871 



titled 'J. New Grape Patent,'' by Wm. Griffith. 



"I have read his description of this new dis- 

 covered process, and I wish to say that I have 

 grown vines successfully in the same manner for 

 four years; we used spent tan, sawdust and charcoal 

 dust for mulching, with about equal success. I do 

 not, however, propose to apply for a patent, but I do 

 purpose to continue propagating on this plan as long 

 as I find it to ray interest to do so." 



[Of course you can continue your process. As 

 we said in our last, it is barely possible that Mr. 

 Griffith was serious. It is simply a good advertis- 

 ing joke, and friend Griffith deserves much credit 

 for his ingenuity.] 



Asparagus Beds, — A Doylestown, Pa., sub- 

 scriber sends us the following minute statements of 

 the way in which he made his Asparagus beds. If 

 he does not get good Asparagus, old "Hortus" must 

 be a mean deity not to smile on such a sacrifice. 

 He says: 



I have been trying to make me an Asparagus 

 bed, and I often wished, while working at it, that 

 1 had a good article from your pen aside to direct 

 me ; but I put it through ''hit or miss." I know 

 you will laugh when I tell you how I made it. In 

 the first place, I had neither stones, bones nor 

 leather, but I had as follows : for every 3 feet of a 

 90-feet bed, and 10 feet wide. I first cleaned out 3 

 feet, 18 in. deep, across the bed, say 10 feet wide, 

 and throw it to one side. (I had the soil well pul- 

 verized. ) Into this trench I put 



1st, 1 bundle corn fodder, 



2d, i of top soil of 3 feet, 



3d, 1 barrow load manure, 



4th, I top soil of the 3 feet, 



5th, 1 barrow load short manure, 



6th Shovelings of top soil, 



7th, 1 barrow load of short manure, 



8th, i of subsoil, 



9th, 1 barrow load of short manure, 

 10th, i of subsoil, 



11th, A good coat of compost, which I had left 

 from corn planting, worked in on top. 



Will you be so kind as to tell me, at your conve- 

 nience, if you would recommend me to sow seed 

 now or wait until spring,and then set out the plants. 

 If seed, how shall I sow it? If plants, how shall I 

 plant them, and how far apart both ways? If you 

 recommend sowing the seed now, would the bed 

 require to be mulched, and with what?" 



We should plant out 2 year old plants in si ring. 

 They ought to bear cuttings then the sprirg fol- 

 lowing. 



The Modern Chameleon.— It is time some 

 conclusion is reached as to the meaning of the very 

 conflicting statements about Tomatoes. We have 

 already settled the question of earlmess. Soil, sit- 

 uation, time of planting, and many other circum- 

 stances, have more to do with this than we knew 

 of a year ago. It is clear that so far as any consti- 

 tutional earlincss is concerned, no variety has yet 

 appeared that has much advantage over another. 



Anothf r fact is equally clear, namely, that the to- 

 mato is extremely variable. Circumstances have 

 more to do with quality than constitution, and 

 that it is next to impossible to keep a variety true 

 to its characteristics. 



Notwithstanding these things are plain, from what 

 has appeared in the Alonthly the past year, to every 

 mind capable .of generalizing from undoubted facts, 

 there will no doubt be the same quarrels gone over 

 next year as in the past. This one will be called a 

 swindler for sending out bad seed, and the other of 

 deliberately perverting the facts to gain certain ends, 

 until the looker-on must thmk that, amongst horti- 

 culturists, his cornutely crowned majesty is even 

 blacker than he has ever been painted. 



Southern Nurserymen.— Tf; S. E., Colum- 

 hia, Tenn., says: I wish to buy sundry stocks for 

 my Nursery, and would like to buy them from 

 Southern Nurseries, from the fact that stocks bought 

 from the North or Northwest do not do so well 

 here. I have looked through your Advertiser, £,nd 

 do not find a solitary Southern Nursery advertised, 

 not even one from Kentuckj\ How is this? Can 

 you furni.^h me with a li^t of Kentucky and South- 

 ern Nurseries? 



[Probably they have notj-et stock to offer. There 

 are, in Kent cky, J. 0. J. Taylor, Newport ; J. S. 

 Downer, Elkton ; Manson & Willey, Murfreesboro ; 

 J. S. Dunlap, Pulaski ; J. R. Strange, Madison, 

 and others at Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Win- 

 chester, Calhoun, and nsany other places. If our 

 friends will send us a full list of Kentucky Nursery- 

 men, we would publish then), or of any of the 

 Southern Stdtes.] 



A Good Exiitbitor.— In order to render our 

 reports of Societies of interest to all our readers, we 

 seldom refer to premiums taken unless we can give 

 a list of the articles, which is the chief thing the 

 readers like to know. For the same reason, we 

 generally only record ^first premiums. This rule 

 works hard, sometimes, against meritorious exhibi- 

 tors. For instance, the name of Donald McQueen, 

 gardener to Johhua Long^treth, djes not appear 



