ivuv it 
the rural mew-y©bker. 
" SOUR GRAPES ” AND SOUR CRIT¬ 
ICISM. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
Meeting some friends a few evenings since, 
the conversation turned on grapes and the 
most desirable kinds, when this question was 
put to me: 
“What is the matter with Campbell of 
Ohio?” I replied that I did not know of any¬ 
thing. “Do you?” I said. 
“Why! haven’t you seen his Phillipic 
against the Niagara?” 
“No!” 
“ You don’t read the Rural then! ” 
“Well, yes! I do, when I can find time; but 
lately I have been too busy and tired to read 
much of anything.” 
“ Well,” said he. stepping to a table and 
taking therefrom a copy of the Rural for 
March 18th, “here it is, I will read it.” 
On concluding he appealed to me to know 
what I thought of it. I replied, as to the 
grape 1 thought it very promising. 
“ Here,” said I, “is Mr. Carby who went 
with me to Lockport, N. Y., year before last 
expressly to see the Niagara, and I will ven¬ 
ture to assert he saw enough to satisfy him 
that the vines were hardy, vigorous, healthy, 
and productive; that the berries and clusters 
were large and the quality if not the very 
best, fully up to the average—a grape he will 
gladly add to his collection as soon as he can 
obtain it (Carby interrupting—‘That’s so!’), 
and I am surprised and sorry the * decent 
self respect’ that prevents Mr. Campbell from 
wanting a vine did not prevent him from 
writing such au article. Mr. C. is an exten¬ 
sive propagator of vines; that is his business, 
hence the most valuable product of the vino 
to him is the wood; to others who find 
pleasure and profit in growing the fruit the 
wood is of little consequence 
Now the way I look at it is this: the vines 
belong to the company and they have the un¬ 
questionable right to decide on the terms as to 
how, or to whom they will dispose of them, 
just as I have the right to my goods or any 
man has to his daily labor. If you want my 
goods or labor and don't like my terms, it is 
your privilege to decline them; but to publith 
a tirade against me or my goods or my 
methods of disposing of them, designed to in¬ 
jure me or my business, merely because you 
have failed to secure them on your terms, 
would be in bad taste, to say the least. 
Now I have been credibly informed that Mr. 
Campbell has wanted to get a vine or vines 
of the Niagara (there is not a grape grower 
of importance—amateur or professional—in 
the country, but would like a vine of it for 
trial,) and bis own admission of raising seed¬ 
lings from it is evidence of that fact, and 
that he sees merits in it, that he hopes to 
secure or improve upon, through its offspring. 
That shows whether he thinks much of it 
or not. 
The methods adopted by the company in 
letting the vines out is a ‘new departure,’ 
and a novel one in the dissemination of new 
fruits; yet it is not without merit; it shows 
they have faith in its success or they would 
not take such risks and wait for their money. 
It secures for it extensive trial over a wide 
extent of country, and in a variety of soils; it 
gives people opportunity to become acquaint¬ 
ed with its character, habits, and quality; 
and if the latter does not suit a discrimina¬ 
ting public or the vines are a failure, the great 
purchasing masses will let them alone, and 
save their money. The talk about ‘selfish 
restrictions* ‘suspicious exclusions* and 
‘supervisory espionage over the victims who 
purchase ’ is nonsense. I was at first disposed 
to regard the terms with disfavor, like many 
others; but on further investigation they do 
not seem so objectionable. All proper con 
tracts seem to be more rigid and full of stip¬ 
ulations than necessary for some people, and 
hardly enough so for others. It is very dif¬ 
ficult for some people to live up to a contract, 
while with others it is no trouble at all. Mr. 
C. cannot understand what there is in a grape 
of this character to get unduly excited over.” 
“ Sour grapes /” ejaculated Mr. Todd, who 
had been a quiet listener. “He seems lo be the 
only excited individual; the whole animus and 
temper of the article show it, and I have no 
doubt, if the truth were known, the chagrin 
and splenetic temper exhibited are wholly due 
to his not being able to iuduce the company 
to let him have some vines on his own terms. 
If the company have any fears of annihila 
tion from the gentleman’s exhibition, and are 
willing to sacrifice their 4 decent self-respect* 
for the purpose of pacifying him, my word 
for it, a present of a vine without any re¬ 
strictions will accomplish the object, quiet his 
troubled spirit and make him serene and 
happy. You will notice he commends every 
variety he has for sale, and the motive is very 
apparent.” 
If Mr. Campbell, or any one else, has any 
facts relating to the lack of hardiness of the 
Niagara, Rural readers will be more ben¬ 
efited by learning them than by such attacks 
on the grape or the company’s methods of 
managing it. 
The belief that these views will be accepted 
by the generality of Rural readers as fair de¬ 
ductions in the premises, is my excuse for 
offering them. 
Montclair, N. J, 
RAYS. 
The Arnold Arboretum is in the suburbs of 
Boston, and near Forest Hill’s Station. It 
contains, perhaps, the most numerous collec¬ 
tion of hardy trees and shrubs of any garden 
in America, and many choice and exceeding¬ 
ly rare sorts. On account of its uncompleted 
arrangements, the Arboretum proper is still 
unplanted beyond its natural wooded growth. 
But all this collection of trees and shrubs is in 
nursery condition, from the germinating seed¬ 
ling to specimens 10 feet high. There are ex¬ 
tensive propagating houses, pits and nursery 
grounds in connection with it. Mr. Dawson, 
the forester, is well skilled, and an enthusiast 
in his profession, and has been exceptionally 
successful in grafting, seed-raising and pro¬ 
pagating generally. 
* * 
The Lawson Cypress is not hardy at Bos¬ 
ton. [It is not hardy at the Rural Grounds.— 
Eds ] but here I saw two varieties growing 
side by side in a cold-frame, which was pro¬ 
tected with evergreen branches in the Winter, 
Tbe variety regarded as the typical form was 
killed back considerably, whereas the other 
variety was not hurt in the least. This last 
variety Mr. Dawson calls the Hardy Lawson’s 
Cypress; he secured his stock from cuttings 
taken from a large plant on Mr. Dixwell’s 
place, which has lived there unprotected for 
years. 
* * 
Mr. Dawson had some common lilacs in 
pots and newly grafted with flower-bud scions 
of other lilacs; in the warm cases of the 
propagating house the buds had burst into 
panicles of blossoms, aud in this way, Mr. D. 
tells me, he can have lilac blossoms in Winter 
whenever he wants them. 
* * 
There is a large shrub called Itea Virgini- 
ca that grows in the pine-barrens from New 
Jersey southwards, which should receive more 
attention from those interested in handsome 
flowering shrubs. It is quite hardy with me, 
and although it eventually becomes a large 
shrub, it is not a fast grower. But the small¬ 
est plant—bits not more than 12 inches high— 
will blossom freely. The flowers are pure 
white and fragrant and arranged thickly iu 
racemes not unlike those of a Choke Berry. 
As a decorative plant for Winter flowers, the 
Itea is of the first importance. Here it is in a 
greenhouse, a little upright bush some two 
feet high, with scores of its fragraut racemes, 
and Mr. D, tells me it is easily forced and 
stays in bloom for weeks together. 
Many of the St. John’s-Worts are highly 
ornamental garden plants. Some of them are 
low herbs, while others are of a woody, 
bushy nature; even the wild, weedy ones are 
pretty. Of recent years we have regarded a 
Japanese dwarf shrubby species called Patu- 
lum (Hypericum patulum) as the best of the 
group; and a beautiful plant it is when full 
of large bright goldea blossoms. In my low 
clay ground it is not hardy, but iu the drier 
and free soils of tbe Arnold Arboretum it is 
hardy in so far that it is cut down to the 
ground every season like a calliearpa, but its 
roots are safe, and it sprouts out again in 
Spring and blooms well in Summer. But Mr. 
Dawson tells me that even Patulum is not to 
be compared to the Gfiden St. John’s-Wort 
(aureum) from Tennessee, which is the hardier 
of the two. 
They were transplanting some large sized 
stock—trees some eight to nine feet high—from 
an overcrowded part of the nursery to another 
nursery block where they should have more 
room. The trees were pruned into handsome, 
clean standard forms, lifted carefully and with 
as many fibrous roots as possible, the roots were 
covered over as soon as the trees were dug up, 
to await their turn to be carted to their new 
quartei-s, and when being carted the roots 
were sprinkled with water from a water pot; 
in fact, care was taken that the rootlets should 
not become dry at any time during the trans¬ 
planting process. The new plot of ground 
having been well and deeply prepared and 
marked off, holes were made for the several 
trees as they were about to be planted, and in 
planting, Instead of the usual packing of the 
soil with the feet about the roots, or watering 
the soil to settle it, the earth was firmly 
packed with a rammer as if so many fence 
posts were being packed. Now, I think those 
trees are going to grow well. I have always 
found that never allowing the rootlet* to get 
dry before planting, and packing firmly in 
planting, are most essential points to success. 
[That is just what we have found and often 
advocated. —Eds. ] 
* * 
I have always appreciated the value of 
peat-muck for trees and shrubs, and here 
again I find my favorable opinion of it con¬ 
firmed. There was a swamp in the hollow, 
with high, rolling lands and trees all around; 
into this the rains had washed good 
humus from the neighboring lands, tree 
leaves had settled and rank vegetation rotted 
there year after year. Some two or three 
y?ars ago, a pond was made of the swamp, 
and of the vast amount of muck dug out a 
pile ’was made near-by. From time to time 
it was freely used upon the nursery land and 
where specimen trees were planted it was in¬ 
troduced to the soil in large quantity, and it 
was also used in pots, boxes or frames, for seed¬ 
lings and grafted stock in all stages. The soil 
in the nursery i-, good naturally, free and 
easily worked, but the benefit of the introduc¬ 
tion of the peat-muck is evident in the sturdy 
vigor and health of the stock, the exceptional 
amount of roots it makes and the fondness 
with which the rootlets seek the peat. 
* * 
Most of us are familiar with the Bladder- 
nut shrub, which is a common wild bush, and 
not infrequently cultivated in gardens. It has 
a profusion of little clusters of dull white 
dowel’s, followed by large bladder-like pods. 
But there is a Japanese species called Bu- 
nialda (Staphylea Bumalda is the botauical 
name) that is a new, rare, and choice garden 
shrub. With me it is perfectly hardy, grows 
well and flowers freely, aud its flowers, which 
are also borne in clusters, are of the purest 
white color. Mr. Dawson tells me, that grown 
in pots aud treated as lilacs or deutzias, it 
can be forced into blossom in Winter with the 
greatest ease. 
In the Arboretum pond, Mr. Dawson has 
succeeded in getting a good clump of the 
Water Chinquepin established. He raised the 
plants from seeds sown iu pots in the green¬ 
house tank. After being planted in the pond 
the Chinquepins grew very well, but the 
musk rats made food of and nearly eradicated 
them. The detached pieces of root stocks 
that came to the surface of the water Mr. D. 
gathered, tied to a brick and sunk again, and, 
providing he can keep away tbe musk rats, he 
expects to have lots of Chinquepius yet. 
* * 
Mr. Dawson, having more greenhouse room 
than his arboretum business needs, planted 
out a lot of cauliflowers, on a side bench, as 
you would carnations or bouvardias; they 
have headed well, and Mr. D. tells me they 
are better and more tender than out door 
cauliflowers. The house is kept cool. As a 
matter of profit, however, I should say it 
would not pay. 
Striped Bugs, Squashes and Melons.— 
Seeing several inquiries as to a good way of 
keeping the first-named curse from the second 
and third-named blessings, I give a method 
which I have found very successful. I dip 
the wing and tail feathers of poultry in a 
strong solution of carbolic acid (I use crude) 
and stick the feathers iu the ground near the 
plants. Some of my neighbors use spirits of 
turpentine with good effect, but I prefer the 
acid. Either the acid or the turpentine 
will kill the plant it touches. r. m. 
McMinnville, Tenn. 
To Kill Cabbage Worms. —Apply air 
slaked lime to the heads and leaves when the 
dew is on, or wet with a sprinkler. This will 
kill one brood, but the moth will soon lay 
eggs for another brood which must receive 
the same dose. Follow them up through the 
season. L. K. Tabor. 
periods. Previously, the space allotted to 
each animal was equivalent to from 700 to 900 
feet of air per head. Similar observations 
have been made, with similar results, in 
stables occupied by cattle. Curiously, it has 
been found in regard to cows that too much 
space encourages activity, both of muscle and 
nerves, and a certain restlessness, so that the 
air space has to be guaged very accurately to 
the narrowest limit of healthfulness, so as to 
induce a sort of drowsy inaction and restful¬ 
ness, which are necessary to the highest pro¬ 
duction of milk. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
I have frequently, in these notes, enforced 
the absolute necessity for perfect sanitary 
treatment of animals for their security from 
disease. A casein point is given in a work 
on warming and ventilating buildings, by 
Arthur Morin, of Paris, in which it is stated 
that since the space given to each animal in 
the French cavalry barracks has been en¬ 
larged to 1,800 cubic feet, the deaths among 
the horses by glanders decreased from 51 per 
1,000 in ten years previously, to 10 in 1,000 in 
the 10 years afterwards, and from 94 deaths in 
1,000 by all diseases to 27 in the respective 
Glanders is a blood disease produced by 
infection and blood poisoning. It is closely 
related to the fatal anthrax fevers, including 
the so-cailed hog-cholera, in its peculiar dis¬ 
organization of the blood. Now, if this viru¬ 
lent disorder is avoided by the best sanitary 
treatment of animals, it is reasonable to sup¬ 
pose that hog-cholera may also be avoided by 
similar precautions. As a rule, hogs are kept 
in such a manner as to encourage disease, not¬ 
withstanding the obstinate denials of this 
charge by some persons. Thousands of hogs 
are lost every year from bunching them in 
the pens, or under the close shelters provided 
for them under cribs and barns; where they 
pile themselves iu a mass and crowd together 
for warmth until some are actually smothered 
by the pressure. Such cases are frequent. Can 
it be doubted that such a practice is conducive 
to disease from jioisoning of the blood by tbe 
foul air produced by such over crowding ? 
The Jersey breeders are getting up such a 
boom as some years ago was got up by the 
Short horn men. But the Jersey men have 
discovered a new method of stimulating 
prices. “ Hippodroming" is practiced with 
all its wonderful “combinations,” its surprises 
and its prizes to boot. To attract notice, of 
course, is the business of cattle salesmen, and 
the Jersey Cattle Club is fast becoming au as¬ 
sociation of dealers iu cattle, instead of 
breeder? and keepers of stock for its primary 
purposes. As a curious element of this busi¬ 
ness, it might be noted that although compe¬ 
tition among these gentlemen is brisk and 
sharp, yetitisnow stimulated a little more by 
a sort of lottery affair, by which a valuable 
premium is given by subscription of the mem¬ 
bers of the Cattle Club to tbe seller who gets 
the highest average prices at th noted public 
sales. A “ piece of plate,” or a purse of $235, 
is subscribed for to be gi ven to the owner of the 
cattle which bring the highest average at the 
Special Combination Sale of Jersey Cattle, 
now about to come off in New York. [The 
sale has already taken place, as described in 
our last issue.— Eds.] The buyer heretofore 
has had the chrorao. It is a new thing for the 
seller to be so favored. But there are tricks 
and devices in all trades, and this Jersey 
cattle trade is certainly forced to an extreme 
limit of tension which is not likely to be sus¬ 
tained, By and by we shall see Jersey cattle 
as cheap as Short-horns were and are after 
they had their day and their boom; that is, 
so far as sensational selling is concerned. No 
allusion is here made or intended in regard to 
the intrinsic value of the stock itself, which 
is not an element that enters into the 
bination.” 
com- 
Happenino to look over some back volumes 
of a once popular agricultural journal, I came 
across an article headed “ Cow Jockeying,” in 
which this very business which I refer to, then 
as yet not fully instituted, was very properly 
described, and yet tbe writer remarked, “I 
think the cow jockeys can give the horse 
jockeys several points, and beat them at 
that.”....*'They would, if horse buyers were 
as credulous as those who pay big prices for 
milk and butter cows, especially for Jerseys.” 
....“Men of the most eiasticconsciences have 
the best story to tell, tbe best figures to show, 
and get the highest reputation for their stock, 
fora time, in somequarters." Thesearenot my 
words, but they fit my case, and the writer of 
them is not unknown as a judge of what he 
writes about. 
It may he said all this hurts nobody, and 
if it pleases the parties eugaged in it, no harm 
is done. But it is far otherwise; it does hurt 
the Jerseys themselves, and it is a public 
damage and injury. It gives the stock a fic¬ 
titious value; encourages fraud; stimulates 
vicious breeding and keeps Jersey cattle out 
of the hands of the farmers and dairymen, 
among whom they would do the most good 
and fill their legitimate places as butter pro¬ 
ducers. I know a case fn which a farmer was 
misled by these excited reports and sensations 
into purchasing a herd of costly Jersey cows 
of fashionable blood and breeding, and from 
eight cows had but one live calf, and made but 
10 pounds of butter itur week from all of them. 
And yet these cows were from herds that ap¬ 
peared at these great combination circus sales, 
and had the most noted blood in their veins. 
