182 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



ducts preserved to continue almost as fresh throughout the 

 winter. And George H. Hite is not by profession, nor early 

 education, a gardener. He is a native of a state less noted for 

 its horticultural skill and productions, than for its productions of 

 great corn crops, great bullocks, great men — physically and intel- 

 lectually, and a great many candidates for the Presidency — one 

 of which, a few months hence, is going to be elected. Mr. Hite 

 is a Kentuckian, and some of his early years were spent in paint- 

 ing portraits in Louisiana. Then he came to New York, and 

 during other years acquired fame as an artist upon ivory. Then, 

 about nine years ago, like a sensible man, he began to create a 

 home for his old age, when it comes — it is only in the blossom 

 now ; and that home I have visited, and I wish I could take every 

 one who hears or reads of it with me to learn what an artist has 

 done, and what a mechanic, a lawyer, a doctor, or anybody else 

 might do in a garden upon a village lot. Will the sluggards who 

 sigh after an abundance of fruit, and envy those who have, yet 

 take no steps to have it themselves, believe me Avhen I tell them 

 that in this garden there are now growing grape vines of such 

 extent, and such luxuriance and fruitfulness that, as a prudent 

 provider, the owner must at once prepare several barrels to hold 

 the juice of the surplus of the crop, after consuming all that he 

 can fresh. I hav8 never seen before so handsome and so fruitful 

 an arbor as that which extends some fifty feet from the rear of 

 Mr. Hite's house, and now affords such a delightful shady spot 

 that, independent of the fruit, it is well worth its cost. I have 

 never tasted such Isabella grape wine as that made by Mr, Hite, 

 five years ago, with no addition whatever to the juice of the 

 grapes. As to strawberries, the Avorld is already aware that they 

 grow to perfection in this garden, and Mr. Hite has told us how 

 he makes them grow. 



HOW TO GROW CURRANTS. 



He also told us, last week, how to gro"w currants, and even 

 showed us specimens of how they grow, but he did not convince 

 any of us of what I am convinced now — that he is the most suc- 

 cessful cultivator of currants in America, and can this day show 

 the best results in the fruit upon his bushes. Not merely a few 

 baskets full for family use, but bushel after bushel, red, white 

 and black. The berries of the true red Dutch variety are upon 

 the average as large as the cherry currants, under ordinary cul- 



