!^^.. *■'■*[■-.'*""■■' '■• 



THE ILLINOIS FA^HIMEK. 



247 



The project fell through for want of 

 subscribers. Few persons seem to re- 

 alize the importance of such a paper, 

 until they have some animal stolen. 

 The plan of Mr. Hosford is a g'^od one 



and so was that of Mr. Simmons. 



-» ♦ * 



The Vineyards of the Rhine. 



The Scottish Quarterly Journal of 

 Agriculture contains an interesting 

 article on " Rhenish Wine and Rhine- 

 land, " a few extracts from which we 

 think will be acceptable to the readers of 

 the Farmer. 



The writer visited the most celebrated 

 vineyards on the Rhine, in 1855, and 

 again in the summer of 1857. In 1855, 

 the crop was almost a universal failure, 

 owing to the late frosts in April destroy- 

 ing the fruit-bearing shoots of the vine; 

 while in 1857 the vines were loaded with 

 an exuberance of fully ripened fruit. In 

 1855, search had to be made among the 

 luxuriant green leaves for a bunch of 

 grapes, and, when found, the fruit pro- 

 ved diminutive and unripe. In 1857, 

 on the other hand, bunch was suspended 

 over and beside bunch in such pr-jfusion 

 that surprise was excited that so small a 

 plant as the pruned vine was able to bear 

 so large a quantity of fruit as far to out- 

 weigh the weight of the plant itself, and 

 which it could not have done without 

 ample support. Everywhere the grape 

 was presented to the tourjst, in inviting 

 bunches of red and white, at the low cost 

 of six kreutzers (four cents) the bunch. 

 The writer states that he ate grapes 

 grown in the open air on the banks of 

 Lake Como "of much finer fragrance 

 than from any vinery in the United 

 Kingdom." 



"In every respect the vine is a remark- 

 able plant. No one could anticipate, on 

 first seeing a vine-plant without leaves, 

 that its dry, withered, wiery stem, could 

 produce, elegantly-formed, expansive 

 leaves and beautiful bunches of fruit of 

 large size and weight, suspended as they 

 are from the most frail-looking tendrils; 

 but, notwithstanding its shrivelled aspect 

 the vine is a plant exceedingly suscepti- 

 ble of external influences. Color, size, 

 form, taste, aroma, productiveness, vary 

 in a remarkable degree with a change of 

 soil, position, and temperature. It is, 

 therefore, no matter of surprise that the 

 grapes of the sunny sideof Johannisberg 

 should bo very superior in flavor to those 

 of the north facing slopes on the opposite 

 bank of the Rhine." 



The practice of concealing the bunch- 

 es of grapes from the direct rays of the 

 sun, behind screens formed of growin<^ 

 leaves, and at the same time leaving them 

 open to light, was quite common." The 

 direct rays of the sun foster by their 

 heat the acid principle of the grapes by 



increasing the amount of tartaric acid; 

 and it does so more decidedly in the red 

 than the white grape, because the dark 

 color absorbs the heat more readily; 

 while the light of the sun, passing easily 

 through the white skin, envolves the 

 saccharine principle in the white grape 

 in a greater degree than in the red, and 

 thus brings each kind ripe nearer at the 

 same time — an important j^oint in wine 

 making. Protection from the direct rays 

 of the sun also improves the flavor of the 

 fruit. 



Fetid manures exercise a very preju- 

 dicial influence on the odor of the wine; 

 while such as are inodorous and decay 

 slowly, such as wool, horn, and bone- 

 black, conduce very much to enhance its 

 fragrance. 



"The leaves of the vine, which contain 

 a considerable quantity of alkali, consti- 

 tute an excellent manure for the plant. 

 At the vintage, only the fruit is removed 

 from the vineyard; and when the leaves 

 fall to the ground, their constituents ne- 

 cessarily compose the best manure for 

 future vine leaves. Only in this manner 

 can the fact be explained that the vine 

 requires little inorganic manure, and 

 often contents itself with substances 

 which it obtains principally from the 

 weather-beaten rocks on whose slopes it 

 is planted." 



We believe it is, now conceded that 

 grave vines are not particularly benefited 

 by the application of inorganic manures 

 such as potash, soda, etc. It is only one 

 of many facts going to show that the 

 composition of any particular plant is no 

 certain indication of the kind of manure 

 most needed for its growth. Potash en- 

 ters largely into the composition of the 

 wood, leaves, and fruit of the grape; and 

 therefore it has been supposed that its 

 cultivation would soon exhaust the soil 

 of potash. But while it is true that 

 nearly one half of the ash of the entire 

 grave vine is potash, yet the growth of 

 grapes does not remove from an acre of 

 soil so much potash as many of our farm 

 crops. Potatoes, turnips, etc., remove 

 nearly double the quantity that grapes 

 do, and yet even these plants are not 

 particularly benefited by the application 

 of potash as a manure. Manures rich in 

 ammonia and phosphoric acid appear to 

 be best suited for the growth of grapes. 



"The full ripening of the fruit by the 

 action oft he sun is of the greatest im- 

 portance in order to secure good wine. 

 On this account the vines are not allowed 

 to grow high, but the nearer they are 

 kept to the ground the better, in order 

 that the heat of the sun may be reflected 

 back upon them from the ground, and 

 the process of ripening is then carried 

 through the evenings and nights by the 

 warmth which is radiated from the earth 

 The vines are not kept short to obtain a 

 greater quantity of grape juice, for those 



which are allowed to grow six feet and 

 upward yield a larger quantity of juice, 

 but their wine is worse than from the 

 short vines in the same place." . 



The Agriculture OF theRhineland 

 says the same writer, has improved 

 amazingly of late. 



*'A few years ago, the land was gen- 

 erally in a very foul state with weeds; 

 now it is much eleaner, and now also the 

 manure is applied in large quantities. — 

 The manure is all from the farm-yard, 

 the stock being constantly kept in the 

 homestead. The crops are mostly of 

 rye and oats, the rye affording the or- 

 dinary food to the population, and the 

 oats to both man and beast. Wheat is 

 now raised in increasing quantities, and 

 so is barley. Red clover is cultivated 

 with success as a forage plant. The 

 peculiar crops are mangel wurael, kohl 

 rabi, scarlet clover, and Indian corn, all 

 of which grow luxuriantly. Potatoes 

 are largely cultivated, and ruta baga 

 may frequently be seen. But the most 

 striking feature in the change of Rhine- 

 land agriculture is the great extension 

 of the cultivation of fruit trees. These 

 are not planted in masses like our orch- 

 ards, but along the highways, and at 

 stated distances in rows in the cultivated 

 land. The ordinary fruits cultivated are 

 apples and pears, both for eating, though 

 the old apple trees had been planted for 

 the purpose of making cider. Cherry 

 trees are common, and so are walnut; 

 but the increasing culture in fruit is in 

 plums, and of these the Mirahelle seems 

 the favorite. This is a small, somewhat 

 oblong, yellow-colored plum, sweet to 

 the taste, and capable of being eaten 

 ripe, or preserved for compotes. The 

 trees are pruned so as to allow the plow- 

 ing under the lowest trenches. A new 

 orchard of Mirahelle plums, consisting 

 of five thousand trees, has lately been - 

 planted in the neighborhood of Kronthal; 

 and on surveying the country from the 

 heights, it, is fast being covered over 

 with fruit trees, which in addition to the 

 forests which are raised for fuel, will ere 

 long give it a wooded aspect- 



«•»— 



Sorghum Convention. — The Waverly 

 (Iowa) Repuhlican says that a convention of 



agricultural societies, and of a-1 persons who 

 ar^ interested in the planting and cultivating 

 of the Chinese sagar cane and the mnanu- 

 facture of sugar and molasses therefrom, is 

 called by order of the Bremen Country Ag- 

 ricultural Society, to meet at Waverly on the 

 third day of March, and continue as long as 

 it may be interesting. There will be a gene- 

 ral discussion of the best mode of planting, 

 cultivating and manufacturing sugar and 

 molasses, and for a free interchange of views 

 on this important branch of agriculture. 

 Specimens of syrup and sugar of last season's 

 crop, with mode of manufacture, are called 

 for. 



