1869 .] 
21 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
two are inarclied. The form of cut for inarch¬ 
ing is shown in figure 2. The parts are inter¬ 
locked as in whip grafting-, and bound with 
waxed cloth. The operation is done in the 
spring, and in the spring following the extremi¬ 
ties of the inarched trees are removed. The 
trees are kept in a very dwarf state by pinching, 
and while they are very ornamental in appear¬ 
ance, they bear a considerable amount of fruit. 
This plan of growing trees is of course commend¬ 
ed only to those who are sufficiently enthusiastic 
to take the proper pains with it. The apples 
must he on the French Paradise stocks, and 
not upon the Doucin, which dwarfs but little. 
The Scuppernong Grape Again. 
The following communication is from “E. M. 
W.,” Craven Co., 1ST. C., and w T e are glad to hear 
about the Scuppernong from one who appar¬ 
ently knows something about it. The statement 
made in our article published in November, that 
“ the fruit is said to be produced on spurs two 
or more years old,” was made with great mis¬ 
givings. We could not understand it, hut as the 
point Avas made by several Southern writers we 
put it guardedly—“ is said.” Mr .Van Buren, in his 
pamphlet upon this grape, repeats the statement 
in almost the same words. Mr. E. M. W. says : 
“My knowledge of that vine and its seedlings 
is derived from an intimate acquaintance with 
my vineyard of 56 acres, planted exclusively 
with the Scuppernong (white) and the Thomas, 
Flowers, and Mish seedlings (black or purple). 
“It is true that ‘ the fruit of these vines drops 
from the cluster when ripe,’ that is, thoroughly 
ripe, at which period the berry is very tender 
and juicy, with thin, soft skin, while its stem lid's 
become quite brown and slightly shrunken. 
“‘The fruit is said to he produced on spurs 
two or more years old, and not, as is the case 
with other varieties, upon shoots of the current 
season.’ It is hard to conceive how any one at 
all acquainted with the fruiting habit of the vine 
could have committed such a mistake. The 
fruit is invariably borne upon shoots , though 
these shoots are frequently quite short and 
grown from short canes—due, I think, to the im¬ 
mense amount of wood carried by an unpruned 
vine six, eight, or more years old. I practice 
both summer and winter pruning on my vines 
with entire success, and 1 that the vine is not 
shortened in by priming’ generally, ‘but al¬ 
lowed to spread over a large space,’ is due firstly 
to the fact that the health of the vine does not 
seem to suffer thereby, and secondly to the pre¬ 
vailing notion that summer pruning will kill the 
vine. This opinion had its rise in the days 
when men thought an empty whiskey, vinegar, 
or molasses barrel a good enough vessel for the 
must; their smoke-house or corn-crib an excel¬ 
lent place to keep wine; and when sugar in 
large quantities, whiskey or brandy, was neces¬ 
sary, to prevent acetic fermentation. 
“So far north as Hammondsport, N. Y., I 
doubt not that the must was deficient in sugar. 
Indeed, I think with you that the Potomac 
River is the northern boundary of its successful, 
certainly its profitable, culture. But here, in 
Eastern Carolina, the must of ripe grapes needs 
no sugar, to make a fine table or medicinal wine. 
“I have had the fresh must of the Scupper¬ 
nong grape, strained through linen, to register 
96° on Oechsle’s scale, at 60° (Fallr.) tempera¬ 
ture.—[The must tested at Hammondsport was 
from grapes raised in North Carolina.— Ed.] 
“ The most sanguine friend of the Scuppernong 
has never supposed that in it he had a grape 
equal to the Riesling or Pineau ; but what in 
simplest justice wc may all claim is, that in the 
Scuppernong we have a vine hardy and prolific, 
entirely free from mildew, rot, and the depreda¬ 
tions of insects, giving us a never-failing crop of 
grapes capable of a dry or sweet wine, either 
white or red, of fine body and bouquet.” 
Apples for Canada. —D. W. Beadle, Esq., 
an eminent pomologist of St. Catharines, Cana¬ 
da, in an essay which received the prize at the 
Ontario Fruit Growers’ Association, gives the 
following selection for the colder parts of the 
Province: Red Astrachan, Duchess of Olden- 
burgh, St. Lawrence, Snow Apple (Fameuse), 
Borassa, Pomme Grise, and Golden Russet. “ If 
there be any spot so chill and inhospitable that 
these varieties will not thrive, recourse must be 
had to the still more hardy Crabs, of which the 
Yellow Siberian, Golden Beauty, Montreal 
Beauty, Transcendent, and Hyslop are the best.” 
Progressive Horticulture. 
Only those who are familiar with the English 
and Continental works on Horticulture are 
aware how different are not only our own prac¬ 
tices but our own horticultural literature. 
Until a comparatively recent date, our few 
works copied closely after European models, 
and processes quite unsuited to our climate and 
our social conditions were taught and followed. 
Our peculiarities of climate, find the necessity 
of supplying a wide extent of country with trees 
and plants both rapidly and cheaply, have made 
it Accessary to depart from the old ways, and to 
adopt processes suited to our needs. The prop¬ 
agation of trees by root grafting enables their 
multiplication to be carried on with marvellous 
facility. Propagating by root cuttings, so 
clearly.set forth in Fuller’s Small Fruit Cul- 
turist, has revolutionized the manner of in¬ 
creasing some of our small fruits. Henderson, 
in his Gardening for Profit, showed what must 
be done to make gardening pay. Warder, in 
American Pomology, gave us some of the 
Western labor-saving expedients, and now 
comes Peter Henderson with a “ Practical 
Floriculture,” in which is shown that our 
methods of raising ornamental plants are as 
widely different from those of Europe as are our 
processes in other departments of horticulture. 
Cutting adrift from old formulas, Mr. H. pre¬ 
sents us his way of doing things, and to those 
who do not believe that his methods are prac¬ 
ticable he says: “ Come and see our plants.” 
We can only refer to a few of the many points 
in which Mr. II. departs from the rules. Instead 
of having, as do some authors, nineteen different 
composts, he has but one for all species and 
varieties of plants. Two-thirds decayed sods and 
one-third rotted waste hops from the breweries, 
or well-decomposed manure, serves to grow 
everything. Other writers are great upon 
drainage; the pot must be filled to such a depth 
with broken crocks, then moss or fibrous peat, 
and great stress laid upon the right doing of 
this. Mr. H. is equally eloquent upon drain¬ 
ing, but lie makes the point that it is not neces¬ 
sary to do it at all. We were always told that 
to insure success in making a cutting the stem 
must be divided at a joint, and then to root it, 
it must be put in silver sand. Mr. II. tells us to 
cut anywhere, and that one kind of sand is just as 
good as another, and that coal dust, or any tiling 
else that will serve as a proper medium to hold 
moisture, will do just as well as sand. These 
are a few of the radical departures from the 
stereotyped way of doing tilings. Mr. IT. 
places great stress upon doing everything at the 
proper time, and not the least valuable portion 
of the work is a calendar of the operations at 
his establishment for each clay in the year. Mr. 
Henderson’s reputation as a successful florist is 
so well established that the best commendation 
we can give the work is to say that it gives tlie 
processes upon which his success has depended, 
and it will he useful alike to the amateur, pri¬ 
vate gardener, and professional florist. The 
work adds another valuable contribution to 
the literature of progressive horticulture. 
Poke-weed “Hardy.” —A few months ago 
some one wrote to tlie English Cottage Garden¬ 
er that he had seen the Poke-weed or Pigeon- 
berry growing in the open air in Belgium. This 
brought out statements that in several gardens 
in England it was hardy, and grew as finely in 
the open air as it did under glass. This reads 
strangely to those in this country who are 
troubled to get rid of the plant, and who know 
that our winters never get cold enough to kill 
it. It is probably because the summers are not 
hot enough in England that the plant is a rare 
one. When loaded with its ripe clusters of al¬ 
most black fruit it is a flue plant, only with 
us it lacks one important quality—rarity. 
Osage Orange—Seed and Plants. 
The Osage Orange will doubtless continue 
be the popular hedge-plant in those portions,nf 
the country where it will endure the winter. 
Formerly the supply of seed came from Texas 
and Arkansas, but at present so many old 
hedges have come into bearing that the amount 
of northern seed is quite large. The difficulty of 
extracting the seed from the halls or “ oranges ” 
lias with some been an obstacle to the use of 
home-grown seed. A correspondent, “ A. W.,” 
gives his method of treating the seed, with some 
useful hints on the management of tlie plants : 
“ Let the balls remain outdoors all winter, but 
out of the way of cattle, as some will eat them 
as soon as they would turnips, while others will 
not touch them. Gather up the balls and place 
them where they will freeze and thaw all win¬ 
ter, and in the spring, when the frost comes out 
of the ground, they will he soft and mushy. 
Place a portion of them in a tub, and with a hoe 
or pounder mash and work them up thoroughly; 
then fill up the tub with water, stir, let it settle 
for a few minutes, and then pour off the water. 
Continue to wash until the seeds are left clean. 
It would be well to do the washing near a brook 
or spring, as it takes more water to clean them 
than one would suppose. To prepare the seed 
for sowing, soak them in water, (warm, not hot,) 
for 6 or 8 days, changing the water every day, 
and keep in a warm place, such as near a chim¬ 
ney or under a stove. At the end of a week or 
8 days, turn off the water, cover the seed with 
some thick woolen cloths, to prevent them from 
becoming dry, and keep in a warm place until 
they sprout. If convenient, drill in the seed 
in rows as early as possible, for the earlier in the 
