June 5, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



275 



and till it, and the farmer who declared that he would as soon 

 think of raising- a crop in a soil of pulverized glass as in the 

 sands of. "The Barrens" did not state the general belief with too 

 great emphasis. Notwithstanding its proximity to Philadel- 

 phia, the tract of 34,000 acres was bought in i860 for five dol- 

 lars an acre, and to the daring purchaser the privilege was 

 granted of paying only as fast as the land was re-sold to set- 

 tlers. As the war closed greenbacks were floating freely, a 

 good many people felt inclined to settle somewhere, a great 

 volume of seductive advertising found its way into the press, 

 and Vineland began to fill up rapidly with enthusiastic amateur 

 farmers, who were convinced that five acres was more land 

 than any man really needed to get rich upon. These hopeful 

 people usually spent all their i-eady money in building a house, 

 borrowed some more to set out a useless hedge and some 

 trees and vines, and then began to rest, while their orchards 

 and vineyards grew. A period of some depression naturally 

 followed, but at last business has settled down upon a perma- 

 nent basis, and the prosperity of the place seems established. 

 Landis Avenue, the main street, is nine miles long, and many 

 of the farms that front it contain only five or ten acres, and 

 from these the owners are realizing a comfortable income. 



But as Grape-vines and fruit trees took the place of scrub 

 Oaks and Pines, the insects and fungi which prey upon them 

 began to multiply, until the Downy IVIildew and the Black Rot, 

 not to speak of other rusts and blights, threatened to destroy the 

 fruit industry. With some varieties of the Grape the rot made 

 so clean a sweep of the crop that many vineyards were aban- 

 doned and rooted out. Colonel A. W. Pearson, one of the large 

 growers, however, concluded that his vineyard was worth 

 fighting for, and he began a series of experiments which at- 

 tracted attention for their thoroughness, and finally he was 

 selected by the Department of Agriculture as one of the agents 

 to make trials of certain remedies which had been used with 

 some promise in France. He feels confident that the two 

 most destructive enemies of the vine can be held in check by 

 preparations of copper sulphate. Last year, beside untreated 

 vines on which ninety-five per cent, of the grapes were lost, 

 vines sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture lost l)ut two percent. 

 It was primarily to look at this experimental vineyard that I 

 came to Vineland. It was too early, however, to see any 

 effects of the diseases or their remedies, although an inspection 

 of the methods of conducting the experiments was most inter- 

 esting. It is not enough to discover some mixture that will 

 kill tlie fungus. What is needed in jjractice is a certain rem- 

 edy, which can be applied most cheaply and with least danger 

 to the plant rmd to man. A great number of preparations are 

 on trial, applied on Ijelts running across the rows so as to take 

 in every variety of vine, and with check lines of untreated 

 vines between the belts sprayed with the different mixtures. 

 A description of the remedies in detail would be tedious to 

 your readers, and the reports at the close of the season will 

 show which ones have proved of vrUue. 



The vines are set in rows nine feet apart, with a vine every 

 six feet in the row. The stakes are short, and carry a single 

 wire at a height of two feet and a half from tJie ground. The 

 whole vineyard has been ploughed and cultivated till it is ab- 

 solutely free from weeds, but as the fruit gains size tillage will 

 be suspended, the weeds will be allowed to grow, and when 

 ploughed under they will help to add a little humus to the 

 light soil. On the 29th of May the fruit had already set on the 

 Iron-clad variety, while the other kinds were not yet in blos- 

 som. This Iron-clad Grape, so-called because it has been 

 proof against every attack of rot spores, is supposed by ex- 

 perts to be a natural hybrid between some form of Viiis La- 

 brusca and Vitis riparia. The original vine, which is at least 

 a hundred years old, still covers a great Oak on the banks of a 

 little stream which empties into the Schuylkill a few miles 

 from Philadelphia, and is good for something like a ton of 

 Grapes every year. These vines show their remarkable vigor 

 as compared with such varieties as Concord and Ives by the 

 superior size of their stems, and the i)ressed juice of the iron- 

 clad Grape is so rich in color that three or four teaspoonfuls 

 will give a fine clru-et color to a goblet of pure water. This 

 color, as well as its freedom from rot, gives tJie Iron-clad excep- 

 tional value as a wine-grape, and its juice is in great demand 

 where pure fruit syrups are used in soda fountains. And, by 

 the way, Colonel Pearson finds that the manufacturer of un- 

 fermented wine, and of the syrups from strawberries, ras|5- 

 berries, blackberries, quinces, etc, are among the most profit- 

 able ways of utilizing fruits. 



Colonel Pearson is using no bags, although he may cover 

 some of his grapes for private use. A drive through Vineland, 

 however, showed that in many vineyards this operation hacl 

 already been performed, although the blossoms had not yet 



appeared, and in many others, groups of women were fasten- 

 ing bags over every cluster of flower-buds, pinning the paper 

 to the canes, and not to the stems of the clusters, which were 

 still so tender that the wind would snap them off. These 

 bags protect the grapes from the spores of the fungus which 

 fill the air later in the season, and they were formerly applied 

 when the grapes were about the size of peas. Last year, how- 

 ever, it was found that the infection entered the cluster some- 

 times before the flower-buds opened, and it was found, too, 

 that many varieties were fertilized perfectly when the flowers 

 were enclosed in paper so as to exclude foreign pollen. It 

 is in view of this experience that the bags are being applied 

 so early to thousands of vines. In Colonel Pearson's opinion, 

 the practice does not pay for ordinary commercial vineyards, 

 although it niay pay when fruit of extra quality is desired. 



As we drove by the freight-station the area was crowded 

 with wagons bringing in strawberries. The crop is a week 

 earlier than usual this year, and when at its height a dozen or 

 more car-loads are shipped every day, while twenty car-loads of 

 blackberries is an ordinary day's picking. The boast of the 

 villagers that there is never any mud in Vineland is projjably 

 a patriotic exaggeration, but that water soon filters away from 

 the surface was evident in the fields, where plows were mov- 

 ing a few hours after four inches of rain had fallen. The soil 

 is by no means uniform, and there are mucky hollows, which 

 look dark and full of humus, and there are places where the 

 clay comes near enough to the surface to mix with the sand 

 and make it consistent. But it is in soil of this character that 

 the eft'ects of dry weather are most apparent. Where the land 

 is said to be " sand all the way down," and the porous sub-soil 

 permits the water to filter quickly through it, the roots of crops 

 seem to penetrate more deeply, and the Corn will be green and 

 growing here when its leaves are curled and wilted elsewhere. 

 Deep-rooting trees like the Chestnut might be expected to 

 thrive even without such evidence as is given by the great 

 stump alluded to in an early part of this letter. As a matter of 

 fact, one of the most beautiful rows of trees I saw was of 

 Chestnuts planted along one of the streets. Each lot-owner 

 was obliged by the terms of his title to plant a double row of 

 trees along his street-front and to seed with grass the strip be- 

 tween the wheelway and sidewalk. As a result the avenues, 

 which are 100 feet wide, are already bordered with fine trees 

 and a continuous stretch of good turf. The general effect 

 would have been better if a single species had been used in 

 each i^ow, and it is unfortunate that so many Silver Maples 

 have been used when better trees have proved themselves so 

 well adapted to the conditions here. I have rarely seen more 

 thrifty Chestnuts, or Oaks of various species, or Tulip-trees, 

 or Lindens, or Floney Locusts than those which shade the 

 walks of Vin'cland. 



Vineland, N.J. S. 



Exhibitions. 



Rhododendrons in Boston. 



The exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 held in Boston last Saturday, was devoted principally to Rho- 

 dodendrons, for which Mr. H. H. Hunnewell, whose l^nowledge 

 of these plants is only equalled by his sldU and enthusiasm in 

 collecting them, offers every year a number of special prizes. 

 Several large collections were shown ; that of Mr. Hunnewell, 

 which was not entered for competition, numbered several 

 hundred heads of flowers, and included all the principal hardy 

 and many half-hardy varieties. The flowers in all the collec- 

 tions were of good size and quality, for the mild weather and 

 the abundant rains of the spring months have favored their 

 development. Nothing very new or striking in hardy varie- 

 ties appeared, however, while there were probably fewer 

 flowers of half-hardy varieties shown than in previous years. 

 Indeed, the collection of the half-hardy varieties of Rhododen- 

 dron Catawbiense is looked upon with less favor in the neigh- 

 borhood of Boston than \\'as the case a few years ago. The 

 truth is they are very unsafisfactory-phmts to manage. Many 

 are shy bloomers under tlie most favorable conditions in Eng- 

 land even ; but when it is necessary to lift them in the autumn 

 every year, and protect them in pits through winter, many of 

 the varieties refuse to flower at all, or will only flower once In 

 three or four years. The delicately-colored flowers of such 

 varieties we only see to advantage under canvas, which is 

 essential, too, to shield them from the hot sun and frequent 

 rains of early June, so that if they are not wanted for a flower- 

 show, such as Mr. Hunnewell has provided annually for his 

 friends during the last twenty years, they are practically use- 

 less. And even where Rhododendrons are shown under can- 

 vas there are now so many high-colored hardy varieties that a 



