FEB. 16. 
MOOllE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND EMILY NEWSPAPER. 
fufpti ant fetMt, 
GRAPE CULTURE—ANNUAL PRUNING. 
Eds. Rural— The best season for performing 
this very important operation has, for a long 
time, been a controverted point among good 
cultivators. Of course I speak in reference to 
our native vines. All agree that it should be 
done some time between the cessation of growth 
in the fall, and its commencement the next 
spring. While many—perhaps the largest num¬ 
ber of those who have given their views to the 
public—have practiced and advocated fall prun¬ 
ing, and given some seemingly good reasons 
for the practice, others have recommended Feb¬ 
ruary as the best time, and have not failed to 
furnish some very plausible reasons for so doing. 
Those who advocate and practice fall pruning 
claim that between the falling of the leaves in 
November and the swelling of the buds in the 
following spring, a distribution of the organiza- 
ble matter—the matter which enters into the 
composition of the fruit—is constantly going on 
through all parts of the vine. If this theory is 
correct—if such distribution is constantly tak¬ 
ing place while the roots of the vine are “ bound 
in icy chains,” and the branches frozen, and the 
whole vine in a dormant state, then most surely 
fall pruning should never be neglected. F or by 
delaying the operation until this distribution 
has all, or nearly all, taken place, by far the 
greater part of the fruit-producing elements 
will be sacrificed by the knife ; whereas, if the 
surplus buds are removed before such distribu¬ 
tion has progressed far, the buds retained will 
receive nearly all this matter, and the necessary 
consequence must be a better yield of fruit. 
On the other hand the advocates of February 
pruning deny this “distribution ’ theory, and 
claim that it is safest not to prune till after the 
most yf the extreme cold weather is over, be¬ 
cause they say the vine is capable of withstand¬ 
ing a greater degree of cold without injury be¬ 
fore than after being pruned ; also that the 
branches of the previous year’s growth are pret¬ 
ty sure to “kill back” some, whether they are 
pruned in the fall or not, and that it is better to 
let them do so before the vine is pruned than 
after. So much for theory. 
In 1851 my vineyard consisted of eight rov*s 
of equal length, and the vines all of one ageand 
of similar size. That year I pruned one of these 
rows in November, and the others in February, 
and when the fruit was harvested I carefully 
weighed the yield of each row separately. The 
fall pruned row produced 25 per cent, less than 
either of the other rows. This result at the 
time looked very much like an argument against 
fall pruning. However, not deeming it quite 
conclusive, I pruned two rows the next Novem¬ 
ber, the same one previously pruned in Novem¬ 
ber, and another. At the next harvest the yield 
of these two rows was quite equal, but not su¬ 
perior to that of any other two in the vineyard, 
in respect to quality and quantity. 
Since then I have practiced pruning my vines 
during any mild weather from the middle of 
November to the middle of March, and I feel 
quite safe in advising others to do the same. 
Yines should never be pruned with a dull 
knife, nor when they are frozen, nor when there 
is a reasonable prospect of 'a sudden change 
from mild to extreme cold weather. 
On planting a vine let but one branch grow 
the first season. At the end of the season cut 
this back to two or three buds, and let but two 
branches grow the second season. At the end 
of this season cut these branches back to eight 
or ten buds each, or to four or five feet in length ; 
build your trellis, and fasten these branches, 
“right and left,” along the lower rail of the 
trellis. The third season let these base branches 
produce a branch from every alternate bud, and 
train them perpendicularly to the top of the 
trellis, and about the first of September, slop 
them—pinch them ofF. The trellis is now filled 
with good bearing wood, and the next season— 
the fourth—the vine will produce its first crop. 
After the first crop is taken from the vine, 
the only pruning necessary to prepare it for 
another crop will be to cut back the lateral 
branches issuing from the upright branches to 
two buds,—and when they start the next 
spring, but one of these, usually the one nearest 
the main branch,—should be allowed to grow. 
The next year, that portion of the old spur ex¬ 
tending beyond the base of the new branch 
should be cut off smooth, and the new branch 
cut back as before, to two buds. This same 
process is to be continued from year to year. It 
is well, however, to provide for an entire renewal 
of the first bearing branches as often as once in 
three or four years. This can be accomplished, 
without the loss of a crop, as follows : 
Suppose there are six main upright branches 
to the vine, two of these may be renewed each 
year, by allowing a new branch to grow from the 
base of each, to a sufficient length to take their 
places, and at the next annual pruning cut the 
old ones out; in this way the entire vine, ex¬ 
cept the base, will be renewed in the course of 
three years. Of course it must be remembered 
that the fruit is always produced on the current 
years’ shoots, springing from wood of the pre¬ 
vious years’ growth. 
Where vines are planted wide, say from 12 to 
16 feet apart, and trained on upright trellises— 
the very best mode of planting and training, 
when the grape is cultivated for the dessert —I 
have found the foregoing simple mode of prun¬ 
ing well adapted to the vineyard or field culture 
of our native vines. E. A. MoKay. 
Naples, N. Y., Jan. 1st, 1856. 
Keep your plants clean. Dust and dirt on 
leaves makes the plant unhealthy, and will in 
time kill it. 
THE BLACK KNOT. 
The black knot, which has become so de¬ 
structive to the plum tree in the western and 
northern sections of New York, and along the 
south shore of Lake Ontario, is, to all appear¬ 
ance, the very same disease that ruins the cher¬ 
ry trees in the northern part of Pennsylvania, 
the south-western part of New York, and the 
north-eastern part of Ohio. All through those 
sections of country along the south shore of 
Lake Erie, the black knot appears to confine its 
destruction entirely to the cherry trees; and 
even where the plum and cherry tree are stand¬ 
ing near one another, and their limbs woven in 
together, there appears not the least sign of the 
black knot upon the plum tree ; while the cher¬ 
ry trees are completely blackened over with it. 
The cause of this disease being so destruc¬ 
tive to the plum trees south of Lake Ontario, 
and the same disease to the cherry trees south 
of Lake Erie, is more than I can tell, why the 
black knot infests the plum tree in one locality, 
and the cherry in an other. Nowhere have I 
seen this disease on the two different trees 
where they were growing in the same yard or 
orchard, nor even in the same neighborhood.— 
The sections south of Lake Erie, where the 
cherry trees are effected with the black knot, is 
principally hemlock timbered lands and a loamy 
soil, and but very little lime in it. And the 
sections south of Lake Ontario, where the plum 
trees are affected with the black knot, is prin¬ 
cipally oak timbered lands, and a strong limey 
soil. This may be some cause for the black 
knot to change from the plum to ihe cherry in 
different localities; the plum tree of the oak 
lands and limey soil, and the cherry tree of the 
hemlock lands, and not a limey soil, may be 
nearer the qualities of one another, than the 
two different trees would be of the same soil 
and locality. 
The black knot appears to be of an emigrat¬ 
ing nature, and travels at the rate of five or six 
miles a year; it appeared first along the south 
shore of Lake Ontario, about eight years ago, on 
the plum trees, and not until four years after its 
appearance at the Lake was there anything seen 
of the black knot twenty miles south. Its 
course is from the north towards the south ; and 
as far as I have seen its effects among the plum 
and cherry trees, the oldest and largest trees 
suffer much more than the young trees do ; the 
latter can be saved from this disease by cutting 
off the limbs when the black knot first appears 
on them. Strong lye is a good preventive by 
washing and sprinkling the trees with it. As 
I have not seen or read anything upon the sub¬ 
ject of the black knot being so injurious to the 
plum tree in one locality, and the cherry tree in 
another, it would be interesting to hear the 
opinions of those whose experience is more 
familiarly posted up in horticulture—and their 
mode of treating this disease. e. r. s. 
McKean, Erie Co., Pa., Feb., 1856. 
FRUIT GROWERS’ MEETING, ETC. 
In the horticultural leader in the Rural of 
February 2d, it is stated that doubt was at¬ 
tempted to be cast over the statements of some 
who took part in the discussions of the Fruit 
Growers’ meeting, on account of their being 
nurserymen. I have discovered nothing in the 
repout in the Rural that looks extravagant, ex¬ 
cept what I am made to say, viz., “ that I knew 
a Baldwin tree in this vicinity that two years 
ago produced 28 bushels of apples, which sold 
for near $40.” This statement I wish to correct. 
What I wish to be understood as having said is, 
that the tree produced 28 bushels, which, after 
throwing out 3 bushels of scrubby fruit, the 25 
bushels were sold at fifty cents per bushel, 
making $12,50 for the crop. This crop, allow¬ 
ing 40 trees to the acre, would be $5,000 for 10 
acres. This, as corrected, is but a fair average 
of many cases there named, to show the profit 
of fruit culture. No one will claim that these 
were intended to show the poorest or even an 
average of the grapes, figs, and pomegranites of 
the promised land. It is just so with our fairs. 
A man that would take the wares and products 
exhibited at a fair as the average of wares and 
products of the country, will find himself de¬ 
ceived. Yet these fairs are not intended to 
misrepresent the country, and do not to the in¬ 
telligent. To them they only exhibit models of 
excellence, that they should strive to imitate or 
attain. 
The most of the gentlemen taking part in 
those discussions are men distinguished for 
probity, intelligence and patriotism. Then to 
give a shade of plausibility to doubts that are 
attempted to be cast over their statements as 
nurserymen, strong inducements should be of¬ 
fered by the nursery business. What are the 
facts ? Within the district embraced in this 
association, the nursery business is carried on 
to an extent known nowhere else in the world. 
There are more trees produced than is probably 
produced in any other three such districts, or 
districts of like territory. Do such quantities 
of trees find a ready market ? They do. In 
nearly all the larger establishments, and where 
several nurseries are located in the same vicin¬ 
ity, their, trees are nearly or quite all sold in 
the fall—so that those that would buy in the 
spring must buy of smaller establishments or 
wait over. I can therefore see no mercenary 
reason or inducement for nurserymen to mis¬ 
state or over-estimate profits of fruit growing. 
The only question with reference to the profits 
of fruit growing on a large scale, seems to be— 
can the fruit be sold ? Thirty years ago, no 
man could have been found visionary enough 
to think that a market could be found for from 
two to three millions of trees in Western New 
York ; yet this has all been attained. The cot¬ 
ton, rice, and corn of the South, the pork of 
Ohio, the beef, wool, and wheat of the West, all 
find a market. Where the carcass is, there will 
the eagles be gathered together. Where any 
article of commerce is produced in large quan¬ 
tities, there will the dealers in those articles be 
gathered together. Western New York may 
plant market orchards on a large scale, and ex¬ 
ercise no fears as to market. It is now their 
privilege to be the fruit garden of the world.— 
It is also as plainly pointed out as their duty, 
as was that of the children of Israel to take and 
possess the land of Canaan. A Stone. 
Hininanville, Oswego Co., N. Y. 
GENESEE VALLEY HORT. SOCIETY. 
The Annual Meeting of this Society was 
held at the Court House, Rochester, on the 11th 
inst. The following board of officers (the same 
as last year, with exception of Rec. Secretary,) 
was elected for 1856 : 
President —Wir. A. Reynolds. Vice Presi¬ 
dents —H. N. Langworthy, Greece ; I). C. Green- 
leaf, Brockport; N. Hayward, Brighton ; John 
F. Bush, Jas. Upton, Asa Rowe, Sweden.— 
Treasurer — J. H. Watts. Cor. Sec'y —H. E. 
Hooker. Rec. Secy —C. W. Selye. 
The following Standing Committees were 
appointed : 
On Fruits. —J. J. Thomas, FI. P. Norton, A. 
Pinney, L. A. Ward, Zerah Burr. 
On Flowers— Benj. Hill, J. A. Eastman, J. 
Salter, Wm. Goldsmith. 
On Vegetables.— J. P. Fogg, H. N. Langwor¬ 
thy, Jas. Buchan. 
Executive Committee. —W. A. Reynolds, C. W. 
Selye, J. J. Thomas, B. Hill, J. P. Fogg. 
A motion was made by Mr. Barry and 
adopted, that the President of the American 
Pomological Society be requested to call the 
meeting of that Society on the 23d of Septem¬ 
ber next, instead of the 30th of that month.— 
The meeting is to be held here, and the Presi¬ 
dent has signified his intention to appoint the 
day to suit the convenience of the friends of the 
Society here. 
A committee of ten were appointed to pre¬ 
pare for the meeting of the American Pomolog¬ 
ical Convention as follows : 
L. A. Ward, John Williams, James H. Watts, 
D. D. T. Moore, James P. Fogg, Joseph Frost, 
Geo. Elwanger, Isaac Hills, IL. E. Hooker, C. 
W. Selye, W. A. Reynolds. 
Grafting the Cherry. —The cherry can be 
successfully propagated by grafting, a fact 
which I am convinced is not generally known. 
The great secret of success is to set the scions 
very early in the season, before the sap makes 
the least start. In ordinary seasons I graft in 
February, usually during the first or second 
week, and in all other respects just as the ap¬ 
ple is grafted. If the grafting be deferred un¬ 
til the sap commences flowing, all efforts will 
be useless, but if attended to before this they 
will succeed as readily and surely as the apple 
—come into bearing in two years and bear 
regularly and bountifully thereafter.—W. P. T., 
Erie, Pa., Feb., 1856. 
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ALBANY AGRICULTURAL WORKS. 
Never grow a b:«d variety of anything if you 
can help it. It takes the same room and wants 
the same attention as a good one. 
INDIAN MEAL AND CORN BREAD. 
It is said that many more people would eat 
corn bread if they knew how to cook it. An 
“ experienced house-keeper ” has furnished us 
with some good recipes, which we commend to 
inexperienced house-keepers. A bushel of 
corn contains more nutriment than a bushel of 
wheat. The latter is not generally considered 
fit to eat unless ground very fine and bolted.— 
It is a mistake, however. Indian corn treated 
in the same way is nearly spoiled. It never 
should be ground fine. Let that be remember¬ 
ed. Fine meal may be eaten when fresh 
ground, but it will not keep sweet. The bro¬ 
ken oil globules become rancid and bitter. 
Corn Cakes, made of meal and water with a 
little salt, mixed into a stiff dough very tho¬ 
roughly, and baked on a board before a hot 
fire, or in a hot oven, or in little cakes on a grid¬ 
dle, till entirely done, are very sweet, whole¬ 
some bread. 
Corn and Wheat Bread is wholesome and nu¬ 
tritious, and easily made—if you know how.— 
Stir two teacupfuls of white meal in a pint of 
hot wa er for each loaf; free it of lumps, and 
let it stand twenty-four hours. Boil two or 
three potatoes, peel and slice, and mash in a 
pint of water, which thicken with flour till it is 
stiff batter, and then add half a teacupful of 
baker’s yeast. You will use about one-third 
as much meal, scalded as above, as you do of 
flour ; knead the meal and yeast, and sponge, 
and add a little salt with the flour all together, 
and work it well, and mold in pans to rise mod¬ 
erately, and then bake, at first in a hot oven.— 
This bread will be moist, and more nutritious 
and more healthy than if it were all flour. 
Buckwheat Cakes are improved by adding 
corn meal, prepared in the same way, in about 
the same proportion as for bread. A little wheat 
flour may be added to advantage. Don’t let 
your batter over-rise and sour, and never use 
saleratus if it does. 
Corn Meal Pudding , may be made of yellow 
meal, stirred into scalded skimmed milk till as 
thick as gruel, and, when cool, add ginger, cin¬ 
namon, nutmeg, salt, and sweetening to suit the 
taste, and a little fine-cut suet, and some rai¬ 
sins, or dried peaches, or a fine-cut apple. It 
should bake an hour, or more, according to size. 
You who do not believe anything made of corn 
meal can be good will please try this recipe for 
a pudding.— N. Y. Tribune. 
The time has been, when the implements 
used in agriculture were of the rudest and sim¬ 
plest construction ; when the ignorant hind who 
used them, possessed an intellect scarcely above 
the ability to yoke a pair of bullocks to a forked 
stick for a plow', and to tread out the ripened 
grain by means of cattle. As civilization ad¬ 
vanced, and intelligence became diffused among 
the people, the agricultural laborer was not 
slow to avail himself of the lights of science in 
order to ameliorate his condition. He hastened 
to adopt improved implements of husbandry, 
until at length complicated and elegant ma¬ 
chinery has superseded a vast amount of man¬ 
ual labor. The horse-power, the threshing-ma¬ 
chine, the gang-plow, the seed-drill, the mower 
and reaper, Ac., Ac., must now be reckoned 
among the necessities of the farm. 
To keep pace with the demand for improved 
farm machinery, vast and extended workshops 
for its manufacture have'been erected in various 
parts of the country, employing hundreds of 
men, and requiring the investment of a great 
amount of capital. Among those establish¬ 
ments which have become distinguished, may 
be reckoned the works of Messrs. Emery A Co., 
at Albany, N. Y., a view of which heads this 
article. The building is four stories, built of 
brick, and the machinery and implements turn¬ 
ed out by them are models of their kind. Em¬ 
ery’s Horse-Powers and Threshers are especially 
known and appreciated in the grain-growing 
districts of the North and West. Those of our 
readers desirous of procuring information rela¬ 
tive to, or purchasing, these or other machines 
manufactured at the above-named Works, are 
referred to the announcement of the proprietors. 
We may hereafter give a series of illustrations 
descriptive of the mode of manufacture, Ac., at 
this establishment. 
INSTITUTE FOR ENGINE DRIVERS. 
We were very much pleased to notice during 
the past autumn, the convention of that very 
important and serviceable class of men, the rail¬ 
road engine drivers. Their proceedings were 
characterized by great good sense, and probably 
all was accomplished that could be, under the 
circumstances. An organization is commenced, 
and if properly followed up great, good must 
flow from it. 
While, however, they have prescribed the 
qualifications necessary for a competent engi¬ 
neer, and without which no man is capable of 
being a member of their association, they have 
failed to recommend any general method 
whereby a sufficient number of proper persons 
can obtain those qualifications. This omission 
we propose to supply. 
There is at this time not far from twenty-four 
thousand miles of railroad in operation in the 
Union. If w r e allow one engine to every ten 
miles of road, it would give two thousand four 
hundred engines, and of course that number of 
engineers. Upon the capacity and intelligence 
of these men, more than any others, not even 
excepting the Superintendents and other offi¬ 
cers, depends the prosperity and productiveness 
of nearly three hundred millions of capital, and 
what is of vastly higher consequence, the lives 
of millions of human beings which are daily in 
their hands. This is the general view of them 
as a body of men scattered over the whole 
country. Let us examine them more in detail. 
Two men may run engines of equal capacity, 
duplicates in every respect, yet one by his su¬ 
perior sagacity and care will save over the othe/ 
the entire sa'ary of himself and assistant. In 
avoiding accidents, in the superior condition of 
his machine, he will probably save, directly 
and indirectly, thousands of dollars to his com¬ 
pany. All men are not alike, it is true, but 
there are certain obvious things that every com¬ 
petent man about an engine must understand and 
do ; and if left undone either from ignorance or 
carelessness, serious and often fatal consequences 
are sure to ensue. In wasting or saving of fuel 
and of oil, two important items of expense, an 
engineer may make the difference of nearly or 
quite his salary, and have his engine in time, 
and order. There are some on almost every 
road who are pointed out as models, and are in¬ 
deed so. We know of one road where the Su¬ 
perintendent has taken pains to secure the ser¬ 
vices of none but the very best engineers, no 
matter what the cost. That road, we venture to 
say, has been operated with less expense, and 
fewer accidents than any other of the same 
number of miles run, in any State in the Union, 
and like causes will produce like results any¬ 
where. 
But when we come to know how men are 
fitted lor this important duty, we shall only 
wonder that so few accidents, rather than so 
many, happen. Of the 2,400 engineers now 
employed, we venture that two thousand of 
them cannot take their machine into the shop 
and make the necessary repairs, and we believe 
that there are but few among them that know 
anything about the science of steam, bey*ond 
the fact that if they pull out the valve the steam, 
will start the locomotive, and if they shutoff the 
steam it will stop. They may have a sort of 
indefinite notion about reversing the motion of 
their engines; but to go into the shop and take 
the several pieces of one, and put them together 
in an intelligent and proper manner, we believe 
would be simply impossible. And after all, 
the men are not so much to blame as their em¬ 
ployers. Probably most of the two thousand 
have at no very remote period been firemen, 
and all they knew on the subject before they 
took charge of the engine, was learned by see¬ 
ing the engineer manage the machine, andliclp- 
ing him oil it. These firemen are generally 
hired because they will work cheap. Railroad 
directors do not generally pay very high sala¬ 
ries except to the most useless and highest 
officeis. Some of them who have been me¬ 
chanics at home become good ones, but that 
class is very small. Of their capacity some 
idea may be formed from the fact, that a very 
eminent Superintendent told us that when he 
took charge of his road, he found men running 
engines who could not read their time-tables. 
No person should be employed as fireman who 
is not competent to make a first rate engineer. 
We know one engineer who will not have a 
person on his engine with him as fireman, that 
has not the capacity to make a skillful engi¬ 
neer. And some of the best now running have 
j- been taught by him. 
The time has come when the managers of 
Railroads can no longer shut their eyes with 
impunity to the glaring defect existing in ope¬ 
rating the motive power of their roads. Juries 
begin to inquire into the competency of the 
engineer when they are called to pass upon and 
award damages where accidents have occurred, 
and directors will find themselves indicted 
some day, for having employed incompetent 
men, and for not having used due care in select¬ 
ing their engineers. 
The remedy for all this is very simple and 
easy. It is to encourage the forming of an in¬ 
stitute for the training of railway engineers.— 
But little need be done on the part of the com¬ 
pany to insure the most perfect success. 
If the Board of Directors of a leading road 
would say to a competent person, that if he 
would commence such an institution they would 
not only see that he was paid a fair salary, but 
would patronize it to the full extent of their 
wants, and recommend it to the patronage of 
other roads, its success would be ensured. 
It is one of the beauties of the project, that no 
expensive buildings are required. A cheaply 
constructed shop near some branch road that 
could'be used as a school for practice, and the 
various parts of an engine would be about all 
the outfit, beyond a school room or lecture hall. 
The only officers beyond the President would 
be a scientific and practical engineer. 
The science of steam, and its application, to¬ 
gether with the laws and regulations of the dif¬ 
ferent roads, the most saving method of using 
fuel, and in fine everything pertaining to the 
practical use of steam should be thoroughly 
taught, and the application as thoroughly made 
in running an engine. 
As none but educated and competent persons 
would be admitted, and no diploma granted 
until they had fully mastered the course, a class 
of engineers would soon be sent forth capable 
of running and managing their own trains, with¬ 
out being compelled to divide the responsibility 
with the conductor. Let the Association pre¬ 
scribe the course, and let the examinations of 
graduates take place under their charge. 
In this manner, and by this means only, can 
the public be well protected, and the interests 
of railroad companies properly advanced.— p. 
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