 

 near together at the centre, and roots leading 

 away ; and first cover with a tier of fine fresh 

 dirt, and then fill up and press with the feet. — 

 Dell Pilot, in Prairie Farmer. 



Kelly Island Grapes. — In giving an ac- 

 count of a late visit among the Islands of Lake 

 Erie, the editor of the Ohio Farmer found 

 cultivators very anxious as to the grape crop. 

 He says : 



Last year we found a light set of fruit, and 

 that little, half destroyed by rot. This year 

 there was a monstrous set of fruit, with but 

 little appearance of disease up to the second 

 week m August ; then came a i'ight smart 

 touch of rot. If the disease should make no 

 furtlier progress, there will be left to ripen, as 

 great a burden of fruit as the vines can carry. 

 What discourages and confounds the grape 

 growers in this instance is that the rot should 

 make its appearance, under circumstances 

 hitherto considered the most favoral)le for a 

 healthy condition of the fruit. If the grape 

 growers could have had the making of the 

 weather, they could not have made it more to 

 their mind, and to have their grapes rot under 

 such circumstances, upsets all their philoso- 

 phy. The rot is much the worst in the Cataw- 

 ba, but we saw touches of it in the Concord 

 also. The Delaware shows but little sign of 

 the disease. 



STONES ON CULTIVATED LANDS. 



We have more than once given our theory 

 as to the value of stones on cultivated lands. 

 Not only with regard to stones that are so 

 large as to impede the operation of imple- 

 ments used upon the farm, but those, also, 

 which lie broadcast upon the surface, or bedded 

 in profusion just below it. The large and fast 

 ones certainly ought to be sunk, as it is too 

 expensive to travel over or around them, and 

 the small ones are too much in the way of the 

 hoe and scythe. Bury them in the earth. It 

 costs no more to sink the large ones than to 

 get them out, haul away and Jill the holes 

 which they leave. If small ones are exceed- 

 ingly numerous, some of them maybe used to 

 fill holes where large ones, wanted for walls or 

 building purposes, have been taken away. 



Some one may inquire why stones are not 

 needed on intervales or loams, where they are 

 not found? We are not quite certain why 

 they are not needed. Such loams are highly 

 charged with vegetable substances, and in low 

 lands have probably been receiving mineral 

 matter from the wash of the hills for thousands 

 of years. Or, if the loams are on high lands, 

 they are made up from disintegrated rock that 

 contained various minerals — but especially pot- 

 ash — which had been crumbling to pieces for 

 untold ages. 



The point is this : is land that abounds with 

 stones benefited or injured by taking most of 

 them away ? It is clear to us that it is in- 

 jured, — 



1. By lowering the level of the land. 



2. Leaving it compact, heavy and inactive, 

 by obstructing the natural drainage of the soil. 



3. By taking away a portion of mineral 

 supply to the soil. Geologists and chemists 

 tell us that a granite soil will consist chiefly of 

 silica, (that is, flint, sand,) alumina, (that is, 

 the pure earth of alum,) and potash ; and in 

 addition to these, a trap soil, (that is a soil 

 made up mostly from green-stone,) will con- 

 tain much lime, magnesia, and oxide of iron, 

 or iron rust. If the variety of trap consist 

 chiefly o^ hornblende (which is itself a combi- 

 nation of silica, magnesia, lime or iron,) as is 

 sometimes the case, the soil formed from it 

 will have nearly 250 pounds each of lime, 

 magnesia and oxide of iron, in every ton of 

 decayed rock ! 



"When the two minerals, hornblende and 

 felspar are mixed, as they are in the variety of 



