The Canadian Horticulturist 373 



also a hardy, showy flower ; the Golden Wave Coreopsis is, I think, the finest ; 

 is a constant bearer and sows itself. Sweet peas, I find, succeed better by 

 sowing very thickly and fairly deep. Some single Dahlias I sowed in the hot bed 

 early in April, and left there ; flowered in July, and in September and October 

 were blooming freely. 



I hope you will not think that I have expressed myself too strongly on 

 some things, but what I understand you seek is the experience of your 

 readers. 



Deer Park, October 30th, i8gi. Alfred Hoskins. 



Moore's Diamond Grape. — The Rural New-Yorker is favorably im- 

 pressed with this new white grape which it has had on trial since the spring 

 of 1887. We regard it as, to say the least, among the best of the many 

 white varieties of recent introduction, such, for examples, as Hayes, Empire 

 State, Colerain and Niagara. The berry is of medium size, nearly as large 

 as Concord, the skin is thin, but as firm as that of either of the above men- 

 tioned grapes. The pulp is without any toughess. It is so tender and juicy, in 

 fact, that seeds (from two to three of small size) separate so readily that their 

 rejection requires little, if any, eff'ort. It is sprightly and sweet throughout. 

 Diamond is one of Jacob Moore's seedlings, a pure native from Concord and 

 lona. The vines, though not so rank-growing as many others, are yet healthy 

 and prolific. The bunches are of good size, the berries set as closely together as 

 desirable and clinging well to the stem. They are rarely shouldered at the 

 Rural Grounds, or, rather, the shoulders are not decided, the bunch being sym- 

 metrically broad at the base, tapering downwards. The R. JV. V. desires 

 to commend a trial of the Diamond to all its grape-growing readers. 



In pruning gooseberry bushes, keep the branches moderately thinned out, so 

 that light may be admitted to the interior, and do not shorten leading shoots if 

 of strength equal to carrying the weight of the fruits without bending to the 

 ■earth ; and some of the lower branches should be cut out, and the heads kept 

 in good form, the laterals being shortened back to a few eyes at the base, and all 

 root-suckers removed with the sucker-iron. Scrape the soil from under the 

 bushes, if the gooseberry saw-fly has been troublesome, replacing it with mould 

 from some other part of the garden not likely to contain the larvae of the fly. 

 When pruning, make a selection of shoots to serve as cuttings to be heeled in 

 ■without delay, or made at once into cuttings and put into beds. 



