MARCH 5 
164 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
fuse of bunches of large size, splendidly set until 
as big as buck shot, when they gradually mildew 
off (even It sulphured), until but a few straggling 
berries to a bunch are left—year by year repeated— 
I have given It up entirely. 
Tai.mas is exceedingly healthy, a luxuriant 
grower, and a proruse and constant bearer. Its 
foxluess, however, Is a grea’ drawback In my 
esteem, or I should cultivate It more extensively, 
especially as. unlike the Hartford, It. does not lose 
Its berries from the stem, and Is about as early. 
Kknkoa also does not drop its fruit, bas a larger 
berry than Hartford, better flavor, and I think Is 
destined entirely to supplant the latter. 
Isabella bears profusely apd ba 3 no loxttesg 
as tt has at the North, some years It rots badly 
in others not at all. It Is hardy and keeps Its 
leaves finely. 
I have on trial a great variety of the latest new 
kinds, including several from Commissioner Le 
Due, most of them with unheard-of names; but 
their evident, Vltls vlnirera origin hears even at 
present a sure Indication or their worthlessness 
here. 
Special Wine Grape*. 
I only cultivate llerbemont, Norton’s Virginia, 
Cynthlana, Cunningham, Herrmann, Rulander, 
Northern Muscadine, Mary Ann, Winslow, Marlon 
Port, Clinton, ltentz, Catawba, Seuppernong, and 
a few others ou trial Mixed to advantage with 
the above are concord, Ives’s Seedling, Martha, 
Pauline, and several other table grapes. These 
make wine As good as, lr not better than,two-thirds 
of the Frenoh wines of which 1 have had experi¬ 
ence during a residence of some years in France. 
Gallicized wines, however, or those well watered, 
sugared, alcoholized and bedeviled with dry es¬ 
sences and flavors, seem In this day and generation 
to please much better the perverted palates of 
quality of the fruit. (When will people learn to 
use something besides their eyes in buying fruit ?) 
After giving away and trying to sell for a week, 
the ladles or our family began canning them, and 
then we found that was the proper mode of dis¬ 
posing or them, and so we offered them In market 
as a canning berry, very much to the satisfaction 
or our customers as shown last season by a num¬ 
ber of letters received from families, asking to be 
supplied with the same variety, one lady saying 
they were the beat canned raspberry she bad ever 
had. 
From onr experience I consider It. a very prollflc 
and valuable variety for the family garden, but I 
would not now'recommend people to plant tt for 
market, except In a small way, until they find if It 
will sell In their market. If It will, then “ go In 
for It strong," “ there Is money in It.” 
South Glastonbury, Conn, J. II. iIale. 
GRAPES AND SMALL FRUITS IN TEXAS. 
The culture of small fruits Is not practiced to 
any great extent lu Southeastern Texas. This is 
attributable, first, to the uneongenlality of the 
climate, and, second, to the competition In the 
market, which the cultivated frul' has to meet 
from the Wild Dew Blackberries in their season, 
wlileh are Bold very cheap and sometimes enilrely 
glut the market. Gooseberries, currants and the 
finer sorts of raspberries are an entire failure. 
The bushes gradually die the first or second year 
after planting. 
Strawberries can be raised only on tbe annual 
plan; that Is, the suckers are planted out either 
during late Fall or Winter lor the scanty crop they 
will hear the following Spring. After beating, tbe 
stool plant will die during Summer, and the plan¬ 
tation has to be renewed from the strongest suck- 
1BV CAKCIINE RAS1BERRT.—FROM LIFE.—FIG. 146. 
SMALL FRUITS IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
Raspberries.— I have tried almost all sorts, but 
h&vo never yet found any suitable to this climate 
or worrit cultivating even for home use, save a lew 
of the Black Cap varieties. 
Blackberries.— None of the cultivated klDds 
pay ror market purposes. The native kinds grow 
mogt profusely everywhere., and In some sections 
are sent to market, while In others they are dried 
In Immense quantities, 
Strawberries generally do well, the Wilson (If 
we do not Include Miner’s Prolific) taking the lead 
over all tUe thousand and one new varieties (or 
old ones with new names) that have been tested 
here. The berries would be extensively cultivated 
could we get cheaper express rales of transpor¬ 
tation than at present prevail Myself and one 
other rather extensive grower about six miles 
from here, are about all that now cultivate straw¬ 
berries for the market, in this section. They 
prove, on the whole, anything hut profitable after 
the first two or three shipments, coming then Into 
competition with the low-priced fruit irom Mary¬ 
land and Delaware, so that with our present rate 
of ex press freight, we are obliged completely to 
abandon shipping before, perhaps, halt or me crop 
is gone. Accordingly the cultivation of strawber¬ 
ries has a yearly tendency to become less, for 
anything beyond home use. 
Currants, whether white, red or black, alter 
seven years trial In all possible ways, I have, like 
previous experimenters, altogether abandoned, 
they proving utterly barren and useless through 
what seems to he mildew. 
Gooseberries of the Houghton varieties do re¬ 
markably well and bear prorusely, only a few, 
however, are cultivated, and those merely for 
home use. 
Grape* 
I cultivate largely as they are almost a sure 
annual crop. Unlike peaches, they have never in 
my experience, been hurt by frosts with a single 
exception, and rarely does anything damage them 
In the least, provided those few sorts tlmt arc sub¬ 
ject to rot, are excluded. I have now In hearing 
about 30,000 vines of about 20 varieties, and con¬ 
template extending my vineyard to one or two 
hundred acres, if markets do not fall or become 
non-remuneractve. 
The varieties which constitute the hulk of my 
grapes at present are, Ives's seedling, Hartford 
Prolific, Concord, Salem and Martha. Catawba 
being almost annually more or less subject to leal 
blight, 1 have discontinued propagating. Dela¬ 
ware (excepting lu some seasons of leaf blight) does 
pretty well. It never rots; but Ido not care to 
plant It extensively, having other kinds of equal, 
if not better, flavor and far more profitable. The 
following varieties of 
ROGBKS’a Hybrids, It not planted In too rich 
soil, (in which case they rot badly) do well: 
No.l (Goethe), No. 15 (Agawam). No. 3, (\iassa- 
solt), No. 9, (Llndlej), No. 19 (Merrlmac), and a few 
others do well, sell quickly at good prices, being 
equal to or surpassing the Delaware lu flavor. Sa¬ 
lem does well if the wood Is kept young; and it Is 
splendldln flavor, and an excellent keeper, as Is also 
tne Diana; but Its liability to partial leaf blight and 
consequent uneven ripening, to my great regret, 
prevent me Horn extending its outturn. 
Miner’s Seedling Grates I have now tosled 
seven varieties of; but, as yet, i can speak ap¬ 
provingly of only one kind, viz., the Linden. 
This la a remivkably healthy, vigorous grower, 
and an abundant bearer. It la a little earlier than 
the Concord, of better flavor, and, unlike its par¬ 
ent, ripens Its ffiilt properly and uniformly. With 
me It seems destined to supplant the Concord en¬ 
tirely’, as the latter, In the most years, ripens Its 
fruit so unevenly that an annual loss is suttained 
of nearly one-halt the crop. Indeed here It is al¬ 
together a most undesirable and unprofitable 
shipping grape. 
1 am testing about 50 new varieties, but so far it 
remains for any that Have fruited to show any 
superiority over old kinds, the fulsome euloglums 
ol their propagators and others to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 
White Lady does welland bears profusely, ber¬ 
ries of tloh flavor as to sweetness; but the vine is 
such a miserable grower that 1 hardly care much 
to extend its culture. 
Janesville promises well in all respects, and Is 
about fl ve days earlier than Hartford. I expect to 
cultivate It very extensively. 
.Moure's Early, at present, l think but little of. 
Itls very little carder than Hartford and behind 
Iveo’s, and Us lUvor here Is certutuiy inferior to 
that of the cooeord. 
conqueror -promises well In all respects. 
Black Facile I have discarded. 
Brighton proves heie BO poor a grower with no 
attractive oropertlea either In bearing or flavor, 
that l havo given It up. 
Worden’S seedling is very healthy, a luxuriant 
grower and pro!use bearer; but It possesses the 
same mult as as parent—uneven ripening; and itls 
nearly as liable to crack in wet weather so that I 
hardly care to extend it. 
Croton after seven years’ trial 1 have entirely 
abandoned. 
Elvira, although a most healthy vine and pro¬ 
fuse bearer, has euch a compact ounch that half of 
its truit ripens and cracks before the other half Is 
ripe, and as It has a very Insipid flavor 1 have en¬ 
tirely abandoned It. 
Eva promises well. 
Belvedere la one of the most luxuriant, healthy 
growers I have. It ripens with the Concord and 
more evenly; hut it does not attract me sufficient¬ 
ly to further extend it, being smaller In berry and 
quite as tender as ihe Concord for shipping 
Arnold b Hybrids are with me utterly worthless. 
Sbnasqua and Waltkr are splendid, rich grapes, 
but, what, with the rather shy hearing qualities of 
the former aud Uie tendency to wood bllgut in the 
latter, J shall not extend them 
Union Village la utterly worthless In all re¬ 
spects, 
Eumelan is a splendid rich grape, is most pro¬ 
etght-twelfths of the community than the pure 
Juice of the vine, and so little are wines of the lat¬ 
ter sort appreciated that 1 do nor. wonder that most 
of the makers, in order to effect, anything like 
large sales, are driven to adopt the composition 
jrrocess; and In a great, many instances, undoubt¬ 
edly, wine dealers makeup their so-called pone, 
sherries, etc.. In their own cellars, without, ihe aid 
of any kind of fruit whatever. Henry Smith. 
Buncombe Co., N C. 
--— 
NEW ROCHELLE RASPBERRY. 
I was very much Interested In the articles refer¬ 
ring to the New Rochelle Uabpberry In the Rural 
01 February 51 h. Having fruited It lor the past 
three years, I consider It a very valuable variety. 
Tbe plant with us is a strong, rampant grower, 
not quite hardy, aud fully twice as productive as 
any red variety In culilvatlon, and, as It. Is only a 
lliile darker in color than the Philadelphia, we 
thought it would sell well In any market where 
that variety would. We, therefore, made quite a 
plantation or them, and for the past two years 
have had a line supply of .fruit for market. The 
first lot, picked two years ago, was garnered be¬ 
tween six aud eight o’clock in the morning and by 
ten o’clock the berrieB were In market. At, neon 1 
called around among the dealers where we had 
sent them, and all wanted to know it 1 thought 
they could sell such old, moldy berries as those, 
and 1 had hard work to convince them that they 
were fresh-picked and chat what they mistook tor 
mold was the.natural bloom ot the fruit. They, 
however, could not make their Customers believe 
It,, and so I left orders the next morning 10 give 
the fruit, away among their customers, hoping lu 
this way to Introduce tbla variety; but l soon 
found that while we could give them all away one 
day, It was hard work to sell very many the next, 
the objection being, to their color and uot A to the 
era for the following season. Only a few varieties 
will bear anything like a crop cultivated In this 
manner, arid among these the old Wilson is still 
without, a peer. Among the newer kinds It has 
found a rival In robustness, though not In product¬ 
iveness, In the Crescent Seedling. This will throw 
out vigorous suckers, while most of the other sorts 
will generally succumb to a long, hot Summer 
season, protracted longer than their natural abil¬ 
ity can endure. 
No grapes of t.ho Labrusca variety will succeed 
here, and tor the coming grape we have to look to 
and try to Improve t hose kinds that spring from 
the ASstlvalta species. Indeed, there Is already a 
variety of this last class met with In this vicinity, 
without name, which bids fair to till the place 
here of the Concord, “ the grape for the million,” 
Horn which million we are unfortunately exclud¬ 
ed. I ought to mention the soupperuong, but. I 
hardly think this single-berried bush, the rrult of 
which consists of a leathery, tough skin and an 
indigestible pulp, deserves to be mentioned among 
cultivated grapes. It has, however, one, and only 
one, thing to commend It—that It Is the “ lazy 
man’s grape.” G. Marti. 
Harris Co., Texas. 
A GOOD BLACK CAP. 
The Davison’s Thornless Is one ot the best 
Black Caps. Any one who has grown the Doolittle 
and kindred sorts can appreciate the difference 
between having one’s hands and face torn and 
bleeding, bla clothing In tatters, and being able 
to escape with sound clothing and a whole skin, 
The Thornless la very early—an Important consid¬ 
eration lu some locallt lea. in our local market 1 he 
first raspberries sell lor nearly doublo the price of 
the later berries; this, therefore, has proved, with 
me, far more profitable than the later kinds. 
In consequence of Its small gtowih, the plants 
should be set closer than the larger kinds. I set 
the rows four and one-halt feet apart, two and one- 
halt feet In the row. Set lu this way the yield will 
at least equal that, ot any other variety known to 
me. The past season I picked from one-seventh 
of an acre, set In 18T8, 440 quarts, or at the rate ot 
about 95 bushels to the acre. They should yield 
stall better the coming season, as they do not get 
to Jhelrlargqst, growth until about the fourth year. 
The branches are not as badly broken off by tbe 
snows as are those of the larger and coarser kinds 
—a t least, this has been my experience. 
Will the Rural readers who grow raspberries 
state what they consider a fair crop ? I think that 
50 bushels per acre (t,G(i() quarts) make about as 
large a crop as can be depended upon, one year 
with another and under all circumstances. 
Onondaga, Co , N. Y. n. r. 
-- 
The Kittatinnv Blackberry.— Unlike others 
the turning black of these berries la no Indication 
that they are ripe, for they arc frequently hard 
and bitter to the tasie while perfectly ripe to all 
appearance, yet needing only a few more days 
upon the vines to acquire a delicious flavor and a 
melting juiciness. When picking them, a gentle 
pressure with the thumb and Anger soon teaches 
one to distinguish the ripe from the unripe berries, 
and when their value has been really learned- 
coming as they do at a time when other berries 
are gone— no one will readily dispense with the 
row of Klttallnnles In his garden. k. k. b. 
The New Rochrlle Raspberry.— You could 
not have done a better thing than praise the New 
Rochelle Raspberry. All last year I said to my 
visitors, ‘‘Here Is my pet, my wonder—halt Black¬ 
cap and half red—a wonderful bearer and really a 
good fruit.” But, furthermore, It ought to be tbe 
point of a new line of berries, as La France leads 
off a new class of roses. It must not be neglected 
by experimenters. I shaU, for one, try seedlings 
from It. e. p. p. 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
Tub Shirts Strawberry.—M r. Roe last Fall 
left two strawberries of the new kind called Shirts, 
which has previous to tills number, been several 
times referred to in these columns. These were 
drawn and engraved, and the pictures are pre¬ 
sented on page US. Mr. Roe says tnat the 
fruit Is generally more conical. Our plants are 
strong and healthy. The flowers are perfect. 
--- 
POT-GROWN VINES. 
I notice in the Issue of January 15th some re¬ 
marks on pot-grown vines. Tour correspondent 
wishes to know if a vine grown In a pot Is supe¬ 
rior to one grown out of it—why it Is so, etc,? 
Having had some twenty years’ experience In 
growing grape-vines from cuttings after nearly all 
of the various methods, this experience has con¬ 
vinced me Unit the beat method, all points con¬ 
sidered, is briefly as follows: 
Having cut the wood in suitable pieces of one 
bud each, of ubout an Inch and a-bnlf lu length, 
after the usual form termed single eyes, the pieces 
ate placed In sand about April 1st, over a steady 
bottom heat of GO to r>5 deg., either In a forcing-pit 
or in a hot-bed. Thus treated, they should form 
roots In about 30 to 40 days, according to the varie¬ 
ties. As soon as the roots have attained a length 
Of one or two Inches, they are potted In two-aud- 
a-half inch pots and grown under glass till the 
weather has become Hulllclently warm and steady 
—say about June loth—when they are planted in 
the open ground lu rows two feet asunder, and 
six Inches apart In the rows, and kept scrupu¬ 
lously free from weeds. Cut lings so treated in 
ordinary seasoua and In ralrly fertile soil, wilt at¬ 
tain a diameter of a quarter to three-quarters 
of an Inch at the close of the A rat: seuson’s 
growth, with an abundance or roots two to three 
feet in length. Such vines, In my opinion, are far 
superior to the best pot-grown vines l have ever 
seen. Vines so grown have longer and stronger roots 
with heavier, shorter-Jointed, riper w ood and fully 
matured, and are equal If not superior to those 
grown alter any other method, and greatly to be 
preferred to vines grown In pots. 
In iho same Issue and under (ho caption “ Do 
Bees Puncture Grapes?” 1 noticed a very Inter¬ 
esting article. I would render the same verdict as 
your Interesting correspondent, and the causes of 
ruptured and unsound grapes pointed out by him 
are correct without adoubt. Any person in doubt 
about the matter may easily satisfy himself as to 
the untenable charge that the bee punctures 
grapeB. by watching It carefully when the grapes 
are beginning to ripen. Bees do feed on grapes 
and, In fact, on all sorts of fruit containing sugar ; 
but In every case the skin 1 b first broken by other 
causes and not by the honey bee, as many suppose, 
Dutchess Co,, N. Y. j. g. b. 
Communications received for the week end¬ 
ing Saturday, Feb 26. 
W. R,-C. Jtt. W.- E. D.-H. B.-A. M. P.-A. J. P. 
-S. Ii. U. M, B. W.-U. M.-F. D. C —J. J. W. It 
would be unfair to dealers In general to print what 
you say of one.—I. J. B.—C. D. 8.—A. F. M.—N. 
K, —Frarkllnton. We shall endeavor so to do— 
W. C. E.—G. U. D., thanks. Our weather notes 
and “Everywhere” correspondence la unavoida¬ 
bly neglected just at present in favor of Special 
numbers-C. H.B.—W. M. R.-T. T. L.-G. C. C.- 
J. B.-D. R.—A. J. A.—P At. S.-P. R. W.—W. R, 
-L. K. W.-J. II.—C. A. G.-A. B. A.—E. M. C.— 
A. E. B., paper not received.—ll. It. S.—L. A. K.— 
S. E. 9—G. A. G., Jr.—W. B. M.—F. II. S.-M. B. 
P , very likely.—8. B. P.—Tt. J. C., too late for the 
Small Fruit No.—thanks—N. J. S.—D. B. M.—R. 
B. M—W. S. M.—A Subscriber—L. A. R , thanks— 
J. H., we shall try the seeds.—C. D.—A. B. A.—J. 
V. 1). I’.-T. 11.11.-8 R. M.-J H„ T*—T. D. K.— 
L. E. C.—B.T—P. B. M.-G. W.-A. M. T.-A. B. 
A.-G. W., thauks -F. M. Youngblood, we do not 
find your address on letter—Please send It. Seeds 
not yet (16th) received—It. D.—G. G.—Geo. n., 
thanks-K. P. R-G. K.—H. J. 8.—M, E. P. 
