S80 
Cultivation of the Grape and Strawberry« 
Rearing Grapes and Strawberries. 
The following highly interesting letter from Mr. 
Longworth should be carefully read by every one en¬ 
gaged in rearing grapes and strawberries. Mr. L. has 
introduced and carefully improved, some valuable kinds 
of the native grapes, and being not only an extensive 
and practical cultivator, but also a close and intelligent 
observer of the character and habits of the delicious 
fruit upon which he treats, his statements are to be 
taken with entire confidence. 
He will please accept our thanks for this letter. We 
shall be pleased to hear frequently of the result of his 
observations and experiments on these and similar sub¬ 
jects from his own pen. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Cincinnati , September 30th , 1842. 
Gent. —The vintage is over, and the expectations 
we formed in the spring have not been realized, from 
the rot among our grapes. The season has been cold 
and wet, and I did not anticipate a rich must; but in 
this respect have been agreeably disappointed. The 
juice is as rich as at any preceding vintage. I have 
thirteen vineyards and more under way. The greatest 
yield in the county is at the vineyard managed by Mr. 
Mottier, who is well known as an intelligent, enter¬ 
prising vine dresser. He made within a fraction of 
1500 gallons. A part of the vineyard that did not suf¬ 
fer by rot, yielded 600 gallons to the acre. The next 
vineyard in its yield, is under the charge of Mr. Myers, 
an intelligent German, of much experience in the cul¬ 
tivation of the vine, and its manufacture into wine. 
There were some vineyards in the county that produced 
a more abundant crop, on the same quality of ground, 
than even Mottier’s. Mr. Hackinger had the finest 
crop I have ever seen. The crop of Mr. Reser, was 
also very abundant. I have been informed that several 
other vineyards in our county, were but little injured. 
The vine culture is yearly increasing with us, and the 
day is not distant, when the Ohio hills between the 
two Miamies, will rival the same extent on the Rhine. 
For this, we shall be chiefly indebted to our German 
emigrants; and they are gratified in stating that we 
can rival the wines of their own country. The Ca¬ 
tawba is destined to make a dry wine, equal to Hock, 
and one of my German tenants, Mr. Lock, has made 
a sparkling wine from it, equal to the -best Champaign. 
But we must not expect to succeed at first. The pro¬ 
cess of fermentation and manufacture of wine, requires 
both experience and skill, and we shall not for years 
equal the wine coopers of Europe in its manufacture. 
The dry Hock wines require but little experience and 
skill, but this is not true in respect to many of their 
finest wines. I propose this fall to send samples of 
my wines to the Horticultural Societies of our principal 
cities, in the hope that it may tend to increase the cul¬ 
ture of the grape. 
You might benefit some of your readers by drawing 
their attention to the proper cultivation of the Straw¬ 
berry. In a late number of Hovey’s Magazine, I dis¬ 
cover that Mr. Allen, of Winchester, Virginia, takes 
exceptions to a remark of mine, that I have never met 
with an English gardener who understood the cultiva¬ 
tion of the strawberry, though his own declarations in 
the next sentence, prove the truth of my observation, 
from his own want of information on the subject. I 
wrote to the Horticultural Society of London, on this 
subject* and drew their attention to it, about four years 
since, and discover that some of their late publications 
sustain my views. I do not state what I merely believe, 
but what I know, after twenty-five years’ experience, 
that it is in vain to attempt the cultivation of the 
largest and finest varieties of strawberries, without re¬ 
garding the sexes of the plants. In the Hudson, which 
is admitted to be the most valuable of all strawberries, 
it amounts to a complete separation of the sexes, and 
one acre of either alone, would not perfect a single 
fruit. 
Hovey’s Seedling, without male plants, is so de¬ 
fective in the male organs, as not to produce by itself, 
a perfect full-sized fruit. In the white and in the 
monthly varieties, the male and female organs are per¬ 
fect in the same blossom; but when this is the case, 
the fruit is never of the largest size. Wilmot’s superb, 
and some other large varieties, are perfect in the male 
organs, and so far perfect in the female organs, as to 
produce some large and perfect fruit, with many small 
deformed ones. The female of the Virginia Scarlet, 
will not, by itself, produce fruit—its male will produce 
about half a crop, of small fruit. Mr. Allen appears 
to deem that my plan might answer, when the object 
is to raise a few strawberries only, (as he presumes 
we do in the west,)but would not do at the east, where 
the object is to raise 25 or 30 bushels. My tenants 
pay but little attention to the strawberry, and merely 
cultivate some between their grape vines, in parts of 
the vineyard, but one of them sells yearly, more than 
four times the quantity named by Mr. Allen. But we 
have some individuals that I presume may compete 
with any Horticulturists about Winchester. Mr. Cul¬ 
bertson sold from his own ground, in our market last 
summer, some days 100 bushels of strawberries, prin¬ 
cipally the Hudson, and he was enabled to do this by 
his knowledge of the male and female plants, and Ins' 
attention to the subject. I am truly surprised that Mr. 
Allen, or any other horticulturist, should doubt the prin¬ 
ciple, for it is not a new theory originating with me, 
but learnt from an ignorant German female market 
gardener, who for thirty years, both at Philadelphia 
and in our own vicinity, had been celebrated for rais¬ 
ing five times as many strawberries as her neighbors, 
from the same quantity of ground, and of much larger 
size. 
On investigating the subject, I was surprised to 
find that Duchesne, Ehrhart, and Duhamel, and all 
Botanical writers on the strawberry, since the days of 
Linnaeus, fully sustained the theory and practice of the 
old woman, though I could not find a botanist among 
my acquaintance aware of the fact. For years I could 
not from one-eighth of an acre raise enough of the 
Hudson Strawberry for my own family. I can now do 
it from one-tenth part of the ground. There is one 
variety of strawberry, and one only, that I am acquaint¬ 
ed with, that produces large fruit, that is perfect in both 
the male and female organs. It is of the Pine Apple 
family, and came from the garden of Lafayette. There 
are but few who would admire the fruit. I send a 
sketch of the male and female blossom of the Hudson, 
which will equally apply to other varieties, though the 
same difference in the size of the blossom does not exist 
in all species or varieties. The most careless observer 
will at once discover the difference when the plants are 
in blossom. About one male plant will be required for 
ten of the female, and there will be a saving to have 
such males as will produce some fruit. I have a new 
variety from the prairies of Iowa, perfect in the male 
organs, and so far perfect in the female, as to produce 
a fair crop of very large fruit. I shall send some to 
Mr. Buist of Philadelphia, Mr. Thorburn of New York, 
and Mr. Hovey, of Boston, and shall with pleasure send 
plants to any person who would wish to procure them, 
if they have friends here who will call for and forward 
them. 
