388 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST A 
[October, 
[COPYBIGHT SECURED.] 
T II E GRAPE-GATHERERS .—Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
repeated. So that many of you must prepare for disap- 
pointment. In fact, I must disappoint so many that I 
don't think I shall ever be tempted to offer another prize 
eo long an I live. 
A great many of my nephews and nieces have thanked 
me for the amusement and instruction given, " whether 
I win a prize or not." To them I return my thanks for 
their kind appreciation of my motives in offering the 
prizes. But, O dear ! I had no idea there were so many 
rivers in the world ! I am nearly drowned ! 
Melvina A. S. — " Greenwich Observatory" is not a 
mountain. It is an observatory built by Charles II on 
the summit of Flamstead Hill, in Kent, England. The 
hill was named Flamstead after the great astronomer. 
Harry II. D.— The rebus you send is a very ancient 
one, and we only want original contributions, thank you. 
M. K. B.— You can scarcely call a sentence a charade. 
M. L. A.— It is well that veracity isn't a necessity in 
an alphabetical arithmetical puzzle. "Rats can not eat 1" 
The arrangement is quite ingenious. 
C. P. Turner.— Much obliged for your exhaustive 
examination of the sentences. Our terms were not so 
arbitrary as to exclude every one of the original words. 
If you will examine the sample sentence in the May 
number, which was pronounced all right but for the w's 
and s's, you will see there three of the original words 
—"a," "with," and "his." 
Thanks for puzzles, letters, etc., to Mary C. S., Robt. 
W. M., Flou Venn.. ML K. Bayer, C.W. Shelmlre, M. L. 
Andrews, 'Walter Henne, Arthur and Rannie, W. Wood- 
ruff, and M. E. Lynch. 
Puzzlers need not waste their time by writing enigmas 
on the names of our papers or editors. Please specify 
whether your contributions are for Agriculturist or for 
Eearth and Home. 
The Cjli^apc-^iratlBcrers. 
You will think that the artist who made the sketch for 
the above picture must have been in the Southern States. 
"We are not sure but he was ; but the picture is not pecu- 
liarly Southern, as colored people, like others, arc fond 
of gathering wild fruit, and the scene might have been 
anywhere from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. It is a 
little remarkable that wc have wild grapes growing the 
whole length and breadth of the country ; so that thoso 
boys and girls who live in the short summers of Canada 
or in the short winters of Texas, and those who live 
near the Atlantic and Pacific, can all have if they choose 
their time of grape gathering. To be sure the grapes 
will not all be of the same kind, but the pleasure of 
hunting f< r them will be the same. The grapes ripen 
mostly in early autumn, just before nutting time comes-- 
when the days are bright and the nights cool, and when 
to be in the woods or anywhere in the open air is a per- 
fect pleasure. I said that the grapes are not everywhere 
alike ; indeed, in most places two if not three kinds are 
quite likely to be found. Did you ever notice any differ- 
ence in wild grapes except in the size ? When plants 
differ in one thing they are very apt to differ in others. 
You will find that the Fox Grape of the north has not 
only large berries, but a large thick leaf the under side 
of which is very downy, while the Frost Grape has small 
berries with thin and smooth leaves. Then how sour 
the Frost Grapes arc until they have been touched by the 
frost, and how sweet and pleasant the Summer Grapes 
(still another kind) are long before frost comes. It is 
well for you to notice all these things now that you are 
young, as you will find the habit of comparing not only 
vines but trees and plants of great use when you get 
older, and when you get in the way of it you do it with- 
out thinking. A good woodsman know* every tree in 
the forest by its bark, and a good nurseryman can tell 
the hundreds of varieties of apple and pear trees by the 
color of the twigs, shape of the buds, and ether points 
that most people do not notice at all. So when you go 
out for grapes this month, and find more than one kind, 
look well at the leaves and the color and smoothness of 
the twigs, so that you can tell the vines should you sec 
them without any fruit on them. The three grapes. Fox, 
Summer, and Frost, are the common northern kinds. 
The youngsters in Southern States will find also the 
r.ullace-grape, and those in Texas will find the Mustang- 
grape and others. Pretty much all the grapes that aro 
grown out of doors east of the Rocky Mountains arc* 
cultivated forms of these wild torts, while west of the 
mountains, especially in California, they can raise in the 
open air the choice European kinds that at the cast are 
only grown in glass houses. But what do bojs and girls 
who can get their grapes from the woods care about the 
cultivated kinds? The Fox-grapes are " foxy," and the 
others may be sour or puckcry, but they taste better than 
the choicest products of the hot-house. Do you know 
why? They arc the product of your own exertions, and: 
while you have been gathering them you have been gath- 
ering health and strength, yon have enjoyed the peaco 
and beauty of a perfect autumn day, and the joyous com- 
panionship of those without whom the day and the 
grapes would be as nothing. By all means let all the 
boys and girls everywhere go a grape-ga the ring. 
