54 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
inferior to the garden radish of the West, being tough, 
and not of an agreeable flavor. When boiled, they are 
quite insipid, having nothing of the flavor of the white 
turnip or ruta baga. ' 
I shall embrace the first opportunity of sending you 
seeds of both the foregoing varieties, but have great doubts 
about these reaching you in good condition, as I cannot 
get the metal cases in which to seal them hermetically, 
nor can Wardian cases be procured here, as there is not a 
pane of glass in the whole empire. 
Very little attention is paid to the cultivation of fruit in 
this country ; the cherry and plum tree produces magnifi- 
cent blossoms, but they bear very little fruit, and that 
little is worthless. Peaches are for inferior to those of 
China, being quite bitter, and the same remark will apply 
io the apricot. 
I have seen only one variety of pears ; they are in all 
shapes and colors, and are quite like a russet apple, but they 
are unfit to eat raw, and when cooked are quite insipid. 
The best grapes of Japan resemble the Catawba in ap- 
pearance, but aie inferior to that variety. - 
The only fruit I have seen in Japan that particularly 
merits notice is the Icali, a variety of Diospyros, and be- 
longing to the order of Ebenacee ; it is really worthy of 
being introduced into the United States. Quite a number 
ol sorts have been brought to me ; one has a skin as thin 
as tissue paper, and the pulp resembles the Egyptian fig 
in flavor. Another variety has a thick rind, and a finer 
pulp than the sort first mentioned, while the taste strongly 
reminds me of the flavor of the delicious mango of Siam 
and Bombay. The tree is very ornamental, and of rapid 
growth. It would, no doubt, succeed in any part of the 
United States south of 37° of latitude. Unlike the per- 
simmon of the United States, there is very little astringen- 
cy in the skin of the fruit, and frost, which matures the 
persimmon, greatly injures the kali. This fruit varies in 
size, but is always larger than its American relative, and 
some are seven inches in diameter. The fruit is in sea- 
son nearly three months. When dried, it resembles the 
dried Smyrna fig in taste. 
I send you a few seeds of the kali, under this covering, 
thinkiug that they may possibly germinate, after.they reach 
Washington, and knowing that they will only cause a 
trifling addition to the postage of my letter. 
1 am, very respectfully, your ob’t servant, 
Townsend Harris, 
Consular General. 
To the Commissioner of the Patent ( hUce, Washington. 
PROFITS OF AN ORCHARD. 
It is reported that one of our farmers in the neighbor- 
hood ot Nashville, has this fall, after making a large 
amount of cider and vineger from his orchard, sold the 
balance of his apples to a New Yorker for $‘900, and the 
New Yorker claims that he will realize six thousand dol- 
lars by the operation 
We suppose there is little doubt of his being able to do 
it. The orchard consists of some 5,000 trees that have 
just come into bearing fhe enterprising proprietor has 
twelve thousand trees already set out, and will soon have 
an orchard that will yield him an immense revenue. 
One hundred acres of orchard will contain some six 
thousand trees, and they will yield enough the sixth year 
after planting to pay all expenses, of trees, planting and 
cultivation. When in full bearing, they will furnish some 
three barrels of apples to the tree every other year. If 
the orchard is on any of our railroads the apples will 
nett two dollars a barrel, or six dollars to the tree, which 
will be equal to three dollars to the tree every year. 
Thus we see the handsome annual income from 100 acres, 
or an orchard of 0,000 trees, of eighteen thousand dollars. 
If those statements are exaggerated by one-half, it will be 
seen at a glance, that nothing promises half so well. But 
there are a thousand facts that prove this estimate below 
instead of above, the reality. 
Tennessee has a position among her sister States, that 
enables her to supply them with many valuable things, 
but the day will come, when her fruit and vintage will 
be one of her most pleasant and profitable sources of in- 
come, and the market cannot be overstocked. — Home- 
stead. 
DOMESTIC- WINES. 
The rapid progress which vine culture is making in 
this country is one of the best guarantees against the se- 
rious evils of intemperance, and this progress cannot fail, 
ere long, to give cheap wines. American champagne is 
gradually obtaining the reputation of being the purest ef- 
fervescing wine in the world, and if, as Mr. Longworth 
says, we have five thousand varieties of native grapes — 
all of them free from the oidium, or grape disease, which 
is spreading over every coiner of Europe — it will be seen 
that the West has in reserve an enormous field of produc- 
tiveness to fall back on, as population grows dense, and 
profitable investment for capital is required 
There is an absurd idea prevalent that wine cannot be 
profitably raised in this country ; that labor is too dear, 
and European opposition too great. On the contrary, 
wine raising is at this instant the most profitable branch 
of agriculture in America. It will pay from one to three 
hundred dollars an acre, yielding a higher profit on capi- 
tal, skill and labor invested, than any other planting. 
The wines which can be most easily raised are, like 
those of Germany, light and very inocuous. We often 
hear it said that there is no drunkenness in France but 
drunkenness is even rare among the wine drinking Ger- 
mans of the Rhine. Liebig, the great chemist, declares 
that these people, far from being injured by their wine, 
owe to it the health for which they are so famous, there 
being no place in the world where there is so little de- 
mand for apothecaries’ wares. But the reader will recol- 
lect that those wines are very different from those of other 
nations, being no more intoxicating to those familiar with 
them than common claret When attention is more gen- 
et ally devoted to wine culture, we shall probably see wine 
as cheap here as cider, and strychnine whiskey and fight- 
ing brandy at a discount. Excessive use of ardent spirits 
is a great cause of national suffering; anything whieh will 
do away with it, or modify it, can hardly fail to be regard- 
ed as a blessing — Pefersburs; Express. 
CURIOUS MODE OF GRAFTING THE PEAR. 
The French, it is well known, says the Country Gen- 
tleman, are very expert in grafting and budding, including 
tomatoes on potatoes, cucumbers and other singular 
plants — sometimes for profit ; at others, apparently more 
to show to what extent the art can be applied. Another 
singular practice has just come to light, through tho me- 
diuiH of a correspondent to the English Gardener's Chron- 
icle, which is the working of flower buds of the pear, ta- 
ken from bearing trees, on to barren ones. The extract 
reads : — 
“ The finest Pears exhibited (Paris Hort. Exhibition) 
were produced from flower buds, which had been insert- 
ed on barren spurs of other trees during the previous au- 
tumn. The method of budding is called by the French, 
“ Greffes de boutons a fruit,” which to me was a novelty 
in horticultural manipulation, The whole spurs were cut 
from the trees, to show the buds inserted, which latter 
had produced no wood shoots, but only the fine fruit in 
