MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
jan. a 
grarg of a Moralist. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
Prom the Diary of a Centleman near New 
York City. 
borers in grape vines. 
Dec. 21.—The following letter, with the 
specimens of vine3 accompanying it, has just 
reached me: 
Editoks Rural New-Yorker -.—Will you 
do me the kindness to hand the accompany¬ 
ing section Of grape vine to Mr. “ Ruraliat,” 
and to give me his opinion upon it ? It is n 
portion of a Concord grape vine which, when 
pruning, I discovered to be infested bv a 
pom'. Is this a new enemy of the grape f I 
can find nothing in Hcsman or Meade to 
enlighten me nor in Copeland, nor Thomas. 
The operation of the insect is confined to the 
arms m l one upright cane, which last, I send 
you. Fortunately this is the only one out of 
400 or 500 vinos which appears to beattacked. 
I presume that the best course for me will bo 
to cut off the vino at the stock and burn the 
infested portions. — Richard T. Allison, 
BolUmorc Co., Aid. 
I could Rod no insects in the grapo wood 
sent, but there were several small round 
holes, which showed that, some kind of borer 
had been at work upon it. From the size 
and appearance of the holes 1 conclude that 
the insect which did the mischief was the 
well known Twig borer (Awphicerus bimu- 
dalus of Say). It is a small, cylindrical bee¬ 
tle, about three-eighths of an inch long and 
a sixteenth in diameter. The color is dark 
brown, nearly black, the wing cases are 
smooth and finely punctured, the head cov¬ 
ered with coarse, wan-like tubercles. It is 
the perfect beetle which attacks and feeds 
upon the wood and pith of the vine or tree 
and not the larva, as is usually the case with 
wood borers. Apple trees are in some local¬ 
ities seriously injured by this insKct,, as it 
attacks the young twigs, eating out the pith, 
causing death to the affected parte. 
In some of our Western States, vineyards 
have suffered severely from the attacks of 
this beetle, and several of my correspond¬ 
ents in Nebraska informed me that it was so 
abundant in their grape vines last year that 
few sound canes could be found suitable for 
cuttings. 
There are several other species of insects 
belonging to the same or nearly allied genera, 
which attack the grape vine in a similar 
manner, either in the larva or perfect state. 
T have received two species of Folycaon 
from Texas, the larvea of which bore out 
the pith of grape vines, confining themselves 
mainly to the young canes. 
I should be pleased to get specimens of the 
insect which is at work upon your vines in 
order to be certain whether it is the one 
named above or not. In sending such speci¬ 
mens they should be put in u tight tin or 
wooden box ; then, if the insects crawl out 
of the wood during transit, they cannot es¬ 
cape, as is usually the case when paper boxes 
are used for such purposes. It is scarcely 
necessary to say that with all the “twig- 
borers,’’the cutting off and burning of the 
infested branches with their contents, is the 
most certain method of preventing and fur¬ 
ther increase of the pests. 
THE FIRST SNOW. 
Yesterday we had a snow storm, the first 
worth mentioning this season. Nearly or 
quite two feet of snow fell, and to-day it 
looks like winter, although the weather is 
quite warm for this time of the year. I’ve 
been thinking, as I look out upon the snow- 
covered earth, of the poor crickets and the 
ants which find themselves to-day under 
quite different circumstances. The first are 
overwhelmed with adverse fate, while the 
latter are snugly ensconsed in a warm, com¬ 
fortable home aud a full larder. 
There are crickets in every community, 
both in oity and country; they dance and 
sing when fortune smiles, gathering little 
where an abundance might be harvested, but 
an adverse breeze sends them begging of the 
ants, who must give, or be treated as ene¬ 
mies of humanity. But. let us be thankful 
that there are crickets, for were there none 
the ants would scarcely be appreciated, even 
by their own kind. 
THE SHOW ON EVERGREENS. 
Dec.. 23.—The two feet of snow which fell 
last, Suuday, being quite moist, clung to the 
trees with great tenacity, and particularly 
to the evergreens, bending their branches, in 
many instances, almost to the breaking point. 
As soon as the storm ceased I had the snow 
shaken from all the specimens in my grounds 
which appeared in danger of injury, and 
since, 1 have had an excellent opportunity 
to observe how carefully nature has prepared 
herself for just such emergencies. The tall, 
slender, pyramidal evergreens are mainly 
natives of cold climates where snows fall in 
wintjr, and this is the very best form that 
cou;d be devised for preventing the lodgment 
of any considerable quantity upon the top or 
where it could do any great injury. It can 
readily be seen if the natural form of such 
trees was reversed, or were the head# broad 
and flat, the weight of snow lodging thereon 
would break down the most sturdy specimen. 
All the round headed and similar-shaped 
specimens of evergreens in my grounds are 
twisted and bent into various shapes by the 
snow which clings to them to-day ; and it 
can easily be imagined now how a flat-top 
or broadly oval - shaped evergreen hedge 
would be mutilated by such a storm. T have 
seen many such hedges, and while they may 
answer in some localities, it is not the best 
form for regions where there is much snow 
in winter. The pyramidal form is the best, 
for all kinds of hedges, whether evergreen or 
deciduous, because it is tho strongest and the 
least liable to be Injured by snow and ice. 
Something may be learned about garden¬ 
ing even during a snow storm, and this ‘rally¬ 
ing the form of trees, shrubs and hedges 
which best withstand the snows of winter is 
a point, which many persons appear to have 
overlooked. The fitness of things belongs to 
the whole year, and not to one season. 
it Utneprd. 
“TOUCHING GBAPE8.” 
The above was my heading of an article in 
the Rural Nkw-Yokkkk of 21st November, 
and the criticisms there made, as 1 suppose 
by the editor, were in consonance with my 
views of editorial duty, viz:—“No article 
void of the editor’s ideas of correct princi¬ 
ples should be admitted without comment,” 
The outside writers may possibly, at times, 
know more than the editor, but the criti¬ 
cism of the said editor brings the subject 
more boldly to the public readers and often 
brings out thoughts from others that would 
rot otherwise have been shown, I am, 
therefore, thankful to the Editor of the 
Rural New Yorker for his comments -to 
which I shall try and make reply. 
I have not said that our propagators of 
the grape are less capable or less honest 
than those of a half century back : but 1 do 
say that the passion for possession of money, 
with knowledge that a salable vine could be 
produced from an imperfect bud, induced 
too much of propagation from imperfect 
bud3, and underaction of stimulating heats 
and moistures, so that while the plant sent 
out, showed long, soft, knobby roots, with a 
tolerable stem of one to two buds upon it , 
thousands of plants were grown and sold 
and planted profitable to the grower and 
seller, in a time-being sense, but unprofitable 
to the buyer and planter. Why the latter’s 
loss and unprofitableness ? Simply this no 
perfect plant, flower, fruit or animal can be 
grown from imperfect, unripe parentage. 
The growers then knew this as well as they 
know it to-day ; but the passion and desire 
for money became a feature leading over all 
of honor or respect touching the supplying 
of the people with plants that had in them 
the natural vigor tliat, belonged to its parent. 
I regret to say a word of this strictly, but 
your sharp, keen, critical words touching 
my ideas, compel me to tell you that you 
know—and, if it becomes needful for me to 
write it, there are a dozen or more who 
grow grapes from imperfect buds, and by 
means of extra false heats, out of nature’s 
own season, and so toned vitality down the 
scale of life to become a loss to all who 
bought of them, and finally to themselves. 
Now, with deference, let me extract from 
your good, kindly, editorial criticism, as 
follows: 
“ Besides this, Mi*. Elliott knows full well, 
from personal observation, that the failure 
of the Catawba, Isabella and several other 
old sorts commenced long before the hot¬ 
beds. forcing - houses, and short or green 
wood cuttings from vines grown under glass 
came Into vogue. Therefore the partial or 
total failure of the old standard sorts in cer¬ 
tain localities cannot be attributed to this 
cause, even if it has had some effect upon the 
new varieties, which we very much doubt.” 
Permit Mi*. Elliott to say that he knows 
no such thing as the above comprises. The 
Isabella and Catawba, etc., of the varieties 
sent out l y the old nurserymen, who grew 
them from strong, well-ripened shoots and 
buds, are just as vigorous to-day, and have 
been every year since they were so sent out, 
as they were the first years of their intro¬ 
duction. To-day vines of Isabella and Ca- 
tawba can be found that have combined, 
over sixty or more years, in health and pro¬ 
ductiveness. 
The “ failureof old standard sorts,” as you 
state it, was not from anything of them¬ 
selves ; but the first break-dow n of them 
was by the over-pruning pursued by the 
growers, and the propagating of new vine- 
vineyards from plant# grown from single 
and imperfect buds. The native grape—for 
so we must term Catawba and Isabella—has 
of itself a growth and want corresponding 
with our American people ; and when the 
Germans, from whom all our early errors 
and lines of pruning and training the grape 
came, undertook to narrow the practice of 
vine culture of the brood scope of America, 
to the confines of the steep and rugged hills 
of the Rhine, they stopped in and destroyed 
for a time the progress in the grape culture, 
as they have in other items of progress be¬ 
longing to our country, to which we have 
welcomed them. One more quotation, Mr. 
Editor: 
“Our own study of the physiology of the 
grape vine leads us to believe that a plant 
produced fr ni a riogle bud i * not necessarily 
less vigorous or valuable than one grown 
from a cutting containing a half dozen or 
more. In fact, if om* American system of 
propagating tho vine by usinu less wood 
than they do in Europe for cuttings is not an 
advanced step, we must confess ourselves 
imbeciles and not capable of learning any- I 
thing from experience.” 
In this of the life and vigor of one bud 
producing as good a plant as three of the 
same, I shall not now go into dispute. I 
shall say this, however, that, cuttings with 
two buds below the ground, when planted 
for growth, have a tendency to and do from 
these undergrowing 1 ads force early roots 
to support and aid the growth of the upper 
bud in advance of what it would have in 
open, cold culture from one hud. In this I 
am willing to confess myself an ” imbecile,” 
and when you bring the item of practice of 
growing the grape vine from cuttings in the 
open ground from a, single bud as readily 
and healthy as from two or three, then 1 
shall believe in my “imbecility.” Mean¬ 
time T go for vigor of parentage in vegetable 
as well as animal life. I will acknowledge 
one claim in the nhove-quoted paragraph, 
viz :—a single, ripe bud has all the powers of 
a seed ; but in an unripe condition, while it 
may be forced into life growth by artificial 
means, it would not in the nature of things 
grow any more than an imperfect seed, and 
if once grown by artificial force as soon as it 
leaves that force its vitality is lost. It is to 
this that hundreds and thousands of vines 
grown in the forcing pits and houses when 
planted in the open ground maintained a 
feeble growth, one and perhaps two years, 
then passed away. Much more can be said 
or written, good, talented Rural New- 
Yorker editor, but enough toward you un¬ 
til I get a “rap back.”— F. R. Elliott. 
We fail to see the furee of Mr. Eli iott’s 
arguments in attributing the failure of any 
known variety to improper modes of propa¬ 
gation. Admitting that a few men did, for 
two or three years, propagate vines from 
unripe or imperfect buds, it could not have 
had any effect upon sorts that were not nor 
never have been submitted to these claimed- 
to-be unhealthy processes. We admit that 
there are at the present time Catawba and 
Isabella vines just as healthy as they were 
fifty or sixty years ago ; but others, in fact 
millions, have died out through disease, and 
we think Mr. Elliott will admit it has not 
been caused in these old sorts, at least, 
through propagating from single immature 
buds forced under glass, because the vines 
were far too abundant even when the late 
grape fever began or was at its bight to war¬ 
rant such expensive modes of propagation. 
The Concord, Rogers’ Hybrids, and many 
other vigorous-grow ing and mainly healthy 
sorts were largely props gated at ope time 
from single buds, aud under glass, but the 
process seems to have had no deleterious 
effect3 upon these naturally healthy varie¬ 
ties. We believe the causa of deterioration 
of sorts l.if there is any) must be looked for 
in another direction. 
Mi*. Elliott has, in fact, abandoned his 
first position in attributing the failure of all 
the varieties to improper modes of propa¬ 
gation, and uow makes tho Isabella and Ca¬ 
tawba exceptions, because they were not 
subjected to it• but lie now brings forward 
the old story of the original Germans who 
clip the wings of our great American eagle 
too close for health and long life; or, in other 
words, rsserts that our native grapes will not 
submit to close pruning. There may be va¬ 
rieties which require a little more room than 
others, as well as those which produce better 
fruit from buds a foot from the base of the 
new shoots than from those within an inch 
or two; but the variations are so slight that 
we must conclude on the whole that the 
same physiological laws governing vegeta¬ 
tion in Europe are potent in America. It 
seems to work well in pears, apples and all 
other fruits, and we have failed to discover 
in theory or practice why it should not apply 
to the grape. We do not hesitate to assert 
that this very long pruning, resulting aheays 
in overbearing, has done more to produce 
disease and cause failure than all other 
causes combined. 
If Mr. Elliott, or anybody else, desires to 
have the newly-planted vines throw out a 
new set of roots from the stem, above the 
original ones, we cannot see what there is to 
prevent planting a vine grown from a single 
bud deep enough to insure this as well as one 
of the old long-shank sort. 
Jiulustrial ®o|ics. 
FARMER GARRULOUS’ TALK. 
STUDYINO THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DOMESTIC AHIMALS. 
I have a neighbor, N. W., who succeeds 
in breeding and rearing well whatever ani¬ 
mals he chooses. His success is marked. He 
has no diseased animals. His poultry, 
pigeons, pigs and cows are nil healthy and 
thrifty. I said to him to-day, “How is it 
that .you succeed when so many more ex¬ 
perienced men lai) }” “Well,” said he, “I’ll 
tell you thermly way in which I can account 
for it. I study the physiology of my ani¬ 
mals just as I do rny own physiology, and 
apply the same hygienic treatment to them, 
substantially, that I do to mj’self. In other 
words them arc. certain principles or laws 
which govern the health of animals of all 
kinds. These I endeavor to master, and I 
treat my animals much as a physician would 
n parish of men and women if he was hired 
to look after their hygienic condition, and 
prescribe food, exercise, &e., so as t-o insure 
constant and perfect health. Hence I am 
frequently asked for information l\y men 
who ought- to have known more than I do 
twenty ypars ago, but. who have lived among 
and taken caro of live «iock all their lives 
without, apparently', learning anything be¬ 
yond the routine their fathers taught them 
and who will dose an animal that seems to 
be ailing with villainous M uff any one, how¬ 
ever ignorant, may choose to prescribe.” 
Now, I happen to know that what my frier d 
says is true ; but tho fact Is many of the 
1 humans who take care of brutes are as in¬ 
capable of doing the right thing at the right 
time as are the animals dependent upon them. 
HOW TO BR1H0 ABOUT RGHUhS. 
I have a neighbor who is an avowed “ re¬ 
former”— the most blatant, inconsiderate, 
illogical and injudicious creature within m/* 
knowledge. He has an eye for every evil 
except those that pertain to himself. Ho car, 
see the faults of others, but he don’t aLtempt 
to pluck the beam out of his own eye. He 
can criticise hia neighbors’ agriculture, but 
he has no time to attend to bis own business, 
which is, consequently, sadly neglected. 
Mem.— Garrulous, do you look closely at 
home and see the things nearest to you that 
need to be done and do them I When you 
feel like finding fault with or “reforming” 
anybody, try it on yourself. I imagine you 
will find your hands full ! Somehow, I think 
you will wish you was some other fellow. 
GOING TO A CONVENTION. 
My neighbor Brisky has just returned 
from a convention of farmers. I oouldn’t go 
—it cost so much ; but somehow I wish, 
now, I had borrowed money, if necessary, 
and gone- Why ? Because of the refreshed 
and galvanized condition in which Brisky 
has returned. Why, sir, h6 seems like a 
new man. He smiles all over I Hia eyes 
have a new sparkle in them. His sentences 
about things are shorter and mean quite as 
much. He works now as if time were gold ; 
and I notice his work tells. Manifestly he 
has got many new ideas and some new pur¬ 
poses. I wish 1 had gone to the Convention. 
Brisky will scarcely get over the stimulus 
which that friction has given him, for a 
twelvemonth ; says he wouldn’t have missed 
it for threo times what it cost him, and I 
don’t think he would. There is a different 
atmosphere about his premises already. I’ll 
go next time, sure 1 
-« ♦». - ■ 
Industrial Topics we always like to have 
discussed in these columns. There is a cer¬ 
tain class of topics that cannot be otherwise 
classified and yet which are none the less 
important and interesting to all industrial 
men—such as the poliey of legislators rela¬ 
tive to farmers and other indi ries, the 
i ethics of farm life and the relations of em¬ 
ployer and employe. 
