1871.] 
423 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
uiug to plant orchards and vineyards, in this 
region. The high bluffs yield the most perfect 
fruit in the greatest abundance. The soil is a 
fiue loam, naturally underdrained, and was 
plowed eight or ten inches deep. The varieties 
of grape planted are principally the Concord 
and Ives’ Seedling. The vines are planted in 
rows, eight feet apart eacli way. The supports 
consist of five poles, four l’eet long, driven in 
the line of the rows, for each vine. One foot of 
the poles is driven into the ground. The sys¬ 
tem of pruning and tying is very simple. Each 
vine is allowed to make four canes. These are 
spread out upon the poles, two upon each side, 
and tied at each pole. Thus each cane is four 
feet long. 
While the old canes are hearing fruit four 
new ones are matured, and the old canes are 
cut away each year. The pruning for fruit is 
principally done with the thumb and finger, at 
three different times. Just before the blossom 
unfolds tlys shoot is pinched back close to the 
last bunch left for maturing. They are pinched 
back a second time, as soon as the leaves are out 
enough, leaving one leaf beyond the bunch. 
The third time the same rule is followed, which 
makes three leaves to each bunch of grapes. 
All the poor, imperfect bunches are pinched off, 
leaving about twenty-five pounds to each vine. 
The new canes are allowed to grow without 
any check. Following this system, one man 
will take care of four acres of vineyard. The 
vines are in perfect health, and the fruit as fine 
as anything we ever saw of these varieties. He 
gets about ten cents a pound for his grapes. 
The Doctor grows peaches in great perfec¬ 
tion. The varieties that succeed best are Early 
York, Early and Late Crawford, Early Tillotson, 
and a Seedling that matures by the Fourth of 
July. The ground devoted to peaches is kept 
under the plow, and the soil is stirred three 
times in the season to keep down the weeds. 
The Doctor’s heresy comes out in his apple- 
trees, and, what is better, the fruit comes with 
it, in unparalleled abundance. He plants fif¬ 
teen feet apart, upon a system that provides for 
the removal of a part of the early-bearing, 
short-lived trees. He does not prune, and aims 
to keep the ground shaded, and the trunks of 
the trees shaded. This he thinks essential under 
the hot suns of Kansas. The Cooper’s Early 
White is only twelve feet apart. Young trees, 
that had been out only four years, were judged 
to yield four bushels of apples on the average. 
The apples were of very uniform size, and ex¬ 
ceedingly fair. The Pennock is a very large, 
handsome apple, and though not first-rate in 
quality, brings good prices in market. The 
Doctor was getting a dollar and a half a bushel 
for his apples, at Leavenworth, 
i 
Evergreens from Seed. —We continue to 
have inquiries in regard to raisiug evergreens 
from seed. The whole story may be briefly 
stated. Success depends, in the first place, upon 
good seed, and in the second place upon the care 
of the seedlings the first year. They must be 
shaded or the sun will burn them up, and they 
must not be too wet or they will rot. Young 
evergreens require more care than an ordinary 
farmer, in the press of other work, is likely to 
give, and if lie wishes trees for his own planting, 
it will be much cheaper for him to purchase 
young trees of those who make a business of 
raising them. It is not likely that one farmer 
in fifty who attempts to raise evergreens from 
seed will be successful. Young plants a year or 
two old can be bought at very low rates and 
can be successfully sent by mail, and it will be 
much better for those who wish only a few hun¬ 
dreds or thousands, to send to a nurseryman. 
. . ■ — i t • i 
Autumn Colors of Foliage. 
We have before suggested that we should, in 
selecting trees for planting, keep in mind the 
character of their autumnal foliage. It is so 
pleasant to have bits of bright color here and 
there, and they will be all the brighter if brought 
out against a background of evergreens. We 
made a good hit in this, way by accident, having 
planted a Sorrel-tree (Oxydendrum arhoreum) in 
full view from our study-window. We admire 
the tree for its abundant long strings of Lily-of- 
llie-Valley-like flowers, and placed it near the 
house. This autumn its foliage has ripened up 
to a rich crimson, against which the white seed- 
vessels, which look almost like the flowers 
which preceded them, show in fine contrast. 
There is scarcely anything so brilliant at this 
season as the Virginia Creeper. We daily pass 
a hemlock directly upon a river bank, and upon 
its trunk is a dense patch of the foliage of the 
creeper that in previous years had been a wonder 
of color. This year it turned a dull brown, and 
remained so for several days. The other even¬ 
ing we found the brown changed to a blaze of 
scarlet. The color had come in a single day, 
more brilliant than words can describe. This 
happened on a warm day, when there had been 
no frost for weeks. Indeed, it is now well es¬ 
tablished that frost has little or no agency in 
producing the autumnal tints of our forests, the 
most brilliant effects being produced in warm 
seasons, when the leaves have an opportunity 
to ripen completely. 
Mr. Quinn sent us this spring some cions of a 
Japanese pear which he said was worth grow¬ 
ing for the beauty of its foliage. The leaves are 
of enormous si 2 je, about as large as one’s hand, 
and of a fine, glossy green, which in autumn 
turns to a brilliant scarlet. We have not seen 
the fruit and do not know what species of pear 
it is, but it is highly ornamental, either in its 
green dress or in its flaming colors. 
---«»-♦— TTta -C- g’ i ■ » ^ . 
Sending Plants and Seeds by Mail. 
Ho part of our mail service is more valuable 
than that which carries a pound of vegetable 
life to any part of our country for eight cents. 
A package, weighing not over four pounds, can 
be sent from shore to shore at this rate. It not 
only brings the seed store to every man’s door, 
but it bridges the long distance between the 
emigrant and his old home, and performs one 
of the most acceptable offices of friendship and 
love. It enables parents to follow their children 
to their new homes in the trans-Missouri coun¬ 
try with constant remembrances of the most 
valuable kind, at the time when they are most 
needed. Nothing can be more desolate than a 
young man in his first season, who has gone 
out from an Eastern home to pre-empt or home¬ 
stead upon a Western prairie. His first shelter 
is a dug-out or log-cabin, with a roof of poles 
and dirt. There is no fence, no garden, no 
vegetables, no fruits—nothing to which he has 
been accustomed. However much lie may feel 
the want of these things, there is no nursery or 
seed-store close bj r , where he can supply his 
need. Every want is pressing, and everything 
calls for immediate attention. Field crops must 
be attended to, for he must have the money to 
pay up or meet the annual interest, or he loses 
his claim. Under this pressure, the garden is 
sometimes uncared for for years. What a boon 
it would be to the young man if his friends at 
the East would send him a few of the seeds 
that are going to waste in their gardens, a few 
of the plants or roots that would never be 
missed from their abundance! A thoughtful 
friend at the old home can in a few hours com¬ 
pletely stock a settler’s garden, and make him 
happier all the coming year. Strawberries, 
raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, grapes, 
pie-plant, asparagus, and the seeds of all vege¬ 
tables, fruits, and flowers, are easily gathered 
and sent by mail. A cigar-box, 4 x 4, and ten 
inches long, will easily hold 200 strawberry 
plants, and by proper trimming the weight will 
not be over three pounds. The plants can be 
packed with a little damp moss in a very short 
time, and sent to the post-office. In less than 
a week they will be in the hands of your dis¬ 
tant friend—a pleasant remembrance at the 
start, and the material for love-feasts in the 
coming years. Let our readers remember the 
pioneers as they gather their seeds, and make 
provision for another year. 
' O -; «-r3 © gn i - 
How to Become a Florist. 
BY TETEIt HENDERSON. 
R. L. G., of Dcsmoines, Iowa, asks a question 
that has been proposed to me certainly a score 
of times during the past.year, a question which, 
no doubt, concerns others of your readers, and 
to whom this reply may have some interest. 
He wishes to know whether, in order to become 
a florist, it would be best to enter some large 
establishment for a few years, or whether it is 
possible for him to learn from reading only. I 
reply, if he can afford it, it will be to his ad¬ 
vantage, by all means, to serve at least two 
years in some well-conducted establishment- 
one that has been long enough established to 
have made the business a success, for the best 
index of ability in any business is success. I 
have said, if he can afford it, as for the first two 
years, unless he prove himself unusually smart, 
he will not likely be paid more than enough to 
pay his board, for he is simply an apprentice 
under instructions, who lias come with the de¬ 
sign of leaving when he has acquired a knowl¬ 
edge of the trade, and just at the time that he 
begins to be of use to his employer. 
But to those to whom it would be inconven¬ 
ient to place themselves thus under instructions, 
a knowledge of the business could be unques¬ 
tionably obtained from books, particularly if 
actual practice were followed conjointly with the 
reading. There are upward of a hundred of my 
patrons (about one tenth of whom are ladies), 
located in nearly every State of the Union, wdio 
have worked themselves into the florists’ busi¬ 
ness, exclusively by reading and their own 
practice, haying had no opportunity for other 
instruction. In not a few cases some of these 
have got ahead of what is known as professional 
gardeners, those who have had no other expe¬ 
rience than that received in private gardens 
in Europe, which by no means fits them 
for the American style of commercial floricul¬ 
ture. The increase of taste for flowers for the 
past twenty years has been truly wonderful. 
A gentleman who has a turn for statistics in 
this particular line, informed me that he had 
begun to procure information from all parts of 
the country, of the numbers engaged in the 
trade, together with the capital employed. He 
said that, his investigations for this locality^, taken 
in the rough, extending in a radius of ten miles 
