146 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



and therefore they bore no fruit, but the vines have grown finely, and I 

 have kept the runners down, and unless they are of a barren kind, I hope 

 next year to have an abundance of fruit. To nearly all the plants have 

 been added an extra pair of tubular leaves like those I have sent you. 

 They were never so before, and they may be new to you and your friends, 

 I intend to have some of the Wilson's Albany in the fall. I read with 

 great interest the discussions of the Farmers' Institute Club, and have 

 tried to learn how to treat grapes and strawberries. Some weeks ago the 

 expediency of covering strawberries in winter was discussed. I think 

 they need a light covering of hay here, as we cannot depend on a covering 

 of snow, and we are liable to sudden changes from freezing to thawing, 

 and vice versa. I think I do not yet understand how to prune grape 

 vines. I trim them to as many canes as I want, but they soon sprout out 

 again, and make me a deal of trouble. Last spring I tried an experiment 

 on a wild grape vine. I separated it into four parts, each of which had a 

 good root, and with the point of a penknife dug out all the little eyes or 

 knobs from the roots, and from the tops, excepting where I wished for 

 branches. They all look well now, and have not sent out shoots and 

 branches as others do. Garden grapes treated in this way may make 

 less trouble I have hoped to see currant culture discussed. The preva- 

 lent opinion in Kansas is, that the currant will not prosper here. I 

 think it is because people planted them in sod ground at first, and have 

 let them remain there. I removed mine into cultivated soil last spring, 

 and they have grown more than they had in all the previous four years. 

 I believe Mr. Pardee understands the business, and will he please relate 

 some of his experience? I imagine that even wise men may some- 

 times be mistaken, and I take the liberty to say that Mr. Bergen's idea 

 about feeding chickens is, I think, an entire mistake. I raised chickens 

 in Saratoga county about twent3^-five years, and never saw one with 

 the gapes, though I sometimes heard of the disease among my neigh- 

 bors' chickens. I always fed them myself, so as to be sure it was well 

 done, and was very careful that they should have newly mixed meal, 

 thinking it was more nourishing and refreshing. That was their principal 

 food, and they were always healthy. Sometimes a young one was weak, 

 and I would feed it a few times with bread pills. I have so long wanted 

 to write to you that subjects have accumulated. I have long hesitated, 

 but have come to the decision that, as you have received letters from the 

 north and east, it is fair that you should hear from the west also. I wish 

 that your Club would more frequently discuss floriculture. Like Miss A., 

 of Vermont, flowers are very necessary to my happiness. I brought many 

 with me five years ago, but lost them all before we were settled. I began 

 anew, and lost most of my nicest plants two years ago. Through the kind- 

 ness of friends, and by a few purchases, I have a showy garden now, and 

 people who have traveled over Kansas say I have the handsomest garden 

 in the State. And yet, owing to the dry, hot weather, many seeds I 

 planted failed to come up. But Kansas is itself almost a flower garden, 

 and my principal object in writing is to bring the Kansas flowers into 

 notice. I think that on this half mile square there are as many as twenty 

 kinds which would be very much admired in eastern flower gardens, and 



