oo 
)c Umtijarb. 
AMONG THE GRAPES. 
Come with me, friends of the Rural 
New-Yorker, and let us go among the 
grapes. I have nothing specially new to 
show you, but each year as the varieties 
ripen I like to have my friends go with me 
among them, taste this and that, and com¬ 
pare ; for it is by such comparisons that I 
learn. We do not all taste alike, and yet 
alter I have had a half dozen friends with 
me an hour or two, tasting of this and that 
variety, and go over their notes, 1 find that 
whatever their prejudices from long aeqaint- 
ance with a variety they inadvertently tell 
what their taste says at the time. Rut come, 
lets go. Here first we come to the 
Milos. 
The vine is one given me by Charles 
Downing, four years since, and has since 
the second year borne a full crop, and so far 
has been the first sweet eating grape on the 
place. It is true the berry and the bunch 
are both small, hut the vine ;s so hardy, It 
ripens so early and so evenly, hangs so long 
—say six weeeks after it is fit to eat—for 
these now, as you see, arc firm to the hunch. 
It is September 4th ; and August 4th many 
tasters went with me among my vines, and 
all wanted to cat; so, also, my children. It 
is a little thick in skin, and while the flesh 
is sweet, and rich, and spicy, the seeds are 
large, and there is a hardness of the flesh 
surrounding them, that as you see, even 
now has not gone, nor will it. Rut, good 
friend Rural, you, as well as 1, and every 
one who grows grapes, want one or more 
vines, according as we have room, of the 
Miles. You see our soil is a stiff shaley 
clay, and by many who pretend to, but 
don’t know their subject, would he called a 
hard chance; yet you see Miles has done 
well in it. And here is 
Loitnn, 
just six feet from Miles, and planted same 
time. It is an early sort, but you see the 
hunches are far from being good; yet the 
berries are almost as large as Isabella. Rut 
while it colors early it does not ripen 
as early as Hartford, has a hard center, 
drops its foliage, and no man who knows 
grapes should plant it. And now we have 
next 
Ail! roml nek. 
All these vines you see are planted and 
cultivated alike, in a thin, shaley clay, six 
by eight feet apart, no underdrainage, but 
care given to surface drainage. So we can 
judge pretty well of their comparative 
values on such soils; but with some it may 
be no test of value for sandy or rich alluvial 
loams. Here, I say, is Adirondack, given 
me by its promulgator, J. W. Bailey, and 
its bunches, as you see, are full, every berry 
ripe, and while it is sweet, the sweet is wa¬ 
tery, like that of a watermelon, rather than 
like the richness of a grape. And Just here 
comes an item of taste. You, perhaps, 
like this watery sweet, while your neighbor 
prefers the harsh astringeucy which is in 
this liLLlc 
Winslow, 
a variety that ranch resembles the Clinton, 
but has smaller, or rather shorter bunches, 
with berries of about the same size; and, 
although they color as early as Miles, and 
get fit to cat—if they are ever fit to cat—by 
the time Adirondack comes in, yet they will 
hold until after frost, as well as Clinton, and 
make a superior red wine. Next we have 
lisriiollit, 
which does not, as you see, color as soon as 
Adirondack, but makes a fine, compact 
bunch, and is just about, as good as the 
Miles in quality, with the same thick skin 
and hard center. It is the best, however, 
for the public, of the two that Dr. Chant 
ever sent out; and had he confined himself 
to this and pushed it, the public would have 
had greater benefit than from the one he did 
push. What! You don't believe me? 
Well, 1 Can’t help it; there are some others 
who do not; and yet I tell you Dr. Grant 
did more by his misrepresentations of the 
Iona as being an early maturing grape, and 
by his sending out of many thousands of 
miserable, soft, spongy, half-ripened, rooted 
vines, to injure grape-growing and its pro¬ 
gress, than any man who lias lived during 
the last half century. But let’s to a vine of 
Ionn, 
just eight feet from Miles’, planted at the 
same time—a fivo-dollar plant—and see how 
its fruit compares with n Catawba planted 
a year afterward, and now in the next row, 
eight, feet.distant. The Iona had a few mis¬ 
erable bunches on it last year for the first 
time; and now it has some good ones, and 
they arc colored; so are the Catawbas, but 
neither are fit to cal. 1 know the Iona is a 
good grape, aye, a superior grape when it 
can be got ripe, but it takes a long season to 
do it—as long as for the Catawba or Diana; 
and then it won’t hear grief, no more than 
its first promulgator, but must be constantly 
pelted ; and even then is only good In cer¬ 
tain sections. Now let us to the next, the 
Conqueror. 
But wliat its originator could have imag¬ 
ined it to conquer no man can tell. There 
it is—a round black grape of the size of a 
small Delaware, a bunch with six berries on 
it—stop! here is a hunch which has seven 
berries! Give the devil his due, and then 
kick him out., and his other New Jersey 
humbug, called the 
Chatlr nut>, 
with round berries of color of Catawba, and 
half its size; hunches containing about eight 
or ten berries each, and so foxy and harsh 
that, like a crab apple, it is good when noth¬ 
ing else of its kind can be had. Now we 
come to the 
Telegraph, 
and you sec Low it is loaded, how vigorous 
its vine, Low compact its hunches. It is 
not a rich, but a pleasant grape—not os 
sweet or as foxy as Hartford, when ripe, but 
when the Hartford is still sour this grape is 
(it to eat and sell; and that was about Au¬ 
gust 15; blit to-day—September 4—you see 
it. is not as rich and sweet, although its 
hunches are handsomer, and its berries hold 
to the peduncle, instead of dropping as does 
the Hartford ; and so it would sell better in 
the market. I think Col. Ericas did a good 
thing when Ik; advised us to grow the Tele¬ 
graph for an early market grape. Next we 
Lave the 
IVOH, 
with its vigor of vine and long, half-com¬ 
pact hunches of fruit, so foxy that it can be 
scented at from ten to forty rods from the 
vines. It, is a berry, however, that colors 
early, its early as Hurt lord or Telegraph, 
and sells in market. But how any white 
man, much less a man of refined taste and 
education, like our friend Meehan of the 
Gardeners’ Monthly, could ever say it was 
good to cat, or jus good as the Concord, 1 am 
at a loss to understand. But, as I said tie- 
fore, tastes (litter; and it’s not one grape that, 
is going to suit the multitude, no matter 
wlmt our Eumeluu or Walter friends may 
say; lor a man who would wish either a 
Eumelan or a Walter, would spurn the Ives 
as tit only, as it is, for making a good, rich, 
red wine. You ask, What is this next? 
Why, it is 
Rlslnboro. 
You say its hunches and berries look like 
Norton’s Virginia. So they do; but while 
Norton’s is only fit, for a heavy red wine, 
this little neglected grape is sprightly, rich 
and sweet, to cat out of Land, as you see. 
You like it. ? Yes, so I supposed you would ; 
and twenty years ago it was a gem among 
grapes for table use in the early part of the 
grape season ; but its day lias gone by, and 
while I like and keep it, yet if you or 1 bad 
only room for fifty vines, we would not plant 
it. But it is good, and a proof that not all 
the largest, products of this earth are best. 
My wife and my children like it, and / thiuk 
they are good judges. Here next is 
Black Hawk. 
with small, round, compact hunches; ber¬ 
ries of about the size of Concord ; sweet and 
rich, hut so foxy—hah ! how could any sen¬ 
sible man like its originator, and, knowiug 
the progress of grape knowledge, over have 
the hardihood to send it out? Our next is 
A Ivey, 
which you see is small, a little more than half 
thesize of the Isabella, with loose, straggling, 
poor bunches; but the grape, as you taste, 
is good, yet not as good us Miles, whose 
hunches are better; nor is it as good us the 
Telegraph, although it may be a little richer 
and more astringent,. Rut, to go a little 
further, step here to a 
Co ucorit. 
Why, this is just as ripe and a great deal 
better. No sensible man will ever he the 
planter of Alvcy, except for the purpose of 
making up a variety. Next iu our row is 
Othello, 
or Arnold’s No. t, with a fine, handsome 
bunch ; berries of about two-thirds the size 
of Concord, and with a harsh, Clinton char¬ 
acter of fiesh, and an acid that, may soften if 
the season is long enough. It’s not fit to cat 
now, any more than Clinton, Catawba, Iona, 
Norton, or Herbcmonl, etc.—of which, at a 
future day, you are invited to go with me 
and examine, if so you would like. 
You say 1 have passed the Hartford and 
the Concord. Yes, so I have; hut only be¬ 
cause 1 thought you knew litem so well that 
we had not a word to say. Rut let’s take 
thought. On my clay land here, as you sec, 
character, that makes it always liked.” And 
what is this next? This big hunch and 
berry? That ! oh, that is the 
Wilder. 
Came to me as Rogers’ 4, from the world’s 
friend, Ron. Marshall P Wilder; and 
while it is a noble grape, it has not the su¬ 
periority over other varieties that character¬ 
izes the man after whom it was named. The 
hunches, as you sec, are uneven; there are a 
few large and splendid ones and there are 
many with only two to eight berries on them 
—a trait that the hybridizing by Air. Rogers 
of the native with foreign lias kept to the 
native strongly with all the sorts. For ex¬ 
ample, here is Agawam, Massasoit, Merri¬ 
mack, &c. In all these varieties, however, 1 
incline to the belief, as I and others have 
found practically with all the strong growing 
sorts, that we must, in pruning, calculate for 
all the lower or first buds to he rubbed away 
and grow our fruit on the buds beyond as 
well as on the strong laterals. Turn uow to 
this vine of 
Agawam 
which I have so managed and sec the bunch¬ 
es—large, long, full and fair, while the next 
to it, as you see, of the same sort, has only 
two to four good bunches, and the balance 
are broken ones with half a dozen or so of 
berries to each. The one I trimmed accord¬ 
ing to my belief; the other I let alone. 
“Rut Frank you have said nothing of, nor 
shown me the 
Kuinclna.” 
No; That’s so. I passed it; for while the 
vines, as you know, are good growers, it has 
not been set out, until the past year, into 
hands except where Dr. Grant thought he 
could win approval. That it is a good grower, 
and a good grape, none who have seen the 
vines or eaten of the fruit can doubt; but. its 
profitableness is—its bearing qualities, its 
general form of bundles, and its actual period 
of coming into eating condition are points 
yet to bo learned, and only learned as we are 
now learning by comparing them, vine and 
vine, side and side, variety to variety. 
The Cruii of drape*. 
“And, Frank, what think you of the 
general crop of grapes this year, and, also, 
what of the statements of Elliott that 
there are two million acres of vines in the 
United States?” 
“ What think I ? Why, that this year of 
1870 is the best year for grape growing and 
ripening that has been in the United Stales 
since 1845. And the crop of all varieties 
will average seven-eighths of a full and per¬ 
fect. crop, the grapes will all ripen, and the 
berry, but unfortunately it does not produce 
good bunches nor many of them. That 
next is 
IHiixiiian'iicy. 
And the more I see and know of it, year 
after year, the more I feel to commend it. 
It has been said to be a late maturing sort, 
but here it is—and here is 
Itcbt'ccn, 
twenty feet from it, and which is best? 
You say Maxatawney; and I think you are 
correct. My vines came from the Agricul¬ 
tural Department Grounds,and are the only 
good thing 1 ever got from them, and for 
which I choose to give them this blind 
credit, albeit not any one now in charge had 
then, I think, anything to do with it. But 
now Step over a little way; here is 
Croton, 
a new grape, not yet sent out for sale, the 
vine only planted last year. See t hose three 
beautiful hunches ! It had set seven, but I 
cut the others away; taste that, and com¬ 
pare it. Aye, you say, “ best; best of all I 
have tasted among the whole,” Just so; T 
believe in keeping the best, to the last, and 
then you, being nearly full, will leave me 
my share of that which is best, hut had I 
given you the best first, you would not have 
eaten or read to the last, Frank Avion. 
than Early Crawford,—an item which, if it 
sustains, when grown in varied localities, will 
unquestionably make it valuable; that it is 
as large as the Early Crawford—an item 
that may be, and doubtless is, with the 
growth of the Early Crawford in the doctor’s 
grounds, but as we have before written, not 
with us; that it is as handsome as the Early 
Crawford—an item that it fully sustains, and 
I think exceeds. It is certainly a beautiful 
peach; that it is as firm for marketing as 
lomolagiail. 
FRUITS RECEIVED. 
BY F. K. ELLIOTT. 
O. F. Brand, of Faribault, Minnesota, 
sends me, August 24th, an apple of the crab 
species under the name of 
Berry, 
of which is herewith an outline and descrip¬ 
tion. 
The fruit is small, oblate, a clear, creamy 
yellow, mottled and marbled, in sun expo¬ 
Hartford holds its berries well, yet in my 
neighbor’s, just across the road, in sandy 
loam, they drop as soon as well colored- The 
Hartford, as you taste, is sweeter, but more 
foxy or musky than the Concord, and al¬ 
though it does really ripen a few days sooner, 
yet the Concord, in warm localities, will go 
into market as soon, and because of its com¬ 
pact and better hunches, will sell first. 
“But you would not discard the Hart¬ 
ford ?” 
“No! And yet I would never plant it for 
market it I could get Telegraph. I would 
always Uave a few vines for my own and 
children’s eating, for there is a richness, a 
sweetness combined with its strong- na»ive 
people will learn more and more that grape 
eating is healthy, a nd th e grower will learif 
that he call grow gTiT]?U at three cents a 
pound and then pay him better than any 
other crop with which his poor or hill}' 
tnd could possibly lie cropped. 
As to the statement of Elliott, it’s like 
all stat istics, good guess work of a man who 
has diligently watched and thought of the 
subject, and is just as near the truth—al¬ 
though 1 believe he is below the amount— 
as any statement, of statistics ever published. 
A ll this matter of statistics is guess work, 
made up from the reports of politicians and 
well-to-do farmers, who often have not 
traveled or known ought of the matter five 
miles from their homes, and read only their 
home paper, lint the question comes to 
them from the Agricultural Department at 
Washington: — “How many acres of corn 
are there grown in your county ? ” 
“ Well,” says the answerer, “ neighbor 
Brown hasten acres; Smith has twenty; 
Poole has five ;” and so figuring along, re¬ 
membering his own acquaintance, hut void 
of knowledge of his whole county, he puts 
down figures, and the Department at Wash¬ 
ington assumes authority thereon. It’s all 
bosh! Rut let us again to the grape;. Here’s 
Delaware, 
which we all know, and none doubt its 
goodness; but some do doubt its profitable¬ 
ness as a market, sort, on accoun t of its 
lessened weight per acre not compensating 
in extra price over the crops of Concord at 
its price; and here’s 
Walter. 
Good, is it not? and yet. the vine was only 
planted last year. Its hunch is full, and its 
berry not larger thau Delaware, a little 
richer, with more of hard center; but here 
taste that Mottled ; it is richer ami sweeter 
than either Walter or Delaware; but its 
hard center kills it; and so, I am afraid, will 
the Walter die. Both came from Diana, 
without a doubt; both are rich in quality; 
both are hardy in vine; both make good, 
compact bunches, and an abundance of 
them ; but neither one will ever be the peo¬ 
ple’s grape. Here’s 
Detroit and Hi lie, 
both good, both evidently from Catawba, a 
little smaller in the berry, and coloring, and 
perhaps ripening a little earlier; hut as we 
have only a bunch or two, and this the first 
year of the vine’s bearing, don’t let us say a 
word, but pass them for another year. As 
we arc getting tired, let. us just to the white 
grapes and then rest. There, that is 
Lydia. 
Sweet and rich, is it not ? A good-sized 
RICHMOND TKACH. 
sure, with a clear, light, carmine red; stem 
slender, curved, about one inch long; calyx, 
in a very shallow basin and closed ; fiesh, yel¬ 
lowish crisp, and little or no better than 
Yellow Siberian, but perhaps a little more 
mild, and as it ripens at about the same lime, it 
will, of course, make a variety of that class 
and time of ripening, but us a fruit of value 
to the public, even in high northern lati¬ 
tudes, I doubt its being of superior value. 
Richmond l’enrU. 
From Dr. E. Ware Sylvester I have 
specimens of his Seedling peach, which last 
year was written of as the. Richmond. In 
the Horticultural Annual of 1870 I made a 
short description of the same. The speci¬ 
mens now received are certainly handsome, 
and of good fair size, hut not., as the Doctor 
claims, “ as large as tlio Early Crawford ”— 
at least not as large as that variety grows in 
my grounds, and from a tree of which I 
have just gathered and compared. Dr. 
Sylvester says in his letter that lie meas¬ 
ured one the day of writing me that measured 
nine by eight inches ; hut the specimens re¬ 
ceived measure only about seven and a-half 
inches, while many of our Crawfords meas¬ 
ure nine and a-half by eleven. 
The origin of the Richmond, Dr. Sylves¬ 
ter writes, is one of two selected from five 
hundred trees grown from selected seed—a 
point that shows how many chances of suc¬ 
cess there arc to him who is willing to de¬ 
vote his time, care, labor and expense to the 
subject. The doctor makes for this variety 
the following claims That it is more hardy 
.TU.TUBE rr.UM AND OUTLINE. 
Early Crawford—an item to which assent is 
given; and that it is as sweet as any first- 
rate white peach—an item in which I differ 
with the doctor, while, at the same time, I 
consider it equal to Bergen’s fellow, hut 
surpassed by Sturtevant. 
To conclude, no yellow fleshed peach has 
yet ever been seen by me that equaled in 
delicacy, juiciness, sweetness and richness, 
a well ripened Coolidgc’s Favorite, or 
Grosso Mignonne. My present description 
of the Richmond would little vary from that 
in the Horticultural Annual, so far as form 
and color ; yet nearly all have a drupe Of 
point at apex, and a well marked line or 
sature half round. On account of its 
promise of hardihood, as well as its beauty 
and quality, the variety should have exten¬ 
sive trial. 
-«••*•*- 
P0M0L0GICAL GOSSIP. 
.Tujulu* Plum. 
I send you, by to-day’s mail, a few of the 
Jujube Plums, or “Jujubes,” as 
they are most commonly culled here, 
having lately seen in some of the 
Northern journals remarks concern¬ 
ing this fruit. It grows most abun¬ 
dantly in this section, and is easily 
propagated from the seed, though 
trees can be procured from any first- 
class Southern nursery. From all I 
know of this fruit, it is, or at least 
ought to be, the principal ingredient 
in making Jujube paste, though I 
much prefer the fruit in ils natural 
state. There are many persons, 
however, who have no taste for them. 
—F. W. Heuoman, Baton Rouge, 
La., Aug. 215, 1870. 
We give, herewith, illustrations 
(sectional and complete) of the fruit 
received. There are several species 
of the Jujube, or Zkyphus—a genus 
of spiny, deciduous shrubs and 
trees of the natural order Ilham- 
We suppose the variety grown in 
the South is Z. vulgaris. We should not get 
very much attached to the fruit, judging by 
the flavor of the specimens received; hut 
we suppose a liking might, he acquired, es¬ 
pecially when the fruit can be plucked from 
the trees and eaten fresh. 
Tlic. Eumelan (irnjic. 
Georoe W. Campbell writes the Coun¬ 
try Gentleman :—“ The experience of the 
present season convinces me that this va¬ 
riety should be planted cautiously, iu all re¬ 
gions where mildew, or oidium, prevails to 
any serious extent. I regret to say this, for 
I am specially pleased, not only with the 
strong habit of growth of this vine, but also 
with the quality of the fruit, and truly hoped 
it might prove worthy in all respects of the 
high commendations with which it has been 
introduced. The present season is unusually 
favorable in this locality, for the growth of 
the vine, and grapes have not ripened as 
early or us perfectly within the last ten 
years. Such varieties as Concord, Hartford, 
Telegraph, Martha, Ives, Blackhawk, &c., 
arc wholly free from mildew—fruit and fo¬ 
liage perfect — while Delaware, Allen’s 
White Hybrid, Eumelan, Diana, Hamburgh, 
and all varieties having more delicate fo¬ 
liage, have mildewed to some exrent, lint of 
all those named, the Eumelan has suffered 
most, and was thy first, upon which it ap¬ 
peared here. 1 am induced to make these 
remarks on account of having seen the Eu¬ 
melan recommended :ts 4 well adapted to 
any locality in which the Concord can 
thrive,’ which statement cannot be correct. 
I have seen no mildew upon the Concord 
anywhere this season, and I have not seen 
the Eumelan anywhere free from it. There 
are, doubtless, many sections where the Eu¬ 
melan can be grown and ripened in a favor¬ 
able season, and in such places it will be, I 
think, a valuable and profitable variety on 
account of its vigorous growth, curliness, 
and excellent quality. Rut for general cul¬ 
tivation, or for localities subject to mildew, 
I do not think it safe to recommend it.” 
small 
nacm. 
llovcr’e Scedliui; Strawberry, 
whieli has a big Boston reputation, lias re¬ 
ceived this blow from a Boston paper. The 
Journal of Horticulture says:—“It cannot 
compete with Wilson’s Albany in profit, 
and, therefore, is more and more being su¬ 
perseded by it.” 
