1858. 
TIIE CULTIVATOR. 
275 
salt, is carried off for this purpo.se by the wagon load. 
I have heard good farmers say, that they got two or 
three bushels of barley for each bushel of salt put* on 
the growing crop, when from six to ten inches in height. 
From experiments conducted under my own observa¬ 
tion, I am satisfied that it is the best possible preven¬ 
tive for the ravages of worms likely to infest any 
crop—the wire-worm in corn, for example, and the 
worms that attack cabbages and onions in field culti¬ 
vation. Carefully conducted experiments in Great 
Britain, show that salt may be spread upon land to the 
extent of sixteen bushels per acre, before it begins to 
destroy vegetation much; but three bushels per acre 
is perhaps as large an application as is ordinarily 
needed. 
I am confident that as agriculture in this State ap¬ 
proaches the dignity of a science, the use of salt as a 
fertilizer will become more and more common. Y. W. 
Syracuse , July , 1858. 
Editorial Correspondence—-XII. 
A Visit at Mr. Longworth’s. 
In Cincinnati I accomplished what I had long de¬ 
sired, a visit at the house and grounds (and wine vaults) 
of Nicholas Long worth, Esq. Widely known as a 
horticulturist, Mr. L. has contributed not a little by 
his exertions in introducing and extending the cultiva¬ 
tion of the strawberry and the grape, to the real wealth 
of the country and the luxuries of the people. He 
lives almost in the center of the city, occupying an 
area of about five acres, and his place is visited by 
strangers in great numbers, to whom the utmost cour¬ 
tesy and hospitality are uniformly extended. Himself 
exceedingly simple in personal tastes and habits, hav¬ 
ing grown up with the city from nothing to immense 
wealth, one is scarcely prepared to find how much of 
it he has devoted to the encouragement of the Beauti¬ 
ful in Nature and Art. His grounds are skillfully dis¬ 
posed ; the green-houses contain a fine specimen of 
the Victoria Regia, which bloomed but a day or two 
before my visit; the mansion is adorned by some of 
Powers’ finest efforts in marble—Mr. L. having been 
one of the earliest and most constant friends of that 
celebrated artist. 
During quite an extended conversation on the Straw¬ 
berry, Mr. L. reviewed his share in the controversy as 
to the sexual character of this plant, which so long 
agitated horticultural circles. I understood him to 
account for the non-discovery of the facts of the case 
in England, on the ground that the varieties of the 
plant there cultivated were all or nearly all staminates, 
and consequently not one of them he stated would pro¬ 
duce a full crop. The first to yield a full crop he said 
was the Longworth Prolific; since then a variety pro¬ 
duced in New-Jersey, known as Boyden’s Seedling, 
and Wilson’s Albany, had both been grown, although 
he thought the second not a sufficiently vigorous 
grower, and the last not equal to the Prolific in flavor. 
The Prolific was raised eight years ago from the seed 
under the care of Mr. Schnicke, of whom I have more 
to say soon. My visit was too late to find either this 
or other varieties quite at their best, although still in 
bearing, but nevertheless we enjoyed some fine sam¬ 
ples of the Prolific, McAvoy’s Superior and the Extra 
Red. 
Mr. Longworth told me of some experiments as to the 
distance at which staminate varieties would fertilize 
the pistillates; he regards the agency of insects as ne¬ 
cessary to the fertilization of even hermaphrodite plants. 
He has a large number of seedlings in progress not 
yet tested, and devotes no little attention to them. A 
very early riser, he spends throughout the warm sea¬ 
son many hours every day in his garden, transplant¬ 
ing, trimming, overseeing, &c., whether rain or shine. 
He has extensive strawberry beds and quite a planta¬ 
tion of grapes in the rear of the ornamental grounds 
about the house, while upon a declivity between them, 
he has devoted a considerable area to wild flowers ob¬ 
tained from our woods and forests, and suffered to grow 
here under the trees as naturally as possible. Among 
them he assured me were several that would be real 
prizes in the garden, although not then in bloom; and 
I could but wish his example might find imitators, in 
the preservation and improvement by cultivation of 
the native gems of our own country, instead of per¬ 
mitting them to “ waste their sweetness” in such ob¬ 
scurity. It has been mentioned that Mr. Longworth’s 
place is almost constantly frequented by visitors ; his 
faith in their good behavior and self-denial is mani¬ 
fested by the character of the barriers he has erected 
around the fruit beds—simply two threads of ordinary 
cotton string, which serve as a delicate hint against 
intrusion, and one that seems moreover to prove en¬ 
tirely effective. 
But the reader will perhaps enjoy on so warm a day, 
the cool recesses of an underground vault, better than 
a walk in the sunshine. Mr. Longworth’s wine cellars 
are a few blocks from his residence, and there he intro¬ 
duces us to his manager, Mr. Fournier, leaving him 
to do the agreeable two or three stories below the re-, 
gions of light, where tier on tier the bottled vintage is 
ripening for future use, or spending its first quiet year 
or two in huge tuns and casks. Mr. F.’s position is one 
of great responsibility, and he receives a salary of 
$2,500, besides house-rent and perhaps other perqui¬ 
sites. He is accomplished in all that relates to the 
chemistry or the practice of wine-making, having been 
induced seven years ago to emigrate direct from Rheims 
in Champagne, France, whence comes that portion of 
the effervescent liquid bearing this name, which is not 
concocted around New-York from New-Jersey cider 
and still more villainous matters. The capital locked 
up in these vaults, aside from the cost of their construc¬ 
tion and value of the three Wine Houses themselves, is 
immense. There are about 250,000 bottles of wine in 
store, and 150,000 more now being bottled—the lowest 
wholesale price of which I think ranges in the neigh¬ 
borhood of a dollar a bottle. Of course far the larger 
part of the wine made around Cincinnati is what is 
known as the Still Catawba, but the market for the 
Sparkling is constantly extending. The latter is first 
bottled the spring after it is expressed from the grapes, 
having then undergone the vinous fermentation, and 
developed a considerable per centage (about 10 per 
cent.) of alcohol. A small quantity of sugar is added, 
which accelerates the second fermentation, and although 
wired into strong bottles, as lightly as possible, many 
of them always burst under the explosive power of the 
gas now generated—a gas which adds to the exhilarat¬ 
ing effect of the wine, and gives its somewhat prickly 
effect upon the tongue, while the fruity flavor that 
passes off when this fermentation is otherwise conduct¬ 
ed, now remains to characterize the wine. It is allow- 
