110 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
and the result of the experiment has been 
anxiously waited for. Reports are now 
coming in from all quarters. On the one 
hand, they are unfavorable. Some persons, 
who were carried away with the mania, ex¬ 
pecting almost fabulous results, and that 
without bestowing more care on their trees 
than on their current bushes, are now car¬ 
ried away with a furor of disappointment. 
They come down on the poor quince stock 
with a severe and almost wholesale denun¬ 
ciation. The quince, say they, being a na¬ 
tive of the moist climate of Japan, is not 
adapted to the cold and dry climate of this 
country ; it. is not sufficiently allied to the 
pear to form a firm union of the stocks, and 
a healthy tree ; it requires too much care 
and too high feeding for anybody but idle 
and rich amateurs. And then, the Spring 
pruning, the Summer pinching, the Autumn 
shortening and the root pruning; what busy 
man can look after all these things ! Re¬ 
sides the borer at the root, the insects in the 
bark and on the leaves, the blight, in its sev¬ 
eral forms, and other diseases cutting down 
multitudes of trees just as they begin to 
promise fruitfulness. And last, but not 
least, the scanty yield of those trees which 
happen to escape with their lives! Such 
is the lamentation of unsuccessful cultiva¬ 
tors. Smarting with their disappointment, 
they have tried their best to write down the 
once lauded quince stock. And others who 
have been victimized, but could not write 
about it, have applauded the writers, crying 
out “ Good ! give it to’em strong !” &c., &c. 
Others report more favorably. Careful, 
pains-taking men, have had a measure of 
success, and hope for still more. Their ad¬ 
vice is to use the Angers quince for stocks, 
and no other; to plant only those sorts 
of pears which have been found to succeed 
well uniformly on the quince, (and the num¬ 
ber is quite small,) to bury the whole quince 
stock in setting out the tree, so as to enable 
the pear stock to get a slight rooting in the 
ground ; to give the trees liberal culture, 
confining them to the garden, and giving up 
the orchard to standards. By so doing, they 
feel confident that success will follow. 
But all this does not satisfy the majority 
of fruit-growers. It is well known that mil¬ 
lions of dwarf pears have been planted with¬ 
in eight years past, and yet the markets are 
not supplied, nor even the tables of the farm¬ 
ers themselves, in anything like abundance. 
We have tried our hand in cultivating 
dwarf pears, but with such varied results 
that we can neither consent yet to give up 
our garden pets, nor do we expect to glut 
ilie market with our surplus products. We 
have also watched the paper controversy 
now going on, with much interest. The 
vigorous thrusts of the assailants have 
amused us, and not less the quick and dex¬ 
terous manner in which they have been par¬ 
ried. But before the battle waxes hotter, we 
wish to interpose and suggest a compromise. 
In the hope of making peace we extend, not 
the Olive-branch, exactly, but something 
next to that, the Vine-branch. Or, to drop 
all figure, our counsel is not suddenly to 
abandon the culture of dwarf pears—the ex¬ 
periment has not been fully tried as yet— 
but to enter gradually upon a more extensive 
culture of the grape. The pear requires 
more skill and more care in its management 
than the grape, it is subject to more diseases, 
and its yield of fruit is less certain. A grape 
vfne, also, will begin to bear as early as a 
dwarf pear, and its vigor will last much long¬ 
er. So many new and excellent hardy va¬ 
rieties have lately been introduced, that all 
who wish may now grow superior grapes 
for themselves. The fruit may be sold in 
market at highly remunerative prices, or 
made into wine, or it can be preserved for 
dessert in Fall and early Winter, 
Throughout the Middle States, the Isabel¬ 
la and Catawba grapes will undoubtedly be 
the main reliance for some time to come. 
The Isabella can be ripened without difficul¬ 
ty as far north as Albany, Boston and Buf¬ 
falo, and even further north if trained on the 
south side of a high and close fence, or on 
the same side of a house or barn. We have 
found, in our own experience, that its early 
maturity can be promoted by thorough prun¬ 
ing, and by keeping the canes on the ground 
until late in the Spring. 
Our mode of procedure (in Central N. Y.), 
is this: Early in November we go over our 
vines with the pruning shears, shortening 
them to the top of the trellis, cutting ba*ck 
the annual growth to two or three buds, and 
removing all weak and half-ripened shoots. 
Late in the month the canes are loosened 
from the bars and thrown upon the ground. 
The refuse cuttings'of the vines, and a little 
pea-brush are laid on the canes, and the 
whole covered loosely with a few old boards. 
This covering is designed not so much to 
keep the vines warm, as to preserve them 
in a uniform temperature until Spring is fair¬ 
ly open. Many of our neighbors leave their 
vines on the trellis, and they are often killed 
near to the ground. Our own are never in¬ 
jured by the severest Winters. We do not 
uncover them as soon as the first swallow 
comes. When Spring opens we remove the 
protection gradually, but leave the vines on 
the ground till all frost and cold winds are 
over, and the buds have become considera¬ 
bly developed. The canes are then careful¬ 
ly raised so as not to bruise the buds, and 
tied in their places. By keeping them on the 
ground , and under the lee of a fence , a week 
or ten day's growth is gained over vines tied 
up to the trellis earlier and exposed to the cut¬ 
ting weather of early Spring. This is a very 
important point, and we recommend it to 
the notice of our Northern readers. In tying 
the canes to the trellis-bars, we keep them 
one foot and a half apart. During the Sum¬ 
mer little is done in the way of pruning, ex¬ 
cept rubbing off superfluous shoots, and 
checking the fruit spurs after the grapes be¬ 
come about the size of large shot. We 
never pull off the leaves from the vines to 
hasten the ripening of the grapes, for nature 
wants them to elaborate the juices of the 
fruit. Nor do we pluck the clusters as soon 
as they become blue ; they are not ripe until 
nearly black. A few frosts will not hurt them 
Let them remain until fully ripe ; then they 
will satisfy the most fastidious taste. 
At another time we shall have something 
to say about the newer varieties of hardy 
grapes, and the best modes of preserving 
grapes fresh for Winter use. 
GRAPE SULTURE—NO, V. 
BY WILLIAM CHORLTON. 
Now that the severity of the season is over, we 
may look among the vines and examine the effects 
of the extreme cold of the past Winter. There 
will be instances in very cold latitudes where the 
vines have excusably suffered, but in the majority 
of cases, the mischief has occurred through an 
over-damp or imperfectly drained subsoil. Those 
under glass may be injured from the same cause, 
and from over-rich, deep borders, which tend to 
keep the canes in a growing state, and supplied 
with too much fluid until the approach of Winter, 
leaving no time before the frost sets in for the 
drying up or ripening off of the woody fibre. The 
grape-vine, like all other plants, is composed of 
cellular organs, which, in a growing state, absorbs 
like a sponge all the moisture it can suck up, and 
if these are filled with fluid late in the season, 
they must evidently be ruptured by the expansion 
caused by freezing. Every cell thus burst is 
effectually destroyed. If a portion only be rup¬ 
tured, there may be sufficient cells left to circu¬ 
late the rising sap during the next growth, and so 
apparently recapacitate the whole body. The dead 
cells will, however, remain in the wood ; and al¬ 
though there may be no appearance of permanent 
injury, they often produce gangrene, and fre¬ 
quently destroy the parts affected. A frosted limb 
in the animal body is a parallel case, the effects 
of which we all know. In indoor culture, some 
protection is afforded by the house, even though 
no fire heat has been applied through the Winter. 
True, we sometimes see examples where the exo¬ 
tics growing in the open air are nearly or entirely 
uninjured, leading us to infer that no covering is 
necessary. In the grapery, however, we must 
recollect that much richer beds are prepared for 
the roots, and, consequently, a large growth is 
produced, which requires longer time, and a dryer 
atmosphere in the Fall, to evaporate the surplus 
juices, to enable the vine to withstand any great 
amount of frost. In proof of this, we may refer 
to the hardiness of the Paulownia, Ailantus and 
Catalpa, in our own climate, where the wood be¬ 
comes thoroughly ripened, and the moisture in the 
cells dissipated; while in most parts of Britain, 
with less severe Winters, and shorter and damper 
Summers, the same trees are killed back almost 
every season. These considerations show the 
necessity of covering the vines in houses where 
fire heat is not used. 
I have spoken thus minutely of this feature, as 
many practical cultivators and amateurs would 
like a house of exotic grapes, providing they can 
succeed with them without the expense and trou¬ 
ble of artificial heat. Although fire heat is of 
service, temporarily, there is no actual necessity 
for it, as with a well-fitted glass arbor, attention 
to covering in the Winter, and not hastening the 
vines into growth in the Spring, great results may 
be accomplished, as I have proved during the last 
seven years, and will conclusively show, in due 
time, that it may be made a paying business. 
OUT-DOOR CULTURE. 
In the vineyard, and out-door culture generally, 
the vines will now begin to show their fruit, and 
likewise the most suitable branches for next 
year’s bearing. Continue to disbud, or rub out, 
all that are superfluous. Those which are fastened 
to stakes will require, say two of the best lower 
shoots to be left. A sufficient number should bo 
