JAH 43 THE RURAL HEW-YORKER. 
wires, because they are not liable to sway 
to and fro in a high wind, and particularly 
because in gathering the hops the sticks may 
be readily unbooked from the ground, and 
after the bops have been gathered they can 
just a» easily be replaced. He asserts, also, 
that the original cost, of the sticks is less than 
the wires, and that the sticks can be more 
easily taken down and put away in Winter. 
Early in 1854 Joseph Sollenberger put in 
practice the system of training and pruning 
which is exunplifled in annexed drawings 
Fig. 17 p. 20. The cuts represent grape-vines, 
but his method also contemplates the training 
of hops. It will, however, be described in 
connection with the grape-vine. 
A number of wires secured at suitable dis¬ 
tances on the post are bent into the form of 
books of such size and form as to readily re¬ 
ceive and securely hold the vine. 
The first illustration in Fig. 17 shows the 
vine as it appears in Fall, with wood of first 
years growth. In the succeeding Win¬ 
ter the vine i« cut to a bight of three to six 
feet and bowed over as seen in the second cut. 
The object is to retard the sap, which has 
a tendency to the end shoots. The third 
cut shows a vine in the Fall of the second 
year in which the bow has produced fruit 
and a cane left for fruit of the 
third year. In the Winter the 
bow is cut off and the cane of 
the second year’s growth is 
bowed, etc. 
Sollenberger’s object is to 
avoid the necessity of constant 
tying or letting them grow to 
the hight of the stake before ty¬ 
ing. This method offers a free 
exposure to the genial influence 
of the sun and air where a num¬ 
ber of stalks and the training 
pole are tied closely together, 
obviating, the inventor states, 
one of tbe chief causes of mildew. 
Thomas D. Aylesworth de 
vised his im proved hop frame 
in 185!) to remedy the; defeats 
,-n the frames then in use, which 
defects he says consisted in 
the tendency of the hooks to 
cast off, and the difficulty in 
letting down and raising up the 
main wire. A, represents perma¬ 
nent posts at any required dis¬ 
tance apart. A wire, B, is per 
manently attached to one post 
a nd at the other there may be 
a pulley, C, having stop poles a 
and a pin b, for the purpose of straining up 
or letting down the wire, the boles and pin 
acting as a pawl and ratchet. E is a stay 
of which there may be any number. It 
has a fixed support F for the wire, which 
support is made wedte-sbaped in order 
to prevent it from too freely slipping 
when the wire is let down to loosen the 
training wires or gather the hops, d, d 
are the training wires or cords fastened 
to stake* driven in the earth, and at tbeir 
upper ends, furnished with snap hooks e which, 
when placed over the wire, will not easily 
come off. See Fig. 18 p. 20. 
Tbe Beardsley system (1861) of training hops 
consists in the use of horizontal wires perma¬ 
nently stretched between properly secured 
posts in combination with detachable horizon¬ 
tal sustaining wires which are supported 
from the fixed wires by hooks which will 
permit the ready loosening of the sustaining 
wires from the fixed wire for the purpose, 
of letting down the hops. 
Fig. 20 is a top plan view embodying the 
Beardsley system; Fig. 21, a sectional eleva¬ 
tion taken through tbe line srx of Fig. 20, and 
Fig. 19 an enlarged view of one of the tie-poles > 
a are the posts; b is a stout wire stretched 
along each row of posts. The horizontal 
wires c lie below the wires b and serve to sus¬ 
tain the upper ends of the training cords d. 
The stout wires are strung up by 8-shaped 
hooks ff. Because of the peculiar relative 
positions of the posts, each of the wires c is 
alternately supported by wires b at points 
very near to tbe posts and at points about 
midway between them, as shown in Fig. 20, 
thus effecting a saving in the number of 
posts. Tie poles l may be used or the lower 
wire may be dispensed with and the training 
cords attached directly by the hook clamps m, 
but so that tiny may be easily detached and 
taken down to more readily train the hops. 
Washington, D. C. F. B. Brock. 
-- 
MEAL FROM INDIAN CORN. 
In the Rural, of Dec. 28, u subscriber in¬ 
quires what is the mutter with the meal made 
from coni, saying that it no longer has the 
flavor of old, and that good bread, mush, etc. 
cannot be made from it. “Subscriber” seems 
to inc’ine to the opinion that this deteriora¬ 
tion is attributable to the varieties of corn 
which are now planted. 
The trouble is not in the corn but in the 
mills that grind it. For one thing, the meal is 
ground too flat and fine, too much like flour; for 
another it is ground too rapidly, so that it is 
heated and spoilt. Meal, to be good, must 
be ground only moderately fine, but, above 
all, it must be ground round, so that the little 
granules may be felt between the thumb and 
forefinger Mills of large capacity grind so 
rapidly that tbe meal is yet very warm when 
it has traveled a distance of eiehtor ten miles. 
This, with the fineness to which it is ground, 
causes it to become sticky, pasty, 8nd to “ run 
together ” when cooked. If “subscriber” will 
take his corn to some old water-mill which at 
ts best does not grind over 25 bushels a day, 
and have the grinding done as above directed, 
he will get as good meal as ever. 
There is, of course, considerable difference 
in the meal made from different varieties of 
corn. At the North yellow coru is preferred, 
a fact which I could never understand, since 
yellow meal has to us a strong, disagreeable 
flavor. We never use it except for feeding 
purposes. Furthermore, the white dent corns, 
or at least many of them, make better meal 
than the flints, either white or yellow. The 
latter are too hard, and are better adapted for 
making hominy. Blount’s Prolific makes ex¬ 
cellent meal, so probably would the Rural 
Dent, though I am not acquainted with it. 
Pulaski Co., Va , Hugh L. Wysor. 
VARIOUS ESTIMATES OF THE LADY 
WASHINGTON GRAPE. 
The more I know of the Lady Washington 
Grape the better I like it. From a graft two 
years old I had over thirty flue bunches of 
grapes, and we have some still in eating. 
Although picked before they were fully ripe, 
(from fear of frost), still they are very good. 
Those received from Mr, Ricketts were fully 
ripe and excellent. The vine is very vigorous 
and I think it must prove to be valuable over 
a wide extent of territory. 
Dorchester, Mass. Marshall P. Wilder. 
The Lady Washington grape has proved 
altogether too tender for our severe climate. 
After a sickly lingering on for one year we 
found it completely dead last Spring, 
‘“though it received the same care and treat¬ 
ment other grapes in tbe same row received. 
Province Quebec, Can. Annie L. Jack. 
The Lady Washington is a grape I have felt 
an nnusal interest in on account of its great 
beauty. I have several vines in our vineyard 
which have made an excellent growth ; but 
they have not yet fruited. I consider it a 
strong grower with good foliage: it is said to 
be hardy, productive and excellent. I judge 
from what I have seen that it may be a little 
later than the Concord, but I think it will 
ripen well with me under good care. I think 
it worthy of trial. P. M. Augur. 
Middlefleld, CL 
I wish the Rural had waited for another 
year’s fruiting before asking my opinion of 
the Lady Washington grape, for publication. 
I have only bad it in bearing the past very 
unfavorable seasen, when it has not bad a fair 
opportunity to ripen, or show its true charac¬ 
ter. It has proven one of the most vigorous 
in growth among my collection, with large 
and healthy foliage, persistent until removed 
by frost. I think, that in common with nearly 
all varieties on my place, the first fruiLbuds 
were all destroyed by severe freezing on the 
10th and 11th of April. The buds that put 
forward after that date, had a'so a pretty 
hard time, as the thermometer sank to the 
freezing point or below on eight days duriDg 
the remainder of the month ; and also touched 
the same point—thirty-two degrees—six times 
during the month of May. Older vines of 
hardy varieties, including Worden’s Seedling 
and Moore’s Early on the same trellis and in 
the immediate vicinity, bore little or nothing. 
The five Lady Washington vine6 which I have 
of bearing age all bore, upon secondary buds 
from one-fourth to one-third of a fair crop. 
The dusters were not more than half as large 
as those I have seen exhibited by Mr. Ricketts; 
neither was the quality or flavor as good as 
of those l have tasted grown by him. I was 
also disappointed in its period of ripeniug; 
for instead of being “ as early as Concord,” I 
judged it would be, under favorable circum¬ 
stances, from a week to ten days later. It 
should not be called a white grape; for when 
fully ripe it is of n delicate, pale red. 
Now as to quality, it is not high-flavored : 
but when well- matured it is pleasant, and of the 
Chasselas or Sweetwater character, not at all 
foxy. It is neither what would be called 
juicy, nor pulpy in texture; but fleshy in con¬ 
sistence, like many of the foreign varieties; 
and I think it will be equal to, and much like, 
Croton and Allen’s Hvbrifi in flavor. I have 
not had its hardiness in Winter fully tested; 
and while I do not feel like expressing any 
decided opinion, preferrine simply to state 
facte and impressions, I am disposed to regard 
the grape favorably for all localities where it 
will ripen, and I should plant it with as much 
expectation of favorable results, as any of the 
hybrid varieties. Geo. W. Campbell. 
Delaware, Ohio. 
I planted half a dozen vines of the Lady 
Washington grape in the Spring of ’81, adjoin¬ 
ing a row of Brightons set at the same time. 
One vine of the Bix has not grown satisfacto¬ 
rily from some cause, having hardly attained 
a hight of three feet this second season. Had 
I but this one vine from which to form an 
opinion as to its vigor, that opinion would 
be an erroneous one; but I am glad to say all 
tbe rest of the vines have agreeably dis¬ 
appointed me in growth and healthfulnes-s of 
foliage. In vigor it is perhaps hardB equal 
to the Brighton; but it is sufficiently vigorous 
thus far to be satisfactory, and the wood 
appears to have ripened well Another season 
I hope to give the vines something to do, in the 
way of producing fruit, and if, with this ad¬ 
ditional tax on their vitality, tney maintain 
the vigor and healtbfulness they have thus far 
manifested, they will be entirely satisfactory 
in these respects. 
My opportunities for judging of the quality 
of the fruit have been confined to tasting 
specimens at various exhibitions for some 
years past—not a very satisfactory basis on 
which to form an opinion, as the quality 
varies with the seasons and the conditions of 
the specimens as to ripeness but my impress- 
sion is that the large size, and attractive 
appearance of tha clusters will make the 
Lady Washington a very desirable variety 
for market or exhibition purposes, even if the 
quality should not rank quite as high as that 
of some others of Mr. Ru ketts's seedlings. I 
think, however, I may class it as good to very 
good. Lest one might infer from the above, 
that this variety is tardy in fruiting, I may 
say that a neighbor who planted a vine of the 
Bame lot, at the same time had three or four 
clusters of fruit this season, and I have no 
doubt I could have bad as good results had I 
not preferred to “wait a little longer” by 
cutting my vines down severely to secure a 
stroDg foundation for the future at the start, 
thus avoiding any injury to the young vine 
that might result from the opposite course. 
Montclair, N. J. E. Williams. 
As the only vine we had of the Lady Wash¬ 
ington grape large enough to fruit last season 
was killed to the ground last Wioter, I can¬ 
not report for it here with us except as to 
growth of vine, which is really something re¬ 
markable, surpassing in health and vigor 
nearly all the old standard sorts. As the 
wood seems to ripen up well I was at a loss to 
account for the cause of its death last Winter 
while Brighton, Lady and Moore’s Early on 
the same trellis were uninjured. A friend in 
Hartford having two vines of it, planted three 
years ago, that were in full fruiiing this sea¬ 
son, I had a very good opportunity to judge 
of it there as grown in a rather unfavorable 
position. The vines, moderately vigorous 
and healthy, were carrying quite a heavy 
crop of very large and well-formed bunches, 
mostly double-shouldered; berry about me¬ 
dium size, round; color, a beautiful, delicate 
pink (much to the disgust of my friend, who 
bought it for a “white grape”), far more 
highly colored than any 1 had ever seen in 
previous years coming from Mr. Ricketts's 
vines; flesh tender and sweet, with a very 
agreeable and refreshing flavor, even better 
in quality than I had been led to think by 
specimens tested in previous > ears. In fact, I 
think now I have never seen or eaten a really 
ripe Lady Washington until this season, and 
these were not ripe for about three ueeks 
after the Concord. When first introduced, it 
was said to “ ripen with Concord,” and if ta¬ 
ken for ripe at chat time it is of a yellowish- 
white, tinged with piDk on tbe sunny side; 
but three weeks later, when fully ripe, “ the 
new white grape Lady Washington ” will be 
found to be a beautiful, delicately colored 
pink grape of fine quality, yet ripening a lit¬ 
tle too late to be of the highest value for suc¬ 
cessful cultivation here at the North. 
South Glastonbury, Conn. J. H. Hale. 
My plants of the Lady Washington, two 
years planted, have not been favorably con¬ 
ditioned for early fruiting; and have not, in 
consequence, as yet produced enough to es¬ 
tablish its character, sc far as the fruit is con¬ 
cerned. It has shown itself a vigorous and 
healthy plant. Being a hybrid (so say the 
Lady Washington Grape (From Nature)—Fig. 22. 
