336 



C!j4 §mkmxs ^0nthlg. 



PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBEE, 1867. 



IrJ^ All Coramunicationa for the Editor should be addressed, 

 "Thomas Meehan, Germantown, Philadelphia," and Business Let- 

 ters directed to "W. G. P. Bkinckloe, Box Philadelphia." 



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THE CATAWISSA HASFBEHHY. 

 In the convention at St. Louis, a gentleman in- 

 troduced a resolution condemnatory of the whole 

 class of autumn-bearing Raspberries. From what 

 we saw at the West, we do not wonder that such a 

 resolution was proposed for, so far as the Catawissa 

 variety is concerned, it is clear that its proper culti- 

 vation is not understood^ and, consequently, its 

 i great merits have never been appreciated. No- 

 I where did we see a Catawissa Raspberry that was 

 1 worth the room it occupied. 



iHere in the East no amateur would be without 

 . it, when he once understands it. All that is ne- 

 I cessary is to cut it down in the spring to about two 

 i feet, and pile on plenty of manure dhout the root 

 ' 0(1 the surface of the ground. The plant never 

 dies oat by disease or winter as do other kinds; 

 and when you once have a plantation of this ki^, 

 it is a permanent institution. A neighbor of ours, 

 who was among the first to give his $5 per dozen 

 f)r them, recently said to us, we might take every 

 fruit tree from his garden, only to leave him these. 

 The same, plants had been there, we believe, for 

 twelve years, and had increased in productiveness 

 with each year. From these twelve plants, though 

 using the fruit for suppers freely, they had enough 

 to put away as preserves. This is no isolated case. 

 There are scores in our immediate vicinity who 

 would on no account be without this fruit in their 

 gardens. At the recent great exhibition of the 

 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the number of 

 dishes shown by amateurs indicates how generally it 

 is cultivated. There were more plates of Cata- 

 wissa Raspberries than of Concord drapes. 



For market purposes the variety is worthless. 

 The fruit is so very soft that it crushes by almost 

 its own, weight; but that is nothing against its 

 growth by those who supply their own tables. For 

 our part, we regard the introducer of the Catawissa 

 Raspberry as among the great benefictors to 

 American Pomology whose names should ever be 

 held in ffiateful remembrance. 



HOW T© HAVE HEALTHY GHAFES. 



One has to be conrinually on guard against push- 

 ing a favorite theory to extremes. For instance, a 

 few years ago it was the general belief that parasi- 

 tic fungi attacked only vegetable matter in a state 

 of decay. Then came the discovery that they at- 

 tacked healthy plants, and now we find a tendency 

 to go into the other extreme, and to believe that 

 most of the di.icases of plants are caused by para- 

 sitic fungi. There is no doubt that, in many cases, 

 these parasites attack, injure and even destroy plants 

 previously perfectly healthy ; but, on the other 

 hand, it is equally certain that many forms of mil- 

 dew exist only after previous disease, or bad treat- 

 ment which we may call disease. 



This is particularly true of the Grape. A man 

 who grows Grape vines in pots can produce mildew 

 at will. Let him take a young vine, say in a 3-inch 

 pot, and put it in a badly-drained 12-inch pot, water 

 it, say three times a day for about 3 days, and with- 

 in six days pale yellow spots will be seen on the 

 leaves. If he examine the roots then, he will find 

 that the fibres, white and thread-like when he pot- 

 ted the plant, are now black and nearly rotten ; and 

 in about three days more he finds the yellow spots 

 have a white, powdery fungus growing all over 

 them ; and in a few days more the leaves are "mil- 

 dewed" and fiillen. Whether it is that roots must 

 have a certain amount of air to keep healthy, and 

 that they cannot get this air when enveloped in 

 water, and thus smother and die like an animal, — ■ 

 or whether this water is favorable to the generation 

 of gases unfavorable to health}^ root-action ; in pop- 

 ular language, whether soil "sours," or the roots 

 "smother," does not matter here. It is enough to 

 know that the result is mildew. 



This is well understood by the under-glass Grape 

 grower. Before making his cold vinery, he makes 

 a dry vine border. If so low that he cannot well 

 underdrain it, he elevates the border entirely above 

 the level of the natural soil. Then he never stirs 

 the surface of his border for fear he should drive the 

 roots down into a damp region; and if from any 

 cause he finds the roots have got down into a damp 

 subsoil, and have lost surface roots, which he soon 

 knows by the fruit failing to color properly, he bares 

 the roots and carefully lifts them to the surface. 

 Those who make high and narrow banks for vine 

 borders, never fail to have healthy vines in cold 

 graperies. 



Now, the out-door grape is generally supposed to 

 prefer hill sides. But this is only becauje they are 

 there less likely to get loet feet. If on the hill side, 

 the soil is- terraced and subsoiled, and otherwise 



