88 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Our Grape Arbor 
Last Spring we put up a Grape Arbor with a 
fixture at the far end of it, to screen a rather un¬ 
sightly, and always unpleasant building, which 
chanced to be located by a former proprietor, right 
in the center of the prettiest part of the garden, 
and which could not well be changed to any more 
convenient, and yet out-of-the-way place. This 
Arbor has been so well liked by others, in short, 
we have been so well pleased with it ourselves, 
that we give the above sketch of it as one model 
for others. Only the rear and three panels are 
shown. There are eight panels in all, running up 
;o within a few feet of the dwelling. The whole 
ength is sixty feet. Fourteen grape vines—seven 
>n each side—are planted to be trained over it. 
The square screen in the rear will be covered the 
present season with sundry trailing plants set out 
.ast year. 
The general structure is so well shown in the 
engraving as to need little description. We give 
the Carpenter’s figures as a guide to construction, 
though any other proportions may be adopted. 
Arbor .—The posts are pine, upon locust foot or 
ground pieces. Hight of the posts above the 
ground level, 7 feet. Width of the Arbor, 6 feet. 
The arch pieces are in the form of an Ogee ; the 
center spring, or hight of the top of the arch 
above the plates, 2 ft. 4 inches. These are ter¬ 
minated at the top by tips sawn out. In building, 
again we would turn these tips round and larger. 
The arch pieces are cut from 1J- inch boards, 4 
inches in width. The horizontal pieces upon the 
sides and top, are 2 inches wide. 
Screen —This is 8 feet square, with three pan¬ 
els of lattice work upon each side, made of planed 
laths. Hight of the screen to the plates, 8 feet 
3 inches. Hip roof, with Ogee arches, and a bird- 
house upon the center, 6 sided, 10 inches in dia¬ 
meter, and 10 inches to the roof. Just far enough 
back from the entrance to allow passing round it, 
is a large two-panel screen (not shown) which 
stands against and hides the privy, so that looking 
down the Arbor, nothing but lattice-work is 
seen. 
The whole cost of the Arbor and screen, in¬ 
cluding painting white, was $65. The cost will 
of course depend upon the size, finish, and 
economy of time and material in construction. 
The grape vine borders are of course upon the 
outside of the Arbor. Upon the inside is a walk, 
3 feet wide, rounded in the middle, laid with cob¬ 
ble stones gathered from the garden. Upon each 
side of the walk is a row of box edging, leaving 
flower borders 18 inches wide. 
The borders were set with a variety of flowers 
last season, but after the grape vines produce a 
heavy shade, only these varieties can be grown 
which will flourish without full sunlight 
--—aS^Ea--- 
Hew Grapes. 
We are pleased to note the increasing interest 
shown in the introduction of new, hardy grapes, 
and we intend to keep our readers posted in ref¬ 
erence to all of real merit that come within our 
knowledge. 
THE LOGAN GRAPE. 
Our attention has lately been called to this new 
Western variety, named from the county in Ohio 
where it is supposed to have originated, and in 
compliment to the memory of the celebrated 
Mingo chief of that name. It has been propagated, 
as yet, only to a small extent, but sufficiently so, 
it is thought, to test its hardiness, early maturi¬ 
ty, productiveness and its excellence forthe table. 
The vine grows rapidly, the wood is short-jointed, 
the young shoots presenting a peculiar, grey ap¬ 
pearance, as if withered and nearly dead. Under 
good cultivation, the clusters are large, but with 
ordinary management, of only medium size. The 
berries are jet black, with a blue bloom. The 
fruit is said to ripen before the Isabella, and 
by many is preferred to that, but we very much 
doubt whether it will rank above that standard 
variety. Mr. Hovey, of Boston, says that at 
the Annual Exhibition of the Massachusetts Hor¬ 
ticultural Society, in September last, “it appear¬ 
ed to be riper than the Delaware at the same 
time.” He represents it as “ of good quality.” 
In the Horticulturist for January, Mr. Samuel 
Miller, an extensive grape grower in Pennsylva¬ 
nia, speaks of it as “ quite early : bunch and ber¬ 
ry of good size ; sweet and excellent.” 
THE WINSLOW GRAPE. 
This has lately been brought to public notice by 
Dr. Kirtland, of Ohio. He says of it that the ber¬ 
ries are small, and arranged in oblong, compact 
bunches ; color coal black, resembling somewhat 
Miller’s Burgundy ; the pulp and flavor much like 
the Clinton, though superior. It was raised from 
seed by a gentleman in Cleveland. The wood is 
smnll, short-jointed, and ripens well before Winter, 
and is perfectly hardy. It ripens its fruit two 
weeks before the Diana. 
From the above account, which makes it only 
a little superior to the Clinton, we should not 
think it of great value, except for extreme nor¬ 
thern latitudes, where the finer sorts will not 
ripen. Bo we hope to hear further from it. 
Snatches of Science, In-door—I. 
We have learned to look upon the Dining, 
Kitchen and Wash rooms of a house as only a 
counterpart of a chemical laboratory. In both of 
these establishments, are carried on the chemi¬ 
cal operations of solution, composition, decom¬ 
position, change of form, the application of the 
laws of reaction, chemical affinity, &c.—with this 
difference only, that in one the operations are 
guided by scientific knowledge, in the other by 
rote, or too often by chance. Mixing and baking 
bread and pastry is very like compounding acids 
and bases, and changing their form by heat. Wash¬ 
ing or cleansing is akin to the making of solutions 
by the chemist in his retorts or beaker glasses. 
Both are really chemical operations, and a know¬ 
ledge of the principles involved, are necessary to 
their pleasurable and most successful performance. 
And these principles may, nay, should be under¬ 
stood by the intelligent housewife, though per¬ 
chance her cooking manipulator Bridget, may 
know no more of them than Prof. Silliman’s col¬ 
ored man, who washed his apparatus, and indeed 
did most of his work, ksew of chemistry. 
The field is so extensive that we scarcely know 
at what point to enter it first..... .If we go into 
the kitchen the fust thing that meets our eye—in 
the pail, in the kettle, in the tub, indeed every¬ 
where—is 
WATER. 
What is water! “Why, what a simple ques¬ 
tion 1 Water is—is—is water. That’s all.” 
Yes, but it is a curious, as well as important thing. 
Were the reader present we could show her that 
it is not a simple substance. To say nothing, 
now, of the great amount of foreign materials, 
even in the purest liquid we commonly use, every 
tiny drop of water is itself a compound body 
made up of two other substances—both of therr- 
gasses, (that is, air-like bodies,) and both of them 
very different from water itself. Every 9 pounds 
of water contains 8 pounds of a very singular 
substance {oxygen), which is the element in air 
that makes the fire to burn; while the other pound 
(hydrogen), is that lightest of all gaseous bodies 
with which balloons are sometimes filled,to make 
them rise in the air. These two air-like sub¬ 
stances, when separated and then brought to¬ 
gether, burn with the most intense heat; and in 
the very act of burning, they combine and con¬ 
dense into water, which is the best extinguisher 
of fire itself. Could you see these experiments 
performed, it would, perhaps, add interest to the 
liquid you are hourly using for so many pur 
poses. 
PURE WATER. 
Take the purest spring or well water, and put 
a few drops upon a clean glass plate, dry it over 
the fire, and it will leave a dirt stain, which wiF 
be quite visible on holding the glass up before a 
strong light. Very little water is so pure as not 
to leave a spoonful or two of earthy sediment 
on the bottom of a kettle, when a few pailfuls 
are evaporated or boiled away. So, also, set a 
vessel of clear water aside for a few days, in a 
warm place, and it will become stale or putrid 
from the decay of minute animals, and of vege¬ 
table matter found in all well or spring water. 
But no sediment will be left on evaporating rain 
water, or condensed steam upon the glass plate. 
Distilled water is that obtained by condensing 
steam. Rain water is simply distilled water that 
has risen from the earth in vapor, and returned 
in the condensed form of rain, with no impuritea 
