embracing nearly all now offered to the pub¬ 
lic. Little Gem ripened 10 days in advance 
of all others. Red and Yellow Cherries came 
next in order. For market Acme and Living¬ 
ston’s Perfection take the lead, being very 
smooth, of good shape and ripening all over 
without green spots. Excelsior and Arling¬ 
ton are also fine tomatoes for market. To 
those who like a yellow tomato 1 would name 
Golden Trophy aud Green Gage as the best of 
their color. Conqueror failed to conquer a 
single point, dropping all its fruit as it began 
to color. French Erect or Tree Tomato 
stands erect about 18 inches high and has 
set some fruit which has not ripened at tliis 
date. [They are very late, irregular in shape, 
and have little to commend them.— Eds.] 
I have raised 15 bushels of sweet potatoes of 
Bliss’s Early Golden, Peabody and Southern 
Queen. Early Golden, nearly white, and 
Peabody, red, are about the same in point of 
earliuess and productiveness. o. l. H. 
Springfield, Mass. 
FOREIGN AND AMERICAN WINES 
case we recall a knowledge of a cargo of 
Bordeaux wines shipped to New York, which 
were invoiced at the impossible price for pure 
wines of 75 cents the dozen bottles. We by 
no means wish to represent all French wines 
as “ sophisticated abominations,” but know¬ 
ing many facts regarding the scarcity of really 
pure wines, and believing the statements of 
responsible French journals, we prefer to de¬ 
cline “ to take any French in ours” so long as 
we can procure American wines that have not 
yet come under the manipulators’ hands. And 
so long as we can believe that our wines are 
pure we should prefer them for ourselves, 
were we to drink wine at. all, and advise 
others to prefer them for their healths’ sake as 
well as for patriotic and philanthropic motives, 
We regret to have to differ with the American 
Wine and Grape Grower upon a matter of 
such serious importance as this of which we are 
telling only the bare truth. But the truth 
should be told. 
orsnmm 
Reply to a “ Trade ” Journal. 
“The American Wine and Grape Grower” 
makes objection to our remarks made some 
time ago on the subject of the purity of 
foreign wines, or rather their impurity, as 
compared with the product of our native 
vineyards. We profess tote surprised at the 
statements made by our respected contempor¬ 
ary, which claims by its name to represent the 
interests of American grape growers and vine 
producers rather than those of the dealers in 
foreign wines. As to the figures given by us 
representing our native wine product, viz. 6,- 
000,000 gallons yearly, we have only to say 
that it is an estimate based on the reports of the 
Agricultural Department and not upon bare 
guess-work. In 1870 the product was reported 
at 3,000,000gallons, and it would be ahazardous 
guess, which would make our product to be 
“ 25 to 30 millions annually of late years. 1 ' 
Such a surprising jump from 3 to 30 million 
gallons at u bound, is quite beyond the proba¬ 
bility, aud we prefer at present to consider 
our own figures, viz.: Six million gallons, to 
be correct, rather than those of the American 
Wine and Grape Grower. If we should be 
wrong, we should rejoice to know that this in¬ 
dustry, at present beyond reproach, has flour¬ 
ished so amazingly. 
But the main point involved is still more 
clearly correct, as we have stated it. The evi¬ 
dence is unimpeachable. Common report, based 
upon incessant statements in the public prints; 
common knowledge of supporting facts; the 
confessions of foreign journals interested in 
French agriculture and viticulture, etc., and 
we might mention, the frequent advertisements 
in technical papers of flavoring, coloring, and 
reinforcing substances used in the trade, that 
prove to outsiders even what is going on with¬ 
in—all support our statement, which in fact 
was but mildly put. 
Further, we have personal knowledge of 
foreign persons who have introduced into this 
country the business of manufacturing wines 
of various sorts from the basis of common 
alcohol, elderberry juice, gooseberry juice, and 
other stuffs and coloring and flavoring mat¬ 
ters, and who occasionally appear as adver¬ 
tisers in newspapers for partners with capital 
to carry on this business. This is not an 
American industry. It did not grow here, al¬ 
though since its introduction it has taken root 
extensively and is engaged in supplying this 
market with “ French " wines which were 
formerly imported. A reference to the files of 
that excellent journal, Journal d'A gnculture 
Pratique, would show conclusively that the 
THE CLYDESDALE STALLION POINTS. 
MAN. 
From our English exchanges we notice that 
the Clydesdale horses are being largely intro¬ 
duced into England where their rivals in this 
country, the Pereherous or Percheron-Nor- 
mans, strange to say, have never gained a 
foot-hold. In the accompanying engraving 
we present to our readei-s a likeness of the 
Clydesdale stallion, Pointsman, winner of the 
second prize at the late Royal show at Derby, 
and bred and owned by Mr. James Whyte, of 
Aldborough Hall, Darlington, Durham. Of 
the port rait the London Agricultural Gazette, 
from which we have re-engraved it, says: 
“ Barring possibly a slight disproportionate 
dwindling of the hind-quarter—the slighest 
relative diminution of dimension there—owing 
to the position of the animal before the lense 
of the photograher, this appears to ns a very 
excellent and life-like reproduction of the ani¬ 
mal. ” Either English horsemen do not bestow 
so much care us Americans on producing a 
sleek, vell-curry combed and plump appear¬ 
ance in their horses before posing them before 
the photographer’s lense, or else the American 
artists are more inclined than their English 
brethren to prefer a handsome appearance to a 
truthful representation. 
£i)f %xoxm*£)£xiJ 
WINTERING PIGS, 
THE NIAGARA GRAPE QUESTION. 
There can certainly be very little profit in 
having pigs come in the Fall and being obliged 
to feed all Whiter and Summer, or a whole 
year before fattening for market. Pigs that 
come early in the Spring and are pushed along 
all Summer and Fall and are ready to market 
in December, pay the best. This is especially 
true when feed is scarce and high. Last year this 
was the case—a partial failure of the com crop 
made feed rather high and piers that wei - e kept 
over and have to be fattened now, at present 
prices of com and pork, will prove a losing in¬ 
vestment. Corn at the present time is selling 
at 05 cents a bushel and pork brings five-and-a- 
half cents per pound gross, so that there is an 
exceedingly small profit in turning com into 
pork, and pigs that have been kept over will 
hardly pay for their feed. 
Pigs cannot bo stunted except at a loss. 
Stunt them once and they never fairly recover 
from it. To make a profitable business of pig 
raising and fattening, they must be kept gi'ow- 
ing from the start, or you are losing money 
all the time they are not growing, and the 
larger the pigs or hogs are the greater is the 
loss. When feed is as high as it is at the pres¬ 
ent time, there is not only great danger of 
slighting, but almost an irresistible tempta¬ 
tion to feed as little as possible, and in this 
way stock vill not make the growth they 
MR. BENSEL’S REPLY TO MR. WOODWARD, 
Taken severely to task by the Secretary 
of the Niagara Grape Company in the Rural 
of the 1st instant, because I had the tem¬ 
erity to express, in a previous number, an 
opinion adverse to the interests of that 
Company, it seems necessary that I should 
say a few woi-ds to set myself light before 
the public. 
I am “ a plain, blunt man,” not a propaga¬ 
tor, aud I have no money interest in any fruit 
specialty. My garden is a city plot, “ thirty- 
five feet li'ont,” in which I grow a few grapes, 
a few peaches and a few peal’s; but my ex¬ 
perience with fruits has teen gained only by 
long, close observation and the spending of 
much money. Thus much can probably be 
attested by the veteran, Mr. Peter B. Mead, 
and one or two of my neighbors not. unknown 
to pomological fame. So, the grand hits 
which the Secretary imagines he has made 
fall harmless to the ground. 
The main point which I insisted on in the 
previous article, was that objectionable fruits 
should not be imposed upon the public sim¬ 
ply because of the iguorance iu regard to bet¬ 
ter varieties. We have plenty of the “ good- 
enougli-for-market” grapes before we come to 
the Niagara. The Concord and Hartford 
Prolific are of this sort, and they are 
cheap, as growers are now finding to 
their cost. 
The “vineyard not far from New 
York”—only seventy-five miles—was 
visited by myself and a friend a few f 
weeks since. As yet it is only a plan- 
tatioyi, the roots having been set out ip 
last Spring. Mr. Rogers, the owner, 
is a gentleman, and should not be 
drawn into controvei^. He has a K&gj 
right to spend his money as he choos- 
es, and he certainly has large faith *£$3 
in the selling qualities of the Niagara 
Grape. He brought to the Highland 
Fair a basket of Niagaras direct 
from the grounds of the Company, 
which I thought were not ripe, and 
so exacted from him a promise to 
mail to Mr. Downing .a cluster picked 
from the vine on the loth of October. 
The Niagara is not an early grape, 
and would not be better if possessing 
that, peculiarity; for, if left late on 
the vine, it may pass a portion of 
its foxiness into the air, but there 
will be enough remaining, according 
to my experience of last year, to 
place it far outside of the list of good 
grapes. If my offense has been rank 
in disclosing serious objections to the 
Niagara Grape, it must have arisen 
from handling so rank a subject with¬ 
out gloves. 
The fling of the Secretary at Hudson 
River seedling grapes he must himself con¬ 
sider in bad taste, when he recalls the richness 
and fine qualities of the Iona and Israella, 
the Quassaick and Jefferson. 
I will only add that exhibitions of spleen 
towards individuals, like that shown by 
J. S. Woodw r ard, Secretary, etc., give no ad¬ 
ditional vreight to argument, and are not 
generally employed by the gentlemanly cor¬ 
respondents of the Rural New-Yorker, 
Newburgh, N. Y., A. A. Bensel. 
[It always seems to us that where earnest., 
honest agriculturists or horticulturists are 
aiming to place the truth before the public, 
there need be no personalities or unkind feel¬ 
ings entertained or expressed, even though a 
wide difference of opinion exists. Eds. ] 
mmmU, etc 
(For Illustration, see page 717.) 
We give herewith an illustration of the Per¬ 
fect Hatcher, which is one of the latest im¬ 
proved machines for artificially hatching 
chickens. As old as this art is, it has never 
been attempted to be perfected until within 
the last score of years. Within that time the 
nature of the process of egg hatching has been 
very closely studied by intelligent experi¬ 
menters until the art of artificially producing 
the chick from the egg may be said to be prac¬ 
tically mastered; that is, machines have teen 
so perfected and adapted to the business that 
with very little care, intelligent management, 
aud a reasonable amount of watchfulness, a 
larger percentage of eggs can be hatched than 
with hens in the usual way. 
In handling this machine—and still more in 
handling others—the beginner must 
bring to his work a certain amount 
of mechanical “ gumption ” and 
patience. To make a complete suc¬ 
cess of it he should also kuow a con¬ 
siderable about hens and their ways. 
In the first place, the eggs should be 
fresh be] ond a doubt. They should 
go into the machine as soon as re¬ 
ceived. The machine itself should be 
in perfect order and kept in that con¬ 
dition. Constant vigilance is neces¬ 
sary to see that no spoilt eggs are left 
in the machine to destroy the purity 
of the air over the healthy eggs. In 
fact, all the instructions that arrive 
w’ith the machine should be carefully 
and intelligently followed, and then a 
satisfactory issue to the undertaking 
may be confidently looked for. 
We have seen the Perfect Hatcher 
in full running order, turning out the 
chicks by the hundred daily. We 
have also taken some of the chicks 
home and raised them to fine, healthy 
fowds. From what we have seen of the 
i — —operation of a hatching machine, there 
need be no fear of a want of success 
in getting the chicks in fine, healthy 
condition from a fair proportion of 
Li, the eggs put iu the machine. It is our 
*1 Jf ’ belief that, with the proper appli¬ 
ances, at least a third more chicks 
can be raised by hand than with 
the test method of hen service. 
This will, however, require the most constant 
and unremitting care and attention, and in 
order to have the great essential among the 
proper appliances spoken of, the temperature 
of the air where the chicks are kept should 
never fall below 75 degrees or go above 100 
degrees. If these conditions can be faithfully 
kept there need be no fear of raising chicks iu 
Winter as well as in Summer and in any num¬ 
bers desired. The Perfect Hatcher is as nearly 
automatic as any machine yet invented, and 
we believe that ill hatching it is not excelled 
by any machine in the market, and that in the 
hands of a reasonably careful person, who can 
command an equitable temperature to work 
in, it will prove a profitable success. 
mem 
mWi. 
..Jr 
• . s 
CLYDESDALE STALLION, POINTSMAN.—FIG. 494. 
fraudulent manipulation of wines is a con¬ 
stant industry in France, and that that jour¬ 
nal has taken frequent occasion to remonstrate 
with French vineyardisks against the general 
practice of coloring their w’ines with a poison¬ 
ous substance derived from aniline, aud which 
is declared to be destroying the French wine 
business. We don’t feel inclined to disregard 
the report of the examinations made by the 
Parisian authorities to which we referred. 
These examinations were not confined to the 
common saloons, cafes, cabarets and wine¬ 
shops, but to all places where wines were sold, 
both of high and low’ degree,and they are there¬ 
fore fair aud impartial evidence upon the case. 
Lastly we Anon; from our own personal know¬ 
ledge gained some years ago at the centers of 
the French w r ine productions, when virtue had 
not fallen to so low an estate as it now has, 
that unusually poor w ines were largely made 
up for foreign markets, and in one especial 
should, and when this is the case there is a per 
cent of loss that no amount of extra feeding 
afterward will fuily make up. 
It is upon this basis that many fanners w ho 
are scarce of feed are now offering to sell at 
very low prices young stock pigs, rather than 
feed them through the Winter at present 
prices. Very few have corn over and above 
what will barely feed their stock through the 
Winter, and the amount of pork or beef fat¬ 
tened for market will be comparatively small; 
much below the average and will, as a rule, 
be marketed as early as possible. It should 
be borne in mind, however, that while the 
large number of hogs that will be thrown on 
the market this year on account of scarcity of 
feed, must lower prices, the very same cause 
will tend to raise the price of hogs next year 
by causing a scarcity of them; thus all who can 
keep their hogs w T ill get good prices next year. 
Miller Co., Mo. N. J. Shepherd. 
THE GIANT ENSILAGE CUTTER, 
This machine is made by E. W. Ross & 
Co., Fulton, N. Y., who have had 25 years' ex- 
We saw several bunches of the Pocklington 
Grape one day last w'eek. The bunches and 
grapes were of extra-large size and the quali¬ 
ty decidedly better than that of the Concord. 
