CAUSES OF DEPRECIATION IN GRAPES. 



467 



bloom, one of which is an evergreen. I saved its foliage 

 last winter by laying it down on the ground and covering 

 it over with slough-grass. Talking of grass, a bunch of 

 erianthus grew eight feet tall last season in the front 

 yard. I shall try the eulalias ne.xt year, if able. 



Of clematis we have six or eight varieties, all very 

 thrifty. They seemed impatient to come through the 

 ground this spring. This vine is unsurpassable every 

 way in this country. 



Five sorts of climbing roses seem to withstand any 

 amount of freezing ; and so does an everblooming one — 

 the Dinsmore. The latter is one of the finest out-door 

 roses I have ever seen. The Madame Champney will be 

 a sight in a few days. 



There are two evergreens on the edge of the yard — a 

 Colorado blue spruce and a Siberian arborvitas. The 

 former is very beautiful. An oleaster also looks well, 

 and behind it are some broad-leaved dutchman's pipe 

 vines. 



Of irises there are five varieties, and eight or ten sorts 

 each of perennial delphinium and columbine. I alwaj s 

 loved a perennial phlox, so I have quite a number, no 

 two of a kind. 



To improve or build a new home renews one's youth. 

 Not only is the work wholesome, but it is a lesson to the 



community. Already I perceive many efforts at orna- 

 mentation in the front yards of the homesteads near me. 

 Flowery lawns will make people ashamed of having pigs, 

 pig-pens and stables prominent in the foreground. A 

 good house in the neighborhood is likely to prevent the 

 building of hovels on farms whose owners are able to 

 build better. 



Thus, he who plants trees and flowers preaches a cul- 

 ture that lifts men up towards the plane of the good and 

 the beautiful, 



I am satisfied, from my success thus far, that the list 

 of hard)' shrubs and flowers in this section can be in- 

 creased much beyond my most sanguine expectations 

 when I commenced. I think it can be extended amaz- 

 ingly by laying the plants down against the winter. My 

 one peach tree I laid down ; it was loaded last year, and 

 is now. Three more will add to our store of peaches 

 this fall. Although the chances were that they would 

 have borne this season uncovered, yet it will not do to 

 risk it. So with shrubs regarded as tender ; lay them 

 down, and thus double the number of your satisfactions. 

 The trouble and labor are but small, while to us the 

 delight in our garden home has been illimitable. 



Edward B. Heaton. 



Six CabU's, Ringgold Co., Iowa. 



CAUSES OF DEPRECIATION IN GRAPES. 



LEADING horticulturist re- 

 cently remarked of what was 

 once a noted grape, that 30 

 cents, the price asked in the 

 market for a ten pound box, 

 would be too much to pay for 

 a wagon load ! This grape is 



the Niagara, a white grape (so- 

 called) which, when it was first introduced to notice 

 by the owners about a dozen years ago, was pru- 

 nounced by experts "very good," "equal to the 

 Concord,'' " the best white grape," and " a decided 

 acquisition." Why, then, should this grape whicli 

 was excellent twelve years ago, now become of less 

 value than the dirt under one's feet ? The explana- 

 tion is simple enough. No other grape was so care- 

 fully controlled by the first owners . A close corpora- 

 tion was formed for its propagation and sale. Every 

 precaution to establish a monoply was taken. A 

 private trade mark was attached to each plant 

 when sold, and every purchaser was bound under 

 penalties to sell the prunings of the vines to the 

 company which controlled the business. 



A big boom was gotten up, and by all the arts known 

 to the trade an extensive sale and distribution of the 

 vines were effected. Millions of them were sold at exor- 

 bitant prices on such terms as encumbered the vine- 



yards so planted for years, but no cash was demanded 

 at the sale. The payments were to be made from sales of 

 the fruits, after vineshad come into bearing. Not a single 

 vine could be procured for love or money in any other 

 way. Every purchaser was made an agent for selling the 

 vines and thus the Niagara grape was spread and planted 

 in all kinds of soils, in all localities, and by inexperienced 

 and careless cultivators, as well as by those who were 

 better informed. The result could be as easily prognos- 

 ticated as that now existing, and a good grape has been 

 ruined to a large extent, by the most effective means 

 pi.issible of not growing grapes. 



The grape is one of the most exacting plants in re- 

 gard to soil, locality, culture and climate. When all 

 these convene, the fruit attains the highest excellence, 

 l)ut where one is absent, every good quality is lost. This 

 has been the universal experience in the history of viti- 

 culture and of wine making from the earliest times. 

 The proper choice of location has been exemplified in 

 the common expression ot the poets, " the vine-clad 

 hills," which his come down to us from the earliest 

 ages. Much may be learned in this regard from the most 

 ancient writers, of whom the poet Virgil is perhaps the 

 most diffuse. In his second book of the Georgics, one 

 of his most exquisite poems, he relates the whole art of 

 planting and cultivating vineyards, and the selection of 

 soil and locality is dwelt upon with reiterated particu- 

 larity." 



"Come on, oh farmers!" he says, "and learn ap- 



