TO PREVENT GRAPE ROT. 
A. P. Wylie writes the following com¬ 
munication to the Reporter of Chester, S. 
It will interest and may profit vineyard- 
ists:—“ I wish to*cull the attention of the 
public to a remedy which although not at 
all fully tested, promises to be of immense 
importance to the public, in the year 1 K ~1 
I desired to Impregnate the Herbemout 
drape, also the Bland Madeira and Foreign, 
No. 1 , a very large October grape, with the 
Pollen from Peter Wylie. No. 1, so as to 
produce a hybrid or cross progeny. Know¬ 
ing that both the llerbemout, Bland and 
Madeira hybrid No, 1, would surely about 
all rot as they had been invariably doing in 
that locality, I concluded to keep the 
hybridized bunches covered with paper 
bags, putting a small pinch of sulphur in 
each bag and keeping the bags on from the 
time they bloomed until they ripened; to 
my surprise not a berry rotted, when every 
other branch on those vines rotted, leaving 
scarcely a berry. 
“ When Mr. Ravened, of Aiken, visited 
me in the fall of 1871, 1 called his attention 
to the remarkable fact. Although the ex¬ 
periment had been tried only on a very 
small scale, still 1 determined to give it a 
further trial this Summer. Unfortunately 
I was absent from homo until the latter 
part of June, so that 1 did not get but a 
few put on before the 1st of July. I am 
satisfied that it will more certainly si cceed 
when put on at the earliest peri id. I 
ordered from Howlet Brothers, 201 1 niton 
street, New York, 2,fHM) bags from eight to 
ten inches long and about six wide; a' w 
blue ones, but mostly white. 1 haveP .t on 
over a thousand bags after either blowing 
the bunch over with a sulphur bellows, or 
dropping a small quantity of sulphur into 
•■ach bag, then drawing the bags over t he 
bunches and pinning them with one or two 
small pins around t he stem, so as to keep 
out rain, birds and insects. So far the ex¬ 
periment is entirely successful, not a rotten 
berry to be seen, except on one vine which 
was rott ing badly at t he time they were put 
on. 
“The plan is simple and cheap; half 
grown children can easily do it, and one 
person could put on 1,000 easily a day. It 
is getting too late for the experiment for 
the South, hut it could still readily be done 
at the North. Pins aro much more con¬ 
venient than paste. By cultivating gj ipes 
on elevated beds or ridges twenty fere 
apart, with deep water furrows between 
the rows to securo drainage, using the sul¬ 
phur bellows w hen they first start in leaf, 
and applying bugs at the time of blooming 
in conjunction with the soil and modes 
adapted by good cultivators, I believe that 
there is a hope for the foreign grape to 
succeed without glass. There is no danger 
of rain wetting off the bags which Howlet 
can supply.” 
--- 
CALIFORNIA WINES. 
not the pure and simple result of natural 
fermentation. 
French and German dry wines vaiy from 
nine to eleven per cent, of alcohol; under 
nine they will not stand shipment; any¬ 
thing above eleven per cent, is fortified, and 
belongs to the stronger kinds, such as port, 
sherry, madeira, etc. 
Water cannot be used to reduce wines, not 
oven before fermentation; it is true, water 
reduces the percent age of alcohol, but water 
and sugar are not the only elements neces¬ 
sary to make a good wine; nature alone 
produces and elaborates all these elements 
through the process of growth and ripening 
of the grapes. 1 have tried introducing wa¬ 
ter with the various kinds of grapes. The 
only way to make a good light wine, is to 
pick the grapes before they are too ripe, 
this will insure a prompt fermentation, and 
berries. As for fingering or handling, by 
all means avoid it: a tapering piece of wood 
about the thickness of a penholder will suf¬ 
fice to hold or turn the bunch about in any 
required direction. In thinning Grapes it. 
is astonishing the difference produced on 
them by different operators.— Thomas J. 
Capaiin, 
A3Jg, 3 
me, because I want to talk w r ith you about 
farm matters; but you must go there clean. 
1 cannot have a boor at the table with my 
children. Hero is a coat w r hich you are to 
wear in the house; here are slippers to re¬ 
place soiled boots; face, hands, finger nails 
u : y operators, thomas J. must be clean and hair combed. Take time, 
tPARN, as j (j 0j £ 0 a fct en( j to these matters. Once 
The foregoing is an important suggestion, at the table, do as the rest of the family do. 
and explains what has puzzled many garden¬ 
ers—why their grapes rust in the grapery. 
^rborifttltural. 
THE LONTAR PALM. 
This palm (Llulslonn subglobosa), J. 
Croncher says, is worthy of being set inau 
isolated position, where its no¬ 
ble head of leaves can be seen 
to advantage. Its foliage re¬ 
sembles that of L. chtnensis, 
/ y/ but is compactor, and the 
plant itself is not quite so har- 
as that kind, rts stem is 
corrugated and very regular 
1U * ize ‘ wi, l be seen, the 
v l i head forms nearly a globe. The 
leaves are used in .Java, where 
b grows naturally, for basket- 
making, for thatching, and 
fSh b ,r hat-making. When they 
iff ' ilI ' e biteudod for thatch, or for 
making fences, a use to which 
they arc sometimes put, they 
;ire placed flat on the ground in 
layers, often with weight up¬ 
on them to assist in flattening 
them. The thatch formed of 
them does not last, It. is said, 
longer than two years, nor 
is it so handsome as that 
made from plaited cocoanut 
leaves, i'he selection of a few 
fine-looking palms such as this, 
giving them room so as to 
fully develop their beauty, is 
better by far, especially in 
private establishments, than 
having quantities crammed in 
a mass. This plant may be 
classed with those that will 
grow in the warm end of a 
conservatory. It acquires on¬ 
ly a moderate size, and is ea¬ 
sily cultivated. 
THE -I.OlV’I'A PALM, 
produce a light and well-flavored wme, not 4 
at all licady, as 1 am ready to prove to you , 
if you will take the trouble to call on me e 
and sample the contents of my cellars. f 
It is conceded by California growers that 
their wines contain an excess of spirit. 
California grapes are said at the time of 
vintage to contain 20 to 30 per cent, of 
sugar. A Vintner in the Rural Press says 
i.i response to the assertion that California 
wines contain 16 to 20 per cent, of alcohol: 
Every intelligent vintner knows that two 
per cent., of sugar will produce, when well 
fermented, one per cent, of alcohol; our 
grapes at the time of ilie vintage contain 
from 20 to JO per cent of sugar. 
Tf the must (grape juice) contains twenty 
per cent, of sugar, the fermentation will be 
completed in from four to six days, the 
wine will then be dry, and contain ten per 
cent, of alcohol; if it contains twenty- 
four per cent., the fermentation will last a 
little longer, and then the wine, when dry, 
will contain twelve per cent, of spirit. 
If the must contains thirty per cent, of 
sugar, the fermentation will be very active 
until twelve or thirteen per cent, of alcohol 
has been eliminated, when the fermentation 
will stop, and from four to six per cent, of 
sugar will remain in the wine, there being 
enough alcohol present to preserve t he re¬ 
maining sugar, and prevent further fermen¬ 
tation. 
According to this, no wine containing fif¬ 
teen per cent, of alcohol can be made 
through the natural process of fermentation, 
much less any containing twenty per cent. 
I have no doubt, you can find wines with 
the percentage of alcohol you mention, but 
they are all fortified by the addition of a 
certain amount of spirit, and consequently, 
SECOND FERMENTATION OF WINE. 
Will you please Inform me if there is 
any scientific reason for wine working the 
succeeding Benson after it is made, when 
grapes are in blossom, i ir has the blossom¬ 
ing of grapes anything to do with it.—W. 
L. D., Clyde, A. 1”. 
The blossoming of the grape has nothing 
whatever to do with t he usual slight Second 
or Spring fermentation of wine. We know 
that it is an old and quite prevalent no¬ 
lion that there is some sort, of secret con¬ 
nection between the vines from which 
grapes were gathered and the vine in the 
cask just as a great many persons believe 
that the mystical figures in the front of an 
Old almanac, represent certain influences 
which the moon has over the animal and 
vegetable world, 
A slight second fermentation of wine 
usually takes place the following Spring af¬ 
ter it is made as the weather becomes warm. 
It is nothing more than the Autumn fer¬ 
mentation which was not quite completed 
before the cold weather came on, revived 
by an increase of temperature. It must 
not be supposed that because wines are 
stored in a deep, cool wine cellar, that the 
warm air of Spring does not reach them, as it 
would be very difficult for a man to enter 
a cellar and not have air pass in at the same 
time. 
-- 
Rust on Grapes,—No one should thin 
grapes without the head being securely 
wrapped with a clean handkerchief, to keep 
the hair from coming in contact with the 
CLOVER AND APPLE TREES. 
Rachel Wilkinson asks if 
clover is injurious to apple 
trees that have come into bear¬ 
ing. No, provided the first 
• crop ripening is cut and hauled 
over the roots of t he trees as a 
$ 35 -. mulch, and the second crop is 
not cut, at all, nor fed, except 
by sheep or pigs—that is, it 
should not be removed from 
the orchard. Wo know extensive orchards 
treated in this way, and the result is quite 
equal, so far as profit goes, to that derived 
from the most careful cultivation. 
Jiulu lit rial Sadies. 
FARMER GARRULOUS TALKS. 
Dear Ritra l :—You have sent me the re¬ 
quest of one of your subscribers that I 
should redeem my promise, made last April 
iu the Rural New-Yorker, to tell 
What Made John a Model Hired Man. 
I am going to do it, although with the vari¬ 
ous farm duties which have devolved upon 
me since then, it had almost gone out. of my 
memory. But I assure you I’ve not forgot¬ 
ten Joins'. This very day, 1 being absent, 
he has saved me a mouth's wages by taking 
the responsibility of taking the hands out of 
tJjfO hay field to dig for water in a springy 
jJace that had never before been dry. 
Three hours labor by three men secured an 
abundant How of pure w T ater, and my cows 
are saved from 1 hirst and my butter account 
from demoralization. 
How Joint become such a model was in 
this wise :—He came ,u m 3 uncouth, rough, 
w ith a feeling that every employer’s hand 
was against him and his hand should, there¬ 
fore, be kept in a defensive position against 
evei\v employer. 1 first began by making 
him feel t hat he was a man, and gave him to 
understand that J recognized that fact. 
Whereas he had been accustomed to going 
into farmers* kitchens and eating alone, 
without regard to cleanliness, I said: 
“ John, I want you to sit at the table with 
n- G°n t do as you always have, but try to 
. observe the formalities of civilized life in 
“ every minute particular.” 
Don t. you see what a lift I gave John at 
the outset ? T recognized his capacity to be 
taught; yet I made him feel that he needed 
— to learn. He learned to listen—only to 
speak when spoken to. He felt that he was 
placed in a position in which his honor and 
j. manhood were recognized, and he guarded 
IU both. Then, when we went into the field, 
he was taught, by era m pie tirst, to do what- 
>ti ever he saw needed to he done, and to keep 
his eyes open, that he might see. He was 
a* taught how to see; and he early learned to 
ie take the required time to do what, he did, 
r _ well; but ho was taught not to waste time 
j g doing it. for he was patiently shown how I 
ir wauted it done. 
ie The trouble is that employers cry out, 
ie “Stupidity! " and find fault with a man 
•p who docs not exercise the same judgment 
t _ they themselves exercise. They forget that 
<1 every person must receive a practical edu- 
y cation before he can do the right thing at 
r the right time and iu the right way. f never 
ji upbraided John if lie did not. do things 
y right. 1 simply quietly, and without any 
j, impatience in tone or manner, told anil 
showed him the right way, and gave him 
y the reason why it was the right way to do. 
{ He never forgot it; and when he did the 
I right thing, 1 was always sure to recognize 
j, it by commendation. That stimulated him 
l to think before acting, if, perchance, he 
( ever had to act upon his own responsibility; 
v and he was more careful to observe how I 
did things, aud listen to my directions, 
with the hope of meriting such eominenda- 
g tjou, 
j In all the minutiae of farm duties he was 
j taught ., by precept, and example, his duty, 
j I di<l not exact of him more hours of labor 
, than I would liave been willing to give. If 
j I wanted extra labor done, I gave him extra 
i pay. If I saw he was ill, or, by unusual ef¬ 
fort., in a condition in which he ought, not 
to work, I did not wait for him to say so, 
but recognized the fact and relieved him. 
He has been as much under my care as my 
own boy. T have treated him, so far as la¬ 
bor is concerned, with the same considera¬ 
tion. Do you suppose it has not paid ten¬ 
fold? Of course it has! Does he want to 
to leave me ? No, sir!—at least lie says not. 
Why, I'll do as every good merchant or 
banker would do by an equally faithful em¬ 
ployee—I'll take him into partnership first. 
He believes, is made to believe, and knows, 
that my interests are his—that he is a part¬ 
ner now. 
He recognizes my right to manage my own 
affairs in my own way and the sacred in¬ 
dividuality of every member of the family. 
Why? Because he realizes that his in¬ 
dividuality iH recognized. He is only held 
responsible for his actions so long as he acts 
for his employer. When he acts for him¬ 
self no questions are asked. No one asks 
him who he gets a letter from, whore he has 
been, or what he baa been doing if away for 
a holiday. “ Have you enjoyed yourself, 
John?” is the extent of the questioning in 
regard to his acts on such days; or, “have 
you good news, John?” if he receives and 
reads a letter iu our presence. 
If you say, Mr. Editor, that I am trying 
to prove John a Model Hired Man by prov¬ 
ing myself a Model Employer, and there¬ 
fore accuse me of ostentatious egotism, I 
reply, that I long ago learned by experience 
that the character, disposition and capacity 
of the men who came t<> me for employment, 
depended almost, wholly npon, and was re¬ 
flected by the character, disposition, capaci¬ 
ty and bubits of their former employers. A 
long experience, together with the reading 
of axioms, has taught me that if a mau 
would govern others wi ll he must first 
learn to govern himself; that if ho wants 
others to deal honorably with himself he 
must deal honorably by them; that if he 
wants an unbroken colt to draw he must 
teach him how; that if he wants his inte¬ 
rests looked after, he must not only look 
after them himself, but must make it an 
object to others to aid him; that If lie wants 
bis work done in a model manner, he must 
first kuow how to do it himself, aud then 
patiently teach those whom he employs how 
it should be done. That is the way to 
secure Model Hired Men. 
Farmer Garrulous. L 
