1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
63 
in these swamps. The tree is a mature looking- 
one from its very youth. I see everywhere lit¬ 
tle ones, not more than ten feet high, which 
have all the style of a mountain monarch of a 
hundred years old and eighty feet in liiglit. 
We think they will make beautiful lawn trees; 
and but for the assurance of everybody we have 
spoken to, that we cannot transplant an oak, we 
would have tried it. Year before last a large 
one, sav 30 feet high, and having a diameter of 
14 inclres at the stem, blew over. I>s roots had 
been cut off upon one side by a ditch, made 
within a few feet of it. The prostrate tree did 
not wither; and although the mass of roots 
and earth adhering to them was exposed to sun 
and wind all summer and winter, it leaved out in 
the spring, and remained green the second sea¬ 
son, notwithstanding the drouth. This fact 
encourages me to try to transplant some next 
spring, and I suggest the experiment to your 
readers. X. 
Hints on Grape Culture. 
BY KEYSTONE, ERIE CO., PA. 
As to soil and site I shall say but little, only 
to have them high and dry; both, if possible—- 
the latter, at all events. I have found that 
grapes will bear any thing but too much water; 
in fact, I never yet saw them suffer for want of 
it, when intelligently cared for or wholly neg¬ 
lected, but have, in one or two instances, known 
of vines being injured by extreme summer 
pruning, and the damages charged to the drouth. 
At this age of grape culture I do not think it 
necessary to waste words on this part of the 
subject. A comparison of the extreme wet sea¬ 
son of 1869 with the extreme dry one of 1870 
leaves no chance for argument. Such extremes 
are seldom experienced, but, as teachers, are 
worthy of our closest scrutiny. 
As to varieties I would be more explicit. 
Having had above thirty varieties under culti¬ 
vation for several years, I can speak positively 
and favorably of only three in addition to the 
old standards—Isabella, Catawba, and Clinton. 
These are Concord, Hartford, and Ives. Some 
others have doue well in favorable seasons, but 
these have invariably done well. Have stood 
the test of 20° below zero in winter, and 94° 
above in summer; the deluging rains of 1869, 
and the drouth of 1870; and have paid then- 
way handsomely eveiy season since the first 
bearing year. It is true the quality is not best , 
but so long as nine out of ten consumers judge 
by sight rather than taste, these varieties will 
sell at paying prices. They can be grown at 
half the cost of Delawares and Ionas, while 
they now command nearly as much per pound 
in market as the latter. We are told that this 
state of things will not always exist; but my 
convictions are that no planter will live long 
enough to regret his choice if he plant acres 
of these varieties. I know the market is some¬ 
times overstocked with grapes of these varieties 
in bad condition, but it is because of their bad 
condition and not from a lack of excellence in 
the fruit. I have tested this many times by put¬ 
ting such fruit on the market in good condition, 
and realizing more than market quotations, 
with a ready sale. 
I would not discourage I lie planting of new 
varieties. In fact, “test vines” of all of them 
are desirable; but the certain, regular income 
from reliable varieties is What growers want, 
and must have. When these test vines prove 
themselves worthy, adopt them if a grain ahead 
of the old ones, but not until then. 
What few hints I have given, if well heeded, 
would have saved me some money, besides a 
good deal of vexation, and I give them to save 
others the same ordeal. 
Depth of Covering for Cranberry Bogs. 
The planting of cranberry bogs is greatly on 
the increase, and in some communities amounts 
to a fever. Cape Cod and Ocean County will 
no longer have a monopoly of the business. 
The industry no longer needs inspiration, but 
guidance only. Some ten years since, a patch 
of six or eight acres was planted in Essex, Ct. 
It has produced excellent crops so uniformly, 
that it has made a great many converts in all 
that region ; and now capitalists are buying up 
suitable land, and laying out large sums in pre¬ 
paring it for planting. Much has been learned 
during the past twenty years, and the experi¬ 
ence of intelligent cultivators has settled so 
many points in the management of the crop, 
that it is no longer regarded as a hazardous ex¬ 
periment. Capital is put into it with just as 
much assurance of ample and safe returns, as 
from ordinary market garden or farm crops. It 
has been settled that the three grand requisites 
for the successful cultivation of the cranberry 
are peat, sand or gravel, and capacity for flow- 
age at will. Cranberries can be grown with 
some variation of these requisites, but not with 
uniform success. They will grow in almost 
any swamp that produces moss, maples, and 
swamp whortleberries, but the crop will be 
sniall and often fail. They can be planted on 
the bare peat, but there will be more vines than 
berries. The vines will grow without flowage, 
but the fruit will often be destroyed by the frost 
and by the worms. But where the three re¬ 
quisites are all present, there is still occasion for 
inquiry and deliberation. What depth of sand 
or gravel is now a question of great impor¬ 
tance, for it involves the outlay of many thou¬ 
sand dollars the coming season. Some say three 
inches, and some say six. Capt. Z. Small, of 
Harwich, Mass., the best authority we have on 
Cape-Cod cranberry culture, says three or six 
inches, according to the character of the bog. 
At the Grass Pond bog, in Coventry, R I., it is 
three inches, and that without skinning; and 
the cost is only about fifty dollars per acre for 
the preparation. The cost of six inches, with 
skinning, is from three to five hundred dollars 
per acre, according to the facility^ of getting 
sand, price of labor, etc. We shall get a cleat- 
view of the merits of this question if we con¬ 
sider the office which sand performs in the 
growth of the crop. The first object is to keep 
down the growth of all other vegetation until 
the cranberry vines are thoroughly established, 
and completely cover the ground. This takes 
three years where the vines are put out in hills, 
eighteen inches apart each way. If clean, silver 
sand or dead gravel is put on, few weeds or 
none will start, and the labor of hoeing is but a 
trifle. No cultivation is needed if there are no 
weeds. Now, if the sand has been spread upon 
a bare peat, that is, a peat bog skinned six or 
eight inches deep, three inches are just as good 
as six, so far as checking weeds is concerned. 
But the sand or gravel is also needed to check 
the growth of the vines after they are estab¬ 
lished. If the soil is too rich beneath the sand, 
the plants will run too much to vine and too 
little to fruit. If the bog is made up of decayed 
moss principally, three inches are enough. If it 
has grown maples and other hard-wood plants, 
it will be too rich, and more depth of sand is 
needed to keep down the luxuriance of the 
vines. At Coventry, the bog is mainly the bed 
of an old pond that never grew any thing but 
moss and co-arse, thin grass. The vines are not 
too luxuriant to yield, in favorable years, a bar¬ 
rel to the square rod. Another office of the 
sand is to retain heat, and thus guard against 
frost in June and August. It is well known 
that in the low places, where this plant flour¬ 
ishes, there are often light frosts, when there is 
none upon upland. Of course more heat will 
be retained in a covering of six inches of sand 
than in a covering of three, and a plantation 
might be saved from frost with the deeper cov¬ 
ering, where otherwise it would be ruined ; but 
if "we have the control of water, we can keep 
off frost much cheaper with water than with 
sand. We notice that capitalists who are mak¬ 
ing plantations this season have generally cov¬ 
ered with six inches of sand, without regard to 
the quality of their swamp land. This, to be 
sure, is the safer course, but we think from one 
to tw r o hundred dollars an acre might often be 
saved in the covering, by a little discrimination 
in the character of the soil. 
The Florists and Nurserymen’s Black List. 
(BY A NEW-YORK FLORIST.) 
The magnitude of the business of horticul¬ 
ture is now such that it embraces many thou¬ 
sands of individuals, and, like all other trades, 
many unprincipled men are engaged in it. 
From its nature it has penetrated to every sec¬ 
tion of the country. Seeds, plants, and trees are 
sent to every town worthy of a name. In these 
towns dealers soon spring up that buy from the 
wholesale dealers ; the great majority of these 
are upright and honorable men; but as in all 
other occupations, there is the usual proportion 
of black 6heep. It is to these gentlemen I wish 
to refer. 
For the purpose of preventing the operations 
of these gentry, a meeting was held in New 
York on the 3d of December last, which was 
largely attended by the principal seedsmen and 
florists of the vicinity. After an interchange of 
views, it was resolved to request all respectable 
men .engaged in any department of the whole¬ 
sale business, to hand into the secretary the 
name and address of any man known to be un¬ 
worthy of credit; in short, to form a “ black 
list” for mutual protection. This list is to be 
sent to all men of known good standing in the 
trade. This mode of protection is not new 
among wholesale dealers in the various trades, 
and the necessity for it in ours was well shown 
by one of the members present. He related the 
case of receiving a letter from Galveston, Texas, 
in August, 1869, ordering goods to the value of 
$50. The character of the order led the nur¬ 
seryman to believe that the party sending it was 
an amateur who did not know the rules of busi¬ 
ness, as ho remittance was made, nor any thing 
said about payment; making allowance for this, 
he deviated from the usual rule, and sent the 
goods before receiving the money. In three 
weeks a draft was received for the full amount, 
accompanied by a complimentary letter thanking 
the nurseryman for the fine quality of the goods 
sent, and promising further orders. The next 
October this same genlleman wrote to a leading 
seedsman in Philadelphia, and referred him to 
the New-York nurseryman for his standing. Of 
course the New Yorker had no reason to think 
him dishonest, and reported accordingly. The 
