41 



comes forward and, assuming to be the mouth-piece 

 and champion of the "best talent" of the country, 

 takes up, in the December No. of the Gardener s 

 Monthly^ page 366, a circular which I have distrib- 

 uted among scientific men and vine growers in this 

 country and Europe. 



He professes to take from it fifteen quotations, 

 eleven of which fifteen are not to be found in it, and 

 five of these eleven are entirely untrue. In addition 

 to this, he makes out that I say (what I do not say 

 or believe) that the "sole cause" of paralyzing vines 

 is growing them in " glass pens," and that my pro- 

 cess "will ensure universal health and vigor." He 

 also tells the reader, this is simply putting cuttings 

 "in sand, moss, or soil, in a close box or cellar," 

 where they "emitted roots." But when I saw him 

 at the Flushing Grape Sale, (Dec. 12,) he was not 

 disposed (altho' he told me part ot his business was 

 propagating vines) to supply me with a single hun- 

 dred, even when I off'ered him one thousand dollars 

 for them, before witnesses ready to assure him of my 

 responsibility ! And further, he goes on and pro- 

 nounces them " all but worthless " to set out. In 

 answer, I exhibited to him a plant, after growing 

 one season, which was taken from a block where 

 thousands like it are growing, set out " at once in 

 the open ground, " from where I started them ; and 

 this same plant has been forwarded to the Editor of 

 this Journal. It was pronounced in Flushing, to be 

 A. No. 1. The editor can speak for himself Now 

 all this goes to show, conclusively, that he knows 

 nothing of my process, or the value of my vines, — 

 and that his article, so far as I and my circular 

 are concerned, is most wholly a tissue of misrepre- 

 sentation. 



In lugging Mr. Perry (with whom I have nothing 

 to do, and who, no doubt, is capable of taking care 

 of himself,) into the same article, he makes me 

 to knock him "all to smithereens." As I have no 

 Billingsgate Dictionary, I am at a loss to conceive 

 what the fate of Mr. Perry will be. " Pat " must 

 be sent among the Bowery boys to write up my vo- 

 cabulary. 



A volley of personal epithets I shall pass by as 

 beneath notice. The woody fibre of the Nutmeg 

 State appears to grate but little from the rasping 

 given it by the herbaceous Jerseyman. From a 

 good look at him, "the old gentleman" confesses to 

 the weakness that he was " surprised and pleased" 

 somewhat at the idea that, possibly, Mr. H., too, 

 might soon be just fifty, so that then, like ourselves 

 in our dotage and delusion, he might appreciate from 

 experience, such pleasant compliment from a stran- 

 ger, (if he gets them,) as "great man," "mighty 

 discoverer," " old gentleman," and the like. 



He says "my early experiences were probably con- 

 fined to the lapboard or lapstone." Study, Books, 

 and Horticulture comprise, thus far, all the occupa- 

 tions of my life, though the business community 

 have long known me as a landlord. 



He brands me "ignorant" and "presumptuous." 

 Now, if he will show me, from the "days of Adam" 

 to Henderson, inclusive, the record of any drawing, 

 or the description of any vine, and the process of 

 growing it, like the one in my circular, (the en- 

 graving of which heads these remarks,) either in 

 Greek, Latin or English, French, German or Span- 

 ish,— the familiar literature of my library, — then he 

 may have some grounds for his charge ; but till that 

 has been done, I feel justified in asserting that my 

 vine and the process of growing it are novelties, — 

 so simple, so useful, that, when generally known, 

 hardy Grape-vines may be raised as easily as Straw- 

 berry plants. 



Not two hundred of my circulars have yet gone 

 out into the world; but intelligent growers have re- 

 sponded, orders have rolled in, and my desk is now 

 loaded with the highest testimonials and munificent 

 sums have been offered if I disclose, in advance, my 

 process; while strangers from all sections have wend- 

 ed their way here, not to see a suburban village in 

 a "one-horse town," but the vines that grow in it, 

 and the one who grows them and knows how to fruit 

 them ; — growq them from frost to frost, in the open 

 air and "open ground," not wrong end first, but the 

 root before the plume, — like a seed of corn, — as the 

 Creator intended ; opposing their enemies, the in- 

 sects and "glass pens," the thrip, and the merce- 

 nary steam propagator, who prostitutes his calling 

 by spawning his sickly abortives upon the land. 



I have traced Mr. H. ever since he has been be- 

 fore the public. I have seen him write and heard 

 him lecture. I have watched him 'under glass' and 

 in the garden, and I would have supposed that "for 

 the honor of trade" his success, till ?iow, had eleva- 

 ted him above stooping so low as to soil his pen by 

 writing, as is the article in question, the most scur- 

 rilous attack that ever met my eye in a horticultural 

 journal ; one which eminently fits him for other 

 hands than mine. 



Is it possible that my print, when it met him, be- 

 wildered his brain ? Does this youthful ohsLmpion 

 see, in my picture, the hand- writing upon the wall, 

 — that Crystals of South Bergen are beginning to 

 '''crumble'' ? If so, let me comfort him with this 

 consolation, that as he already stands obhgated, in 

 part, to the invention and "discovery" of Whitney 

 and Goodyear, — once townsmen of mine in the land 

 he has ridiculed, — for the shirt to his back and the 



