4r22 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[NOVEMBER, 
at a distance or from a near point of view, and 
its size much exceeds that of any we have seen 
recorded. Mr. Peter Henderson has been very 
successful with this plant at Jersey City, as lias 
Mr. Cliitty at Paterson. Both these gentlemen 
made the mistake of following the recommen- 
dation of the English growers, and planting it 
in masses, while Mr. Sargent's is a single plant, 
standing against a background of green. 
The "Willow-leaved Amaranth is destined to 
become very popular now that this year's expe- 
rience has shewn the conditions of success and 
failure. It should be always grown in single 
specimens, and, as suggested in a former article, 
never be checked in any manner in its growth. 
•-. — «••— _■. 
Notes from the Pines. 
Melons. — The past season has been an un- 
favorable one for melons. There was not so 
much trouble from insects as usual, but the fre- 
quent rains about the time of ripening prevented 
them from acquiring proper sweetness. Of a 
dozen or more varieties that were tried, Ward's 
Nectar was by far the best. I thought this 
could not be excelled, but 
James Vice sent me a basket of fruit from 
Rochester that quite took the conceit out of me. 
It is a variety which he has cultivated for twenty 
years without a name. Wo might express its 
excellence, and in a manner associate the grow- 
er's name with it, by calling it Vic(JSijtor. 
Strawberries hava during the past summer 
been sadly injured by the white grub. The 
vine3 were mulched, and the Ogden Parmer, 
who was here one day, thought that the mulch 
attracted the grub. I can't see why, as they 
•ften attack vine3 that never were mulched. 
Centahrea Clementii, of which I received 
a specimen from Mr. H. E. Cliitty, of Bellevue 
Nursery, Paterson, N. J., promises to be very 
effective in garden decoration. It has not such 
finely-cut leaves as C. gymnocarpa, but it is 
whiter, and of a remarkably graceful habit. It 
is fine for baskets and vases. 
Brackets are useful things where one wishes 
to train vines of any kind against the house. 
It is bad for both vines and house to nail 
direct]}' to the siding. I use iron brackets which 
project about four inches. One being placed 
above and the other below, a wire is stretched 
between them, and the climber tied to the wire. 
In this way the plant is kept from contact with 
the building, and has a free circulation all around 
it. The brackets may he had at the hardware 
stores, at wholesale, for five or six cents each. 
They are also very convenient for stretching 
wire3 horizontally. 
Autjndo Donax, the variegated form, has 
grown taller with me this season than I have 
before seen it. Quite ten feet high, and flower- 
ing. A large clump of it, surrounded by a row 
ofCaladium esculenlum, made an odd combina- 
tion, but an exceedingly effective bed. 
Sowing Seeds of herbaceous perennials is 
done at last. It was near the end of September 
before I could find time, and woul 1 have been 
rather late had I not sown in boxes which are 
put into a cold-frame. Those who have tried 
sowing flower-seeds in shallow boxes will not 
sow many in the open ground. A shallow box 
two or three inches deep is used. A grocer's 
soap-box will make two or three. The box can 
be placed on the work-bench, and the sowing 
«lone much more carefully and neatly than 
when one is obliged to stoop — to say nothing of 
avoiding the backache. In weeding and re- 
moving the plants for pricking out, the box can 
be taken to any convenient place, and the work 
done more expeditiously and more at ease than 
when the young plants are in the open border. 
A Sowing Board is very convenient with 
scarce and valuable seeds. I do not know who 
first proposed it, but I am much obliged to him 
for the hint. It is a strip of any thin smooth 
board that will just go across the box. With 
seeds so rare that one wishes to make every one 
tell, they are laid upon the board and moved 
one by oue towards the edge at regular dis- 
tances apart. When the seeds are placed just 
as it is desired to have them in the soil, they arc 
carefully pushed off one by one into a little 
drill previously made for them. It does not 
take half so long to do it as* it does to de- 
scribe it. 
Making Drills for small seeds is best done 
by pressing the edge of a lath or thin board 
into the previously-smoothed soil. This makes 
a drill that is perfectly smooth at the bottom — 
where the seeds can be distinctly seen, and if 
the sowing is not properly even it can be made 
so, which can not well be done in a rough drill 
made by scratching the soil. 
That Chotote. — Last spring there was in- 
troduced at the Farmers' Club, under the absurd 
name of "Mexican Bread-fruit," and as a new 
discover}', a member of the Squash family, the 
Chocho or Choyote, Sechium edule. It is a very 
common plant in the West Indies and other 
tropical countries, and has been known and 
grown for ages. It has succeeded in some of 
the Gulf States, but is entirely useless with us. 
I obtained a plant through the kindness of the 
gentleman who brought it before the Club, and 
planted it out. It was carefully protected by 
glass until hot weather came, and barely re- 
mained alive for several weeks. When it started 
to run, how it did go! It was said to require 
an area of 18 feet — better say 180. Wishing to 
give it every opportunity to do its best, I checked 
it but very little. If frost does not come pretty 
soon I shall have to give up the whole place 
to it. It runs worse than a member of Con- 
gress. It is on the tomato trellises, it is in the 
pear-trees, it covers the pig-pen, it drapes a high 
rail-fence, and is invading my neighbor's pre- 
mises. One branch is headed straight for New 
York, where it may arrive if the season is long 
enough. It is now the first week in October, 
and as no flower has yet shown itself, the pros- 
pect of fruit can not be regarded as encouraging. 
Grapes have on the whole done well with 
me this year, and I will give my experience 
with some of the important varieties, but as this 
article is rather long the grape talk had better go 
in a separate one. 
Grapes at the Pines. 
Geography. — About ten miles north-west of 
New York. Topography. — The bunks of a 
fresh-water river, and about 25 feet above it. 
Soil. — A very light sandy loam. Climate. — 
Much mixed, especially last winter. This is the 
third year of most of the vines of my little 
vineyard, though I have p. few old vines. 
Concord ha? been better than usual, which I 
attribute to the fact that there have been so few 
insects to injure the foliage. 
Martha. — "You want Martha." Perhaps 
"you" do, but I do not. Its only claim to 
popularity is its being white; for the rest, it is a 
very sweet, pasty, bad-flavored fruit. It bore 
well, and half the crop was left on the vines as 
not worth the trouble of picking, when there 
were so many better grapes. 
Black Ilawlc. — I have had this vine for five 
years, and have at last succeeded in seeing the 
fruit. Why was this variety ever sent out ? It 
is a fox, of the poorest kind, without a single 
good quality, except very robust foliage. 
Wilder. — This is one of the Rogers hybrids 
(No. 4), and like all of that set is a most rampant 
grower. The fruit with me has been very fine, 
both bunch and berry of good size, and the 
quality satisfactory. I think that this variety 
will contest with the Concord for popularity. 
It seems to have all the good qualities of that 
variety while it is of finer appearance. 
Barry (which is Rogers's No. 43) set a good 
crop of fruit, but it began to drop before it was 
fairly ripe. 
Essex. — A great bearer of large brownish ber- 
ries, with no especial quality to commend them. 
Salem does not seem disposed to fruit with me. 
I have vines three and six years old, and not a 
good bunch upon either. 
Ices set a full crop, but not a berry ripened ; 
they all cracked and rotted just when they 
should begin to color. I was surprised at this, 
as it has been considered the surest of grapes. 
Mr. S. B. Parsons raises it in great perfection at 
Flushing. It is popular at the West as a win* 
grape, and some value if for the table, but in my 
estimation it is inferior to the Concord. 
Creveling has the disadvantage of not making 
a good bunch, but aside from this it lias hardly 
a fault. The fruit ripens early, is of excellent 
quality, and keeps well upon the vine. Its 
straggling bunch unfits it for a market grape, 
but for home use it has few superiors. 
Eumtlan mildews worse than any variety I 
have. There are some twenty vines, three year* 
old, which lost their leaves before the small crop 
was ripe. A vine, six years old, gave a fair 
crop. It often makes a poor bunch, but those on 
my old vine were sufficiently full. Quality fine. 
Senasqua and Croton were both badly cut 
back by the winter, but the first-named bore a 
small crop. It is earlier than I supposed, and 
as to quality I consider it the best black grape 
in the market. 
Walter set a few bunches, but the leaves mil- 
dewed. 
Delaware. — This needs a rich soil, but it will 
do well on a poor one after the vine gets large. 
It is so good that it is worth waiting for. 
The Potato-Rot. 
The disastrous effects of the potato-rot this 
year in England — three fourths of the crop be- 
ing destroyed — will awaken an interest iu the 
matter in this country. Probably few of the 
active cultivators of the present day recollect 
the former visitation of this scourge and the 
descriptions then given of it. In view of the 
possible appearance of this destructive disease 
among us — for the last lime its advent here 
followed close upon that in Europe — we will 
endeavor to briefly state what it is. 
The potato-rot is caused by a minute fungus 
— Peronospora infestans — a. statement which 
conveys but little information, and we are at 
once met by the difficulty of explaining it to 
the average reader who has not studied the 
form of vegetation to which the fungus belongs. 
The fungus affects the potato leaf, stem, and 
tuber. Let us assume that these, as are all other 
vegetables, are made up of cells, small closed 
