SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR, 
313 
hardy. Of all the Pears cultivated at present as leading 
varieties, a few only can be traced as far back as Duhamel 
or even Poiteau, (editions from 1785 to 1810 ) The 
Duchess, the Beurre Superfin, the Bcurre D’Anjou, the 
Belle Lucrative, the Clairgeau, and naany others of our 
best leading sorts, were not known twenty-five years ago, 
I have hundreds of seedlings, selected from among thou- 
sands, with which I would not part for any consideration, 
so sure do I feel that some day they must take the place 
of such varieties as I do not consider perfectly adapted 
to our latitude or to our wants. We must have hardy, 
beautiful, vigorous, productive trees, easily cultivated in 
all soils, and more easily kept in the right form and shape, 
with good or best and large fruit. What the last twenty 
or thirty years of experiments or good chances have done 
in that way, will be nothing compared to what is at pre- 
sent going on in our great Union. Seedlings are brought 
to notice every season from Maine to Alabama, 
It has been my good fortune to be connected with many 
influential and well informed gentlemen, and thus to have 
got a chance to test nearly all the novelties, here in the 
South at the same time that they are submitted to the 
judgment of amateurs in other parts of the Union. Let 
us not judge the Cultivation of the Pear by the worthless 
varieties which have induced people to say Pears will not 
do in (no matter what State;) it was the same in 
all States. When I first became acquainted in New Jer- 
sey, I was told ‘ Pears would not do well just there,” and 
now Professor Mapes, Dr. Ward, Wm. Ried, and many 
others, realise handsome profits, and have fine, almost 
certain crops every year. And why I Because they 
wisely discarded the old, sickly and run-out varieties of 
the old catalogues, when Pear culture was In its infancy, 
and took to the new sorts endowed with all the vigor, 
beauty and fertility of renovated products. 
I have thu* far spoken of the Pear Tree as a producer, 
in competition with the other fruit-producing trees of our 
latitude; but if we come from the orchard to the garden, 
we will find the Pear Tree the most indispensable, orna- 
mental and convenient tree to be placed around dwellings 
and among our flowers and shrubbery. What is equal i» 
beauty to a well managed and sound Bartlett, Superfin, 
Michael Archangel, Suflfum or Urbanistel 
But we must conclude, and we will do so with a wish 
that more effectual and persevering efforts may be di- 
rected to this branch of rural ecomomy. In a climate and 
with such a soil as ours, we must have the best Pears, as 
we have already the best Peaches and Grapes, to say 
nothing of our delicious Apples, We have the choice of 
localities, plenty of room, and the means to try experi- 
ments. We shall net remain behind, when all the North, 
much less favored by nature and climate, is fully alive to 
the importance of this question. 
PEAR ON THE HAW STOCK. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— In reply to your cor- 
respondent, Mr. J. H. Johnson, of Marshall county, Ala , 
I will state, that all haws having red berries will take the 
Pear and Apple readily. The brown and the black berry 
haw, I have never tried, but think it probable that these 
might take also, 
1 graft the haw stock of medium size by scraping the 
ground so as to insert the graft just about, or a little below, 
the surface. Thorns of large size I saw off the stocK 
some three or four feet above the ground, and insert two 
grafts; these generally take readily and come sooner to 
maiunty. 1 have tried different varieties of Peur on the 
haw ar.d have never failed of sutxess. For further par 
ticulars I must refer your ^•,orres^Jon<^ent, Mr, J , to your 
corresiiondent of Torch Hill, Ga., “the King of Pears.” 
D. P. 
Mount Zion, Ga., Sept., 1850, 
THE SCUPPERNONH A TRUE NATIVE GRAPE, 
«fec. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In your September 
number, page 278, under the caption of “Grape Culture 
in Florida,” you publish an extract from J. Fiske 
Allen’s “Practical Treatise on the Culture and Manag- 
ment of the Grape Vine,” containing extracts of two let- 
ters from “Plon. A. G. Semmes,” of Florida, to the author 
of that book. 
Some of the statements of the enormous growth of grafts 
of the foreign vine in the first season up to the end of 
June, and the size of clusters (8 1-2 pounds) on a graft 1 
of Muscat, of Alexandia, seem almost incredible to us 
who, living further north, have never had experience of 
what a Florida sun can do. 
There is one statement, however, given with a good 
dear of positiveness, which we cannot suffer to pass un- 
noticed, as conveying error, and only serving to create 
more confusion and uncertainty, in the history and no- 
menclature of our American grapes. When such state- 
ments get into books written expressly for instruction, 
and by those who profess themselves competent to in- 
struct, they become fair subjects of criticism. 
“Among the native varieties, the most valuable, I con- 
sider the Scuppernong, which cannot be cultivated at the 
North. It is claimed to be a native of North Carolina. 
This is a mistake. It is a Grecian Grape, known there as 
the Alaric, and from which the finest wines of Greece are 
made.” 
This is the first and only time we have ever heard the 
parentage and nationality of the Scuppernong brought 
into question. Its history is so recent, and the fact of its 
having originated in North Carolina so universally ad- 
mitted, that it would have been superfluous to reiterate it, 
except for the sake of counteracting this erroneous state- 
men. Were its history entirely unknown, its Botanical 
character at once and forever settles the question of its 
origin. 
All the grapes of Europe and Asia are hermaphrodite 
in their inflorescence — this is, they bear perfect or fertile 
flowers, with stamens and pistils inclosed in the same 
corolla. All the American grapes are dicecio-polygam- 
ous— that is, some vines bear a staminate or barren flow- 
ers ; others perfect or fertile flowers. Those who have 
planted the Scuppernong know that the seedlings come 
under the decisive characteristic of American vines. 
Between the Scuppernong as now cultivated, and the 
wild Bullace, Bullet or Bull Grape of the woods, vitU vul- 
pina, Linn., ( V rotundifolia Af*.) there is no botanical 
difference, and any competent botanist in any part of the 
world, with specimens of the tw’o before him in all stages 
of their growth, flowering and maturing of the fruit, would, 
so pronounce. 1 he color and flavor of the berry, in 
which only it differs from these in the woods, are acciden- 
tal qualities, originating in some “sport of nature” and the 
vine having these qualities Ifes been propagated by grafts, 
cuttings and layers. If a seed of the Scuppernong is 
planted, it most generally bears a dark colored berry, 
showing its tendency to revert to the original form. It is 
by the same course of reasoning that we know the par- 
entage of the Isabella, Catawba and other native grapes. 
They pieserve their botanical characters, which enable 
us to identify them with species which grow wild in our 
woods, and whether the hitiory of their exact birth place 
IS lost or not, we have characters remaining to certify of 
their American origin. 
There are one or two minor errors against which wc 
must protest before closing these remarks. They are 
given in so positive a manner that there shou'd have b ea 
no d-'ubt of their correctness, before they were committed 
to paper. 
