368 THE CULTIVATOR. Dec, 
HORTICULTURAL MPARTMEIf, 
CONDUCTED BY J. J. THOMAS. 
Grapes in the West. 
Editors of the Cultivator —In your number for 
October, you refer to me as authority for the character 
and quality of the Herbemont and Lenoir grapes. I 
was in an error till this season, not having examined 
the fruit at my vineyards. What I formerly supposed 
to be the Lenoir, proves to be the Herbemont. What 
I then supposed to be the Herbemont, is, I believe, the 
McCall Madeira—a grape sent me by Mr. Thomas 
McCall, an intelligent vine cultivator, in Dublin, Ga. 
The true Lenoir has never succeeded with me till this 
season, though I have had it for 10 years. The fruit 
is nearly equal to the Herbemont, but the bunch is 
smaller. The Herbemont is a fine table and wine 
grape, equal to the Ohio in my opinion, and to the 
Meusneir or Bergundy, and the bunch much larger than 
the latter. It is a fine wine grape, and the wine in fla¬ 
vor and aroma resembles the Spanish Manzinilla, or 
Mansinaella, but in my opinion is a superior wine. 
But with me it rots badly. The wood is of light color, 
of thrifty growth, and bunches very compact. At our 
late Horticultural exhibition, it was placed next in 
quality to the Ohio, and was by a portion of the judges 
thought preferable. 
In their opinion, as reported, in relation to the El- 
sinburg and Norton’s Seedling, there is an error, or I 
deem them wrong. The Elsinburg, I deem far supe¬ 
rior to the Norton. In my estimation you overrate the 
Little York Madeira, as I deem it inferior both for the 
table and wine, to the Cape grape, (Schuylkill Musca- 
dell) to which you show no mercy. I obtained the 
York Madeira from a person in Little York, and raised 
fruit from it, but found it so inferior, that I rooted it 
out, and I do not now know of a single plant in this vi¬ 
cinity. 
The Cape grape was the only one cultivated at Ve- 
vay, Indiana, to any extent for wine, as it was at an 
early day at Spring Hill vineyard, near Philadelphia, 
where they called it the Cape grape, pretending it 
came from the Cape of Good Hope, when in truth it 
was their next door neighbor, on the then wild banks of 
the Schuylkill. From it the people of Yevay made a 
rough, hard, red wine, by fermenting on the skins, and 
only valuable for the manufacture of sangaree. Pressed 
as soon as gathered, and sugar added (for it is deficient 
in the saccharine principle,) and some brandy, it makes a 
second quality Madeira wine. It is one of our hardiest 
vines, and least subject to the rot. 
We shall not allow you of New-York to abuse 
our Cape grape, as we hold it to be 1000 per cent, 
superior to your Fox grapes, about which was made a 
few years since, so much palaver ; and one of your 
horticulturists had a vineyard of them, with high sound¬ 
ing names, and they were offered for sale and highly 
lauded, when in truth they are only valuable when lead 
is scarce, to supply the place of musket balls, and may 
be of value for that purpose, if my Democratic party 
should make another war for conquest of a country not 
even suitable for the cultivation of the Fox grape. 
You say that the English deem our native grapes as 
worthless. It may be because they are not suited to 
their climate. It may be an error of judgment. I 
deem all our best natives, (not including your famous 
Fox grapes) to be far superior to the Miller’s Burgun¬ 
dy, (Meusneir,) which they praise highly. The 
Ohio, Herbemont, Swain, Missouri and Elsinburgh 
resemble it, but the bunches of the two first are much 
larger, and the fruit of larger size, and I think superior 
as a table grape. The Catawba, I deem not only a 
grape of fine quality as a table grape with us, but worth 
millions to our country as a wine grape. Major Ad- 
lum conferred a great benefit on his country when he 
brought this grape into public notice ; but like all other 
new discoverers, he derived but little benefit from it. 
The English hold our strawberries in as little esti¬ 
mation as our grapes, and throw them away as barren. 
If they were practical gardeners and not great botan¬ 
ists, they would ascertain that the only value of their 
famous Keen’s Seedling and Beehive, really is to im¬ 
pregnate the Hovey and other kinds, which they call 
barren plants, and the discarded Hovey would produce 
four times the quantity of fruit that those most es¬ 
teemed by them will produce, and of superior size. The 
Beehive may belong to a rare class of strawberry 
plants, bearing blossoms purely pistillate, and a large 
portion more or less perfect in both organs, and there¬ 
fore bearing what may be called a fine crop of perfect 
and imperfect berries. But the fruit will be found 
small, and only valuable as an impregnator, unless the 
fruit should come in very early, which is the case with 
many staminates ; often a week in advance of the pis- 
tillates, and where this is the case, go out of blossom 
before the pistillates, and require a few late staminates 
to impregnate the late blossoms. Early strawberries, 
even if small, always command a high price. Eber- 
lin’s Seedling, will, I believe, prove superior as a sta- 
minate, to any plant now cultivated, and is worth 100 
of the lauded Boston Pine. With us, with ordinary 
cultivation, the latter will not produce on an average 
one perfect fruit from ten blossoms. It is said, that to 
insure fruit from staminates, the plants must be kept 
separate. This to a certain extent is necessary with 
pistillates, to enable insects who carry the farina to 
get at the blossom. In staminates, as each row has 
her own master, I should not deem close proximity so 
great an objection. But experience is better than spe¬ 
culation. 
The cultivation of the Isabella grape is yearly les¬ 
sening in this region. It often ripens badly, one half 
of the bunch ripening, and the berries of the other half 
being green. We deem it far inferior to several of our 
varieties of hardy gapes.. N. Longworth. Cincin¬ 
nati, Oct. 12, 1848. 
The Ohio Fruit Convention, 
Assembled at Columbus on the 27th of 9th mo. 
(Sept.) last, and continued its session twotdays. Abou 
thirty delegates were in attendance. A. H. Ernst, of 
Cincinnati, was chosen President, and F. R. Elliot, 
and M. B. Bateham, Secretaries. Sixty-five varieties 
of apples, and a number of other fruits, were passed 
upon, and the Convention adjourned to meet next year 
at Cincinnati. F. R. Elliot, of Cleveland, a person 
eminently qualified for the service, was appointed to 
prepare the proceedings for publication, and we doubt 
not a large amount of interesting and valuable matter 
will be thus placed before the public. 
Liquid Manure—Grapes. —The Ohio Cultivator 
says that a grape vine at a hotel in that state, but three 
years old, has climbed to the second story, and has ex¬ 
tended its branches round the corners of the building to 
a distance of twenty or thirty feet, nearly the whole be¬ 
ing full of clusters of fruit. The only unusual treat¬ 
ment it had received, was a watering every day with 
dish-water, and occasionally with soap-suds. 
