246 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[July, 
Grapes at Hammondsport, S’. Y. 
[The following account of the grape products at Ham¬ 
mondsport, Steuben Co., N. Y., is by Hr. E. Van Keuren, 
one of our most thorough and conscientious cultivators.] 
The grape vines of this region, as a whole, have 
eome through the winter remarkably well, and give 
promise of a large crop of fruit. The buds of a few 
failed to put forth, but they are not much to blame, con¬ 
sidering the treatment to which they have been subject¬ 
ed. Over generously enriched, and starvingly stinted 
soil, together with untimely, poor, or positively no culture 
and training at all, have their results here with grapes, 
as they do everywhere, and in all other branches of hor¬ 
ticulture and agriculture. 
Comparing notes made in ’Gf, ’OS, and those being 
made this year by actual measurement of vines of the 
same kind in like circumstances, it appears that the season 
with our grapes is a week in advance of either of the 
past two, and the season has been so favorable for culti¬ 
vating vineyards, that we have been able to keep pace 
fully with tlie advanced growth. 
The custom of late fall plowing, throwing the ground up 
against, and even over, young vines, is yearly becoming 
more general. How much of good wintering and early 
and healthy starting of the young shoots should be at¬ 
tributed to this it is as yet difficult to determine. There 
is no doubt that good results from it, by the protection 
from freezing it affords to the roots of the vine, its fertil¬ 
izing influence upon the upturned earth, and the destruc¬ 
tion it causes of the roots and seeds of weeds, and, we 
may add, the facility it affords for completing the first 
course of spring cultivation at its proper time. Our 
spring cultivation is or should be finished in the month 
of May, and consists of plowing between the rows to the 
depth of from four to six inches, throwing the earth away 
from the vines, and hoeing with what is called with us a 
“ grape hoe,” stirring the narrow unplowed strips of soil 
to the depth of four inches, care being taken to remove 
all weeds and grass, and not to injure the roots at or near 
the head of the vine. We find the grape hoe so con¬ 
venient and valuable an implement in the garden, that I 
am tempted to give a hint as to its form for the benefit of 
those who never saw one. It has an eye as large as that 
of a common axe, but rather irregularly square, from 
which eye proceed two prongs, parallel with each other, 
two inches apart, about seven inches long, an inch wide, 
half an inch thick near the eye, and tapering to an edge. 
Imagine the blade of a carpenter’s adz cleft, and some¬ 
what straightened, and you will have some idea of it. 
The work of plowing and hoeing being done timely, 
the intelligent vineyardist is ready for disbudding, or 
“ rubbing out,” as we familiarly call it. This takes 
place from the 25th of May to the 10th of June with our 
best growers. The young shoots are then tender and 
easily removed. The importance of this branch of 
training or pruning is never overestimated; it affords an 
opportunity for the correction of errors or omissions in 
fall pruning, and allows us to determine, accidents aside, 
the quantity of fruit the bearing vine shall carry. When 
two or more shoots start from the same bud, one only, 
the strongest, is left, and all barren ones, and shoots 
coming out from the old wood, and springing up from 
the roots around the head of the vine are removed. 
Those fruit-bearing shoots, (always on the last year’s 
wood,) which are feeble, are taken out, leaving such a 
number as the vine is able to support; never losing sight, 
however, of making provision for next year’s bearing 
canes. In the performance of this work, the good sense 
and judgment of the vine-dresser may be displayed to 
the advantage of the proprietor of the vineyard. 
The desire for improvement or change, so natural to 
our people, finds no abatement of activity, but rather an 
increase in not a few of our grape growers. It is not un¬ 
common to hear some of them say “ I wish I had planted 
this or that variety, instead of those I have.” A few of 
the newer kinds have been so thoroughly and ingenious¬ 
ly pressed upon their attention, and the past two years 
having been rather unfavorable for maturing some of the 
later varieties, there is sort of unrest in the minds of 
some—a longing for the realization of their Utopian 
ideas of vines and grapes. They are anxious for earli¬ 
ness, never-failing hardiness and fecundity, with the 
most superior excellence of fruit for wine and market. 
Who would not be pleased with such a realization, but 
who can, in reason, expect it ? 
We arc producing mainly Catawba, Isabella, Dela¬ 
ware, Diana, and Concord, proportioned in the order I 
have named them, and we have planted quite largely, 
within a year or two, of the Iona and Israella. 
Most kinds, that can be grown in this latitude, are 
found here in small quantities ; the newer sorts are on 
trial, and, as a whole, our vincyardists act upon the rule 
of proving all things, and holding fast that which is good. 
Sti-SBisuo-isg' in — A corre¬ 
spondent asks for information concerning the laying of 
drains in a subsoil of quicksand. This is the most diffi¬ 
cult problem that the drainer has to deal with, and its 
solution, when any solution is possible, depends very 
much on circumstances. It is almost indispensable to 
give the drain sufficient fall for an uninterrupted flow of 
the water entering it. Where this fall can be obtained, 
as many men should be employed as can work to advant¬ 
age, the ditch should bo opened as rapidly as possible, 
and the tiles laid and covered at once, all accumula¬ 
tions in advance of the tile layer being immediately 
thrown out, so that there shall be no interruption to the 
flow of the water in the tiles. If the land to be drained 
is a level swamp in which the fall is necessarily too 
slight for this treatment, one or more open ditches should 
be dug, deeper than the point at which the tiles are to be 
laid, and kept open, if necessary, by unremitted shoveling, 
until the excess of water has been removed. If the 
swamp receives the water of streams or springs from 
adjoining land, a perfect outlet for this must be first 
provided, so that the condition of saturation may be 
overcome. Quicksand is simply fine sand saturated 
with water. Owing to the defective binding qualities of 
such sand in such condition, as the water flows out from 
it, it carries the sand with it. The excess of water once 
removed, it will retain its place sufficiently well, and if 
future additions of water are allowed to escape without 
saturating the stratum, all further difficulty is obviated. 
Fortunately such sands are very porous, and a single open 
drain will remove the water of saturation from a distance 
of several hundred feet on each side, leaving the ground 
sufficiently firm to be drained with tiles without difficulty. 
If these can be placed somewhat below the level of the 
layer of sand, it will be all the better. If in digging the 
open ditch above referred to, the sides continue to slip 
in, there is nothing for it but to let them take their natural 
slope and to keep throwing out the slip. An outlet must 
bo afforded for the lubricating water before any further 
work can be successfully done. We are sorry not to be 
able to give any more satisfactory advice, but there is no 
royal road to land drainage, and he who would drain a 
quicksand must begin at the foundation and expect to 
spend a good deal of money before the real work of re¬ 
clamation can be commenced. 
MiSIsaEBg- Muclaiasess.—“A. F.,” Abington, 
Ya. There is no milking machine which we know of 
that will answer your purpose. There is one which 
has been exhibited at our fairs and in our city for some 
years, but we have never heard of its being used on any 
farm or in the milk stables, to which it seems adapted. 
IScaffeir IPowslers.—We believe that all 
the “butter powders” are essentially frauds. Those 
which we have investigated are absolutely so. The claim 
that a pound of butter may be made from a quart of milk, 
by any hocus-pocus, is false. 
Bee Hotes,— By M. Quinby. 
Swsai’Mis CJoioig- to tli® Wo««ls.— 
Whoever lias movable comb hives should no longer 
complain of bees going to the woods. In this day, every 
one knows, or might and should know, bow to prevent 
it. The very first time that a queen is seen—and it should 
be very soon—after she commences laying, cut off one 
wing. If increase of stock is wanted, divide, and make 
artificial swarms as soon as strong enough in the spring. 
It. is unnecessary to wait until queen cells are sealed over. 
When the old queen lias gone or is taken away, allow 
but one young one to hatch. Suppose the old queen 
should get lost in her efforts to go—unless Italian it is of 
no account—her place is easily supplied at this season. 
Answers to C«. W. <C.—I do not think 
that “the light coming in at the window of the hive 
during observations, or the smell of green elder, was the 
probable cause of bees leaving.” Yet it was possible. 
There are many other causes more probable. The hot 
sun directly on the hive is often the cause....“ If 2,000 
cubic inches is the proper size of hive for latitude of 42°, 
what would you recommend for Tennessee, or lat. 35° ?” 
Ans.—One square foot is probably sufficient_“What 
is meant by a drone queen?”—Ans.—The queen bee that 
never has met the male will lay eggs that will hatch 
drones, and those only. The queen to meet the drone, 
or male, lias to leave the hivo and meet him in the air. 
Now one that has deficient wings never can become a 
fertile queen. One impregnation is sufficient for a life¬ 
time, except in a few rare cases, when the effect of the 
male becomes exhausted, and in this case the eggs hatch 
only drones. That she does not require a second impreg¬ 
nation after she commences laying, is proved from (lie 
fact of her continuing to lay for two or three years after 
having her wings cut, and when she is unable to fly. 
Tin® Main TSa ujagv,—Keep your bees sup¬ 
plied with surplus honey room. Rather than let them bo 
outside the hive idle, put two tiers of boxes on the top,and 
some on the side, and as fast as filled replace with empty 
ones. The bees will contrive to find room for just one 
cell more long after the general sealing up is done, and if 
you wait until the last is finished, it may make a differ¬ 
ence of very many pounds. Besides this, honey shows 
its purest whiteness when first sealed. 
Castle Garden Labor Exchange. 
Among the great number of emigrants continually 
landing at Castle Garden, New York, many of all nations 
are entirely without means, or possessed of very little. 
They can not leave the city, and must find immediate 
employment, or soon become dependent upon charity. 
The Commissioners of Emigration have established a 
bureau under the charge of attentive and accommodating 
men and women, where employers, and those wishing 
work, are brought together without expense to either. 
Farmers and others, who can make it possible to visit 
Now York personally, can thus, if they are tolerably good 
judges of character, obtain good “ help ” of either sex, 
especially males, at fair wages. Selecting help is a busi¬ 
ness which should be attended to by the employer per¬ 
sonally, if possible. The supply of labor depends greatly 
upon the arrivals of emigrant ships, and the character of 
the emigrants varies also according to the part of the world 
from which the ships come. Irish, English, Scotch, and 
Germans, prevail, the first being in the majority usually. 
There are almost always many among those seeking em¬ 
ployment who have been a year or more in the country 
and can speak English, and know our ways. These often 
know too much, but among them good men maybe found. 
We are glad to commend this institution, and do so from 
our own experience and that of our friends. 
The Greenwich St. Intelligence Offices, as a 
class, ought to be ranked among the worst “ humbugs” 
of New York City. The writer lias considerable experi¬ 
ence, having been “ taken in and done for” repeatedly 
before the establishment of the labor exchange above no¬ 
ticed. The system pursued is briefly as follows: Run¬ 
ners, as they are called, bring men to these places; 
farmers come and hire them; the farmer is charged 1st, 
$1, to be taken ont of the man’s wages, as his (the man’s) 
office fee (this goes to the runner); and 2d, $2 as bis 
own (the employer’s) office fee. This should entitle him 
to another good man if the one he hires docs not prove 
good or leaves, which privilege should last one month. 
The effort is usually made to get the farmer to advance 
one, two, or more dollars to pay the man’s “ hoard bill.” 
Before the man leaves, he is told if be does not 
like the place to come right back and he shall have an¬ 
other at once. If the farmer takes the man away with 
him, well; he pays his fare on the cars home, and the 
next day, or within a day or two, misses his man and finds 
he has left and gone back to the intelligence office. An¬ 
other way is to put oft'upon a farmer a man who does not 
intend to stay longer than overnight, if indeed he does 
not slip away from his employer before he gets to the 
nearest ferry with him. This class of men are a regular 
stock, who each, under different names, are all the time 
going back and forth with farmers, and we have no 
doubt make a good living by receiving each time the $1 
fee which would have been given to the runner for a new 
man. The stock of bad, lazy men among the newly 
arrived emigrants is not so great that these intelligence 
offices can furnish only this fugitive class of labor¬ 
ers, but now and then of course men so obtained turn 
out very well. It seems there is not enough legitimate 
business to be done to sustain these establishments, and 
so these tricks to get as much money as possible out of 
tlie farmers are resorted to. We counsel our readers to 
avoid all these establishments, and to patronize the 
Castle Garden Labor Exchange, which is a great conven¬ 
ience to farmers and a blessing to the emigrants. We 
wish to add that we are under no obligations whatever 
to tiro gentlemen at Castle Garden for special courtesies, 
being unknown to them as connected with the press, 
and having gone there as any other farmers would go. 
--- «►-«* -- 
Gnrgct a.n«l other SwcHIug's.—The 
condition of cows’ udders which tlie names Calced Bag , 
Bloody Milk ., Inflamed Udder , in a measure describe, is of 
very common occurrence, and is usually entirely reme¬ 
died at the outset by the sucking and butting of a healthy 
calf. Tlie next best treatment is diligent rubbing after 
milking, lubricating the bag and bands with grease. If 
very painful, some application is best to lessen the pain. 
We have used dilute tincture of arnica with success, and 
have administered this tincture in one teaspoonful doses 
sriven morning and evening in the feed, and suppose it 
allays feverish tendencies. The great point is to be sure 
no milk remains in the bag, and mb and knead it well. 
Mr. Geo. H. Griffin, of Galesburg, (no State), writes as 
follows, recommending kerosene, which is a remedy al- 
